6 Jun
2013
6 Jun
'13
10:03 p.m.
The issue of dancers taking more than 8 beats to dance "circle
left 3/4 and pass through" is hardly new. I just did some
searching and found a thread from the rec.folk-dancing
Usenet group
https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/rec.folk-
dancing/Xq5WTQmksrE
that starts with Caroline Fahrney writing, in Novemeber, 1996,
about some earlier conversation:
someone ... took the conversation to the topic of "moves
which encourage good timing." The example given was the use
of circle L 3/4 and pass through to balance and swing a new
neighbor, to work on dance communities which couldn't circle
completely in 8 beats. There, the balance at the end was the
carrot to encourage prompt circling.
The thread then drifts off onto the topics like clearly (or
unclearly) phrased music, and I don't think anyone follows up
on Caroline's request for ideas about encouraging good timing
through choices of choreography. And, alas, I've been unable
to find the earlier conversation to which Caroline refers.
Anyway, I agree with the person (Caroline guesses it may have
been Dan Pearl, but for all I know it could have been myself)
who suggested encouraging dancers to complete "circle L 3/4 and
pass through" in eight beats by having the next action be a
balance. I think there's little to be gained by pressing
dancers to circle briskly if the sequence is something like
Circle left 3/4 and pass through
New neighbors gypsy and swing
or (as in "Mary Cay's Reel")
[starting in Becket formation]
A1 Circle left 3/4
Pass neighbor by right shoulder
New neighbors allemande left
A2 Original neighbors balance and swing
I have some other ideas about helping dancers discover how to
dance "circle left 3/4 and pass through" in 8 beats, but I'll
put them in in a separate message instead of down here in
tl;dr territory.
--Jim
On Jun 6, 2013, at 5:47 AM, Read Weaver wrote:
Maybe i've only recently noticed it, rather than
it being a change,
but in the last couple of years I've noticed a lot more dances that
end with circle L 3/4 and pass through. The timing always ends up
off for this, as most dancers use 8 counts to do the circle, leaving
them late for whatever move starts the dance. (6 counts for the
circle & 2 to pass through would stay on the phrasing). I'd say it's
about 80:20 8count:6count, which is enough of a mismatch to lead to
disappointment as the dance begins each time, with folks arriving
for the first move at different times (if everyone got it "wrong"
there'd be almost no problem--though the choreography still might
feel poor). The caller pointing it out during the walk through would
help, but that doesn't seem to happen.
What I find odd is that this definitely seems like a new issue--is
this a relatively new move? But as I said, maybe it's only new to my
noticing.
--Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA
http://lcfd.org
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