reel, genre of social folk dance, Celtic in origin. It is a variety of country dance in which the dancers perform traveling figures alternating with “setting” steps danced in one place. Reels may be for sets of two or more couples. The music is in quick 2/4 or 4/4 time and usually has an insistent 16th-note motion.
Scottish reels are mentioned as early as the 16th century. Except in the Scottish Highlands, they disappeared under the influence of the Presbyterian church in the 17th century; they reappeared in the Scottish Lowlands after 1700. The Irish reel, or cor, is distinguished by more complex figurations and styling and may be either a solo or a set dance to reel music. Reels are danced, less commonly, in England and Wales and, as the ril, in Denmark. Popular reels include the Irish Sixteenhand Reel and the Scottish reels Mairi’s Wedding and the Duke of Perth.