23 May
2024
23 May
'24
12:35 p.m.
As a very old dancer, I have 2 objections to the clap:
1. I enjoy flow and slight changes in momentum. I can't think of a sequence
off-hand where there isn't at least a slight pause and change in momentum
caused by clapping. If balance and swing is the next move, instead of
turning directly to one's partner and getting the balance underway, one
pauses for a second to smile at one's neighbors after such a satisfying
moment, and to think about what comes next. With other sequences the
disruption is more marked - I dislike standing ready to take hands and
circle while others are clapping. Etc. There is no way an action that
requires stopping movement and standing in one place can not interfere with
what comes next - I assume that most people enjoy clapping more than
momentum. I understand your feeling about clapping in a Rory, but assume
that the clapping will spread and become universal for that as well.
Different strokes...
2. People learn the clap by osmosis, so everyone claps for everything,
whether it is disruptive to the next move or not (if one assumes it can not
be disruptive). If dancers were experienced enough to think about what they
are doing, so they only did it when the effect was minimal, that would be
marginally better - but they aren't, for the most part.
It is a lost cause. I can't imagine what could make clapping stop once it
starts - but we'll see. Perhaps clapping will spread to so many points in
the dance (after heys!) that everyone says, "Enough already!" and agrees to
ban clapping. Or dancing will just be different, changed as it has been so
many times in the past.
Curmudgeonly yours,
David
On Wed, May 22, 2024 at 11:50 AM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
tldr: those of you who are anti-Petronella claps (in
general, not just in
specific cases where they interrupt flow from the spin into the next move),
I want to understand why!
Clapping on Petronella turns has been the overwhelming norm ever since I
started dancing, but I know that it wasn't always this way, and that some
folks vehemently dislike it. Well recently I've noted the (baffling??
inexplicable??) rise of clapping after the spin on Rory O'Moore's, which
makes my blood boil (it's so satisfying to catch hands in the new wave out
of the spin, why would you ever NOT do that??), and it's making me think
more about Petronella claps.
Clapping on a Rory bugs me so much because it interrupts the momentum of
spin-and-catch-hands. I'll admit that I don't understand the objection to
Petronella claps, at least through that lens. Like certainly, in a
specifically Cure for the Claps-type* dance (with e.g. Petronella spin into
allemande left, Petronella spin into swing, etc.), clapping interrupts the
momentum, and it's way more satisfying to spin directly into the next move.
But given a bog standard "Petronella, Petronella, balance and swing" or
similar, I don't feel like the claps interrupt the momentum or disrupt
transitions, and in fact are a nice fun way to fill space.
To be clear, the above isn't an argument in favor of Petronella claps,
just me explaining where I'm coming from. So now we come to my question:
1. *those of you who are anti-Petronella claps, can you explain why?* I
want to understand! Is it a satisfying momentum thing that I've just never
experienced because I'm so used to clapping? Dedication to historical
accuracy? Something else entirely?
2. *what dance(s) would you use to make your case to a contemporary
contra hall, that aren't explicitly written as Cure for the Claps dances?*
Petronella
spin to a swing feels great, and of *course* you shouldn't clap there
(although some folks inexplicably do, sigh)—but if you'd prefer that we
didn't clap even in a dance like Tica Tica Timing, then a CftC dance isn't
the whole story. If you had the infinite good will of a contemporary contra
hall, and were able to say to the dancers "don't clap on the Petronellas in
this one and just pay attention to how nice it feels to X and how
satisfying it is to Y", what dance would you use, what things would you
tell the dancers to clue into, etc. to make your case? (And what would you
ask the band for?)
Thanks as always for your expertise!
Cheers,
Maia
* Cure for the Claps contra: a dance that discourages clapping during the
Petronella turn, often by putting moves directly after the Petronella that
flow nicely from a spin. May be intentional or incidental. See e.g.: The
Cure for the Claps
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=10364>
(Bob Isaacs), Becket in the Kitchen
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=17>
(Becky Hill)
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
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