17 Feb
2009
17 Feb
'09
7:34 a.m.
Hi all,
Thank you to those who wrote back with input as to my
leadership-presentation-dance-teaching idea last week. I have rewritten the
dance to "Bare to the Bone," and am offering the new draft. Please note
that I am supposed to do this 'presentation' tomorrow (Wednesday) evening.
(I'll probably let you know how it went after that.)
Some of the valuable suggestions included: make the formation a circle,
DON'T do a cloverleaf turn, don't call it ECD when neither the moves or
the tune are characteristic, and try to make it a nice-feeling dance even
despite that I have almost no time to teach or dance it. To that last
effect, I have expanded the choreographed section to make use of both the
verse and the chorus (as A and B music, each 8 bars of 4/4). And I have
expanded my ambition to running the whole thing (A and B) through three
times.
Specifically:
*****
"Bare to the Bone"
Lark-Aeryn Speyer, 2009
Circle MIXER
A (verse)
1-2 Circle L
3-4 Circle R, face partner
5-6 set R, L to partner *twice*
7-8 2-hand turn partner, face the center
B (chorus)
1-4 forward & back (into the center) *twice*, face partner
5-6 4 changes grand chain (2 counts each), beginning R to partner
7-8 meet NEW partner (the 5th person) with a 2-hand turn, face center
*****
And here's what I am thinking as the "teaching points":
A) identify your partner and your direction (the way you'll be facing during
grand chain)
B) start the music and circle L, R, to practice moving to the music
C) teach "set R, L" while all are facing in, then turn to pt and practice it
again (note that you and your partner move opposite directions)
D) and E) with music, 2-hand turn and fwd & back (in & out)
F) face your partner (your direction), teach pull-by grand chain, emphasize
you are always moving the same directiona round the circle and emphasize
counting
*****
I think I can do this. Thanks again for the input.
Lark
On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 10:59 PM, Lark-Aeryn Speyer <laspeyer(a)gmail.com>wrote;wrote:
Hi group,
Weird situation: I am supposed to put together a five-minute presentation
on myself as a leader for a "Leadership & Organizational Behavior"
graduate
class, and I just think that perhaps the way to go is to create a VERY
SIMPLE English Country dance set to my favorite song--and teach it to my
classmates.
Most of you don't know me, but I'll nonetheless spare you with explanations
as to exactly how weird this is. And, yes, I realize, too, that it may not
be an optimal ECD introduction for my classmates, but I hope it will be
beautiful in some degree, and moving, and indeed an expression of the kind
of leadership I am trying to develop (yes, I'm a budding caller).
In addition, the favorite song, Carrie Newcomer's "Bare to the Bone"
(see http://carrienewcomer.com/chords/age_of_possibility_chords.pdf
<http://carrienewcomer.com/sheet_music/Bare_to_the_Bone_sheet_music.pdf>
and
http://carrienewcomer.com/sheet_music/Bare_to_the_Bone_sheet_music.pdf)
expresses everything I want to be as a person.
--
There is no conceivable beauty of blossom so beautiful as words,--none so
graceful, none so perfumed. It is possible to dream of combinations of
syllables so delicious that all the dawning and decay of summer cannot
rival their perfection, nor winter's stainless white and azure match their
purity and their charm.
--Thomas Wentworth Higginson