Editing Scottish country dance (section)

===Phrasing and formations===
Scottish country dances are made up of figures of varying length to suit the phrasing of Scottish country dance tunes. For the most part figures are 2, 4, or 8 bars of music long. There are various kinds of figures ranging from the very simple (e.g. a couple changing places across the set giving right hands) to fairly intricate convolutions involving three or four couples at the same time (e.g. three-couple rights and lefts). Dances are generally made up of eight bar phrases with a single "time through" lasting between 24 and 64 bars and repeated as many times as there are couples in the set. Some dances are only performed a single time through however these normally last between 96 and 160 bars (e.g. Bonnie Anne, MacDonald of Sleat).

Dances are described by their music type, length and number of repetitions. A strathspey which has a "time through" of 32 bars and is danced 8 times will be described as "an eight by thirty-two Strathspey", the written form will often be shortened to 8x32 S to fit on a dance card or programme.