30 Nov
2012
30 Nov
'12
5:50 p.m.
On 11/30/2012 1:38 PM, John Sweeney wrote:
Kalia said, "a right and left through over and
back (4 changes of rights
and lefts for you English dancers)".
Q1: Why for English dancers? Dancers in England do R&L Throughs, and I
am pretty sure that ECD dancers in the USA do them as well.
Q2: "Four changes" does NOT (to the best of my knowledge) have any
courtesy turns in it, whereas wherever I have danced in the UK or the
USA (extensively in both countries) R&L Throughs DO. How do you do a
R&L Through?
Ah, right. When I teach this dance for contra dancers, I use a right
and left through, with, as you mentioned, a side-by-side turn rather
than a courtesy turn. For English dancers (which is to say, dancers
used to English country dances, rather than dancers from England, though
the two aren't mutually exclusive) I call it as 4 changes of rights and
lefts. Sorry. I should have been clearer about that.
Q4: Does anyone know how a R&L Through was done,
and with what styling,
back when this dance was written?
David Smukler says, in "Cracking Chestnuts" which is my source for the
dance, that "When the dance was first published in the early 19th
century, rights and lefts would have resembled "four changes" in an
English country dance, or a "square through" in American square dancing."
The source for British Sorrow is either the "Otsego" manuscript (1808)
or "Saltator's" manuscript (1807), according to Ralph Page.
Kalia Kliban