Reel men make a ceilidh of Kandahar

A dance created by two Black Watch officers while serving on the front line in Afghanistan has become one of the most popular reels on the Scottish circuit. The Kandahar Reel, whose moves simulate the rotor blades of a Chinook helicopter, was created during a six-month tour of the country by the Black Watch, 3rd Battalion the Royal Regiment of Scotland in 2009.

Its unique patterns have now been performed in dance halls across the country as well as in Caledonian Societies and Highland games across the US. It has even been performed for Prince Charles and may be showcased at the Military Tattoo in Edinburgh later this year.

The Reel was invented in the confines of a dusty army tent by Black Watch captains Andy and Rob Colquhoun, cousins who, knowing their friends back at home would be attending balls and dancing reels while they were patrolling the Afghan city of Kandahar, decided to use their spare time to invent their own manoeuvres.

The men took their inspiration from the Reel of the 51st, named after the officers of the 51st Highland Division who were captured at St-Valery in France in 1940 and imprisoned near Salzburg. To keep spirits up, Lieutenant Jimmy Atkinson of the 7th Battalion the Sutherland Highlanders invented a reel that traced out a St Andrews Cross.

"The Reel of the 51st was our inspiration," said Andy. "We have both been reeling since we were young and were very aware of the story."

"During our pre-deployment training for operations in Afghanistan, I began to wonder whether it might be possible to write a lively modern reel to immortalise our own campaign," said Rob Colquhoun.

Andy Colquhoun added: "We would come in from working at ten o'clock in the evening and try to fit in a couple of hours; bizarrely, we thought of it as a way to relax. Over a couple of weeks we had three or four sessions of jumping around in a tent and devised the guts of the reel then. Lots of the stuff we wrote was useless, but eventually the whole thing fell into place; we had cracked it."

The Kandahar Reel simulates the rotor blades of Chinook helicopters, the work horse of the British Army in Afghanistan and often used to transport soldiers around the country, and also Black Hawk helicopters, which are often used for airlifting casualties.

Rob said: "The reel starts off traditionally with meeting and creating the team, before helping them aboard the Chinook in a pick-up chain. This finishes as two couples spin to start the engines and four couples reach hands across, creating the two rotor blades for the 'insertion Chinook'.After this we reference the single-rotor Black Hawk helicopters, before another double-rotor 'extraction Chinook'."

Five Black Watch soldiers lost their lives during the tour of Afghanistan, with 30 wounded in action and a further 51 evacuated back to the UK.

At the end of the tour, a group of soldiers performed it at the Black Watch homecoming ball at their barracks at Fort George in Inverness.

"The hierarchy picked up on it and when our Royal Colonel, Prince Charles, was coming up, we were told to perform it for him," said Andy. "It was an utter nightmare for 12 male officers to perform in front of Prince Charles, 500 Jocks and their wives."

Despite the nerves, however, the dance soon became popular in the reeling world. The Royal Scottish Country Dance Society (RSCDS) officially adopted it and produced a booklet with instructions on how to dance it, with half the profits going to the ABF soldiers' charity. The booklet has already raised just under 2,000.

"The reel is quite a vigorous one," said Elizabeth Foster, executive officer of the RSCDS . "What makes it unusual is that it was developed by men in action, and was being danced in that way. Sometimes Scottish country dancing can be looked upon as something for women, not men. This is a very good example of just what the reel can offer men as well as women."

Roy Robertson, director of ABF the soldiers' charity in Scotland, said he was delighted at the support the Reel has given the charity, and hoped to get it performed at this year's Military Tattoo. "We support soldiers and ex-soldiers and their families in time of need. They don't have to have fought in Afghanistan or Iraq; we've still got a few from the Second World War. The Kandahar Reel is a wonderful thing to have to help raise funds."

The Reel continues to go from strength to strength, with plans for a "128th-some" on 30 July in Dunbar at the end of a charity event. It was also performed en masse at the Skye Ball last September.

"To see 200 people doing it was the biggest moment, the crown jewel," said Andy Colquhoun.

Rob added: "Some of our brave young soldiers suffered injuries that they'll bear for the rest of their lives; others saw more in six months than they would have wanted to in a lifetime. Still others will never return to Scotland. This is why we hope that the Kandahar Reel will be danced in the spirit in which it was intended and with the memory of our killed and wounded Scottish soldiers very much in mind."

• The full story of the Kandahar Reel is published in May's edition of Scottish Field.