ANDY Murray’s Wimbledon success has been immortalised as a Scottish country dance called the Pride of Dunblane.
Around 400 dancers jigged to the dance at Linlithgow Palace, West Lothian in its first performance.
The dance is designed to be set to the Wimbledon theme tune, but the band could only manage a smiple polka on the night.
Different parts of the dance represent different stages of Murray’s Wimbledon journey, from the opening of Centre Court to his heroic drop shot retrieval in the final.
Dancers are also expected to pump their fists and shout “come on!”
The Pride of Dunblane was written by acclaimed dance creator Ian Brockbank, from Edinburgh.
It was first conceived of by John Carswell, organiser of the annual Linlithgow Scotch Hop dance, with Andy’s mum Judy showing her support by retweeting Mr Brockbank’s tweet about the dance.
Mr Carswell said: “I was watching Murray in the semis and just got the feeling that he would go on to win it so I thought that something should be done to honour this.
“I mentioned it to Ian and we both agreed that it was a crazy idea but that we could do something with it.
“It’s a bit of fun and a simple dance that everyone can join in with.
“Dunblane is only up the road and what Murray has done should be celebrated.”
Mr Brockbank, who has created more than 50 Scottish country dances, said: “It seemed to go pretty well, everyone had fun and the dance worked.
“We didn’t do it to the Wimbledon theme tune because the band couldn’t work it out so we did it to a Polka.”
He continued: “”I have followed Andy Murray’s career since his Wimbledon debut.”
“And I have always been impressed by his dedication and talent as he worked his way into the top four.
“This year at Wimbledon he looked like he could finally go all the way, so when John contacted me on the day of the semi-finals to suggest writing a dance the ideas started flowing.
“I tried to create a simple dance which everyone could enjoy so that Andy’s achievements could be celebrated at ceilidhs up and down the country.”
In the dance, couples start facing in, women on the right.
In bars one through eight, all join hands in a large circle and advance and retire twice.
This shows the shape of Centre Court, and the opening and closing of the roof.
In bars nine to 16, retaining nearer hands with partner, women dance around the men, going in front to start and holding hands throughout four bars; men repeat around women, also holding hands; finish next to partner facing along line of dance, nearer hands joined, men on the inside.
This shows him serving an ace and wiping his face on his towel.
In bars 17 to 24, dancers advance along line of dance, change sides with partner, pulling then releasing hands to start, before changing sides again and performing similar moves.
This shows Murray’s incredible movement around the court.
In Bars 25 to 32 dancers circle to the left, pull back left shoulders to turn about on the spot, before turning to the right and finishing facing in to start again.
This celebrates the amazing drop shot retrieval in the final and everyone’s celebration at the end.
At every opportunity, particularly at the end of the eight bar phrases, dancers are expected to pump fists and shout “come on!”
A full description of the moves can be found on scottishdance.net.
