7 February 2012

We got in a lot of dances this week! We started with an impromptu-devised dance and take off on the Duke of Perth?the Dude of Peak (wonder who this is?). We then tried out Drewry?s Cock o? the North. I danced this before to the music for Duke of Atholl?s Reel (lots of pipes!) and liked it quite a lot. I was less excited about it danced to the music we used in class, but I?m willing to give it another try?.music makes the dance! There are lots of good dances that are made wonderful with great music and there are mediocre dances that can be made better with good music?then again?..Next we did an old favorite that we haven?t visited in a while, Bob Campbell. Everyone seems to enjoy this dance with it?s ?Bob Campbell figure,? a series of set-advancing figures. Since this was my birthday I got to pick a favorite dance (a favorite dance?!) but you know I?d pick a strathspey and Jean Martin of Aberdeen is one of my favorites. This dance has so many opportunities for beautiful covering and phrasing. Bars 9-16 can be absolutely wonderful when hands come up all at once for the 6H rounds ? (please don?t grope! yikes) then ?collapsing? into the 3 couple allemande. Awesome.  We finished the evening with West?s Hornpipe, working on the crossover reels and phrasing the last 8bars so that it doesn?t look like a mad dash to the bottom. We finished the evening of with Reel of the 51^st Division and Montgomeries? Rant. A full evening of dancing that was enjoyed by all!!

31 January 2012

This week we began with a couple of dances on the upcoming Bluebonnet ball program, Miss Hadden's Reel and Duke of Perth. Both are fairly straightforward dances but they do have both have some ?heads up? moments in them. The first 8 bars are a nice simple 6 hands round and back followed by the 1C doing a solo set and cast?.here?s where it gets tricky! The 1C need to time their cast not to be late for the 2C+1C+3C to all turn RH --and the 2C and 3C have to realize that there IS a RH turn (oops, am I in that?).  All three couples end that RH turn ready for an allemande and if we don?t all cover in the allemande, well, it just ain?t pretty,,,.sorta looks  like runny eggs. The dance ends with advance and retire and nice little 3 couple cast to progressed places.

Duke of Perth is an old favorite with great music (you might also see this one as Broun?s Reel or Clean Pease Strae?.on the other hand you probably won?t. ) Since we didn?t get all the way through this one it is currently know as the ?Dude from Perth?. I?m sure that once we add on the ?set to and turn corners followed by reels of three?  the Duke will once again assume the dignified status he deserves. The figure I just mentioned, ?set to and turn corners? followed by reels of the three on the sides is a classical (dare I say almost uniquely) Scottish figure?.not to mention a heck of a lot of fun.

We wrapped up the evening with Drewry?s aptly named Courage Reel from the Canadian Book and Tine McKay?s Capital Jig. The Courage Reel  is great fun but not for the faint of heart (or maybe that she be those with a faint heart!) No nice, easy eight bar circle to give you time to think what comes next in this one! Your first eight bars are the Espagnole?.don?t remember that figure? Who does! But I did look it up for you (see below). Whew, thank goodness that is out of the way, now on to the next figure?.24 bars of ?dance to corners and set?. I too was totally mystified until I realized that is the same figure as the ?Gothenburg Welcome? figure. If you have never danced Gothenburg?s Welcome that helps you not at all except to say that now that you know the figure that dance will be a piece of cake! The Courage Reel/Gothenburg?s Welcome figure is then followed by reels of three on opposite sides  with the 1C giving LS to their 1^st corners  to start (locally known as EGO or everyone goes out reels) . If, at this point, you are not standing in the middle of the set with that ?deer in the headlights look? you get an nice easy 6H round and back circle to regroup, gather your courage, (that?s why Drewry named this dance The Courage Reel!), and dive in again.

Since our brains were much after the Courage Reel we wrapped up with the Capital Jig?easy, straightforward but nicely crafted and we enjoyed it very much. Thanks Tine!

ESPAGNOLE     

 1- 2     1s+2s cross (Ladies lead across RH passing between Men) with Ladies changing places RH

 3- 4    1s+2s cross back (Men lead across RH between Ladies) with Men changing places RH

 5- 8     2s turn RH as 1s turn LH to face?