[Callers] That g word

[James Saxe via Callers]

Alan Winston asked (replying to Janet Bertog):

> Where did you find a dance description for Flowers of Edinburgh in the 1500s?

I, too, am curious.  I suspect that Alan is asking this question,
as I am, more from an interest in the history of dancing and dance
terminology than for the purpose of deciding what terminology to
use in the future.  (To be clear, I believe that both topics--the
history and what to do now--are entirely appropriate for this
list.)  Please supply a reference if you have one.

Speaking as someone who claims no formal training or other
qualification as a dance historian, but who is nonetheless an
interested dabbler in dance history, I think that a genuine
16th-century source using "gip" (or "gyp"/"gipsy"/"gypsy"/
"jib"/,,,) as the name of a dance figure would be quite an
interesting find, especially if the source also included some
clue about what the term actually meant at that time.  On the
other hand, a 20th-century description of a dance with a "gip"
(or "half gip/gyp/gipsy/..." or "whole gip/...") together with
a vague allusion to a dance of the same title having existed
in the 16th century wouldn't be so exciting.  

With a little searching, I turned up various descriptions of
Bampton morris dancing that list half gip[/gyp/...] and whole
gip as common figures and "Flowers of Edinburgh" as one of the
specific dances.  Here's just one example:

     http://www.tvmm.org.uk/Notes/Bampton.htm

And here's a video:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VC2QtfnKrB8

Note the whole gips starting about 1:37.

My searching also turned up many references to an RSCDS-style
Scottish dance titled "Flowers of Edinburgh."   This site

     http://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/video/flowers-of-edinburgh.html

has half a dozen videos of the dance being done by different
groups, plus an animation and a link to dance instructions.
As you can see, this "Flowers of Edinburgh" includes no
"gypsy" figure and bears practically no resemblance to the
morris dance of the same name except that both are done in
some kind of longways set.

I also turned English Country Dance versions, including these:

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48y_4FU9EFU
     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWMID3ExAas

The first one lightly resembles the RSCDS version in that it
has a sort of "swing and change" in B2 where the RSCDS version
has a poussette.  The one version in the second video is
yet different.

In the absence of further evidence, a 16th-century dance 
called "Flowers of Edinburgh", if such existed, might, for
all I knew, have been wildly different from all the versions
I've cited above.

On Jan 21, 2016, at 10:53 AM, Janet Bertog via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> The equivalent of the Welsh word gip is glance or gaze.

That does suggest a tempting etymology for the dance figure.
But, as we know, tempting etymologies sometimes turn out to
lack support (as, for example, in the case of "a la main"
for "allemande").  So, again, if you know of sources from
even as late as the 19th century connecting the Welsh "gip",
meaning glance/gaze with the similarly named morris dance
figure or with "gypsy" as used in ECD and (more recently)
contra dancing, please share the details.

Again, I'm asking out of historical interest, not making
any claim about how the history should or shouldn't affect
callers' choices about terminology today.

Thanks.

--Jim

> On Jan 21, 2016, at 11:30 AM, Alan Winston via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On 1/21/16 10:48 AM, Janet Bertog via Callers wrote:
>> This was my original suggestion (see discussion in November). Then I found gip in Welsh, which seems to fit better except foe one thing. The earliest dance I can find with a gip/gypsy is Flowers of Edinburg from Scotland in the 1500s (note the date precedes the use of the word Gypsy by the English). It doesn't matter though. To many, the word is a slur in one context to some people and so should not be used, no matter what the origin.
>> 
> Where did you find a dance description for Flowers of Edinburgh in the 1500s?
> 
> -- Alan
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