21 Aug
2011
21 Aug
'11
9:28 a.m.
Jim
Although I can't answer your first question about keeping track of
all the dances, I can say something about what constitutes a new
dance. I remember Ted Sannella saying that a dance is new if it has
50% new or unique choreography. By his definition if 50% or more of
the dance is different than any other dance then it's a new dance.
If a dance has less than 50% it's a variation.
He didn't go into any more specifics and I wasn't wise enough to ask
any questions. But if you look at some of the old dances like
Petronella and Hull's victory, they have identical B parts and unique
A parts. The same applies to Chorus Jig and Rory O' More.
Squares can also follow this 50% rule. For example there are a
number of squares like Queen's Quadrille that have unique A parts
while the B part is circle left half, swing corner, promenade.
T
21 Aug
21 Aug
10:50 a.m.
New subject: 50% rule
There's one dance variation that I've recently noticed.
Recently, I've noticed that callers and dancers have slightly changed some existing
dances. In both cases that I remember (Trip to Lambertville & Tica Tica Timing) a
R&L over has been changed to a promenade across. Rights and lefts do seem to be more
difficult, especially at bigger dances, and with a larger proportion of beginners. The
promenade does appear to make the dance smoother in these cases.
Is it really true that right & lefts are becoming less popular in large MUCDs? Are
other dances being modified in this way now?
Rich Hart.
Tom Hinds remarked on 8/21/2011 9:28 AM:
Jim
Although I can't answer your first question about keeping track of all the dances, I
can say something about what constitutes a new dance. I remember Ted Sannella saying that
a dance is new if it has 50% new or unique choreography. By his definition if 50% or more
of the dance is different than any other dance then it's a new dance. If a dance has
less than 50% it's a variation.
He didn't go into any more specifics and I wasn't wise enough to ask any
questions. But if you look at some of the old dances like Petronella and Hull's
victory, they have identical B parts and unique A parts. The same applies to Chorus Jig
and Rory O' More.
Squares can also follow this 50% rule. For example there are a number of squares like
Queen's Quadrille that have unique A parts while the B part is circle left half, swing
corner, promenade.
T
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1:34 p.m.
New subject: 50% rule
As a dancer, I find R&L s difficult when the line is crowded, and as a man, often
can't squeeze through the line to reach my partner or neighbor for a timely courtesy
turn. However, if there is sufficient space, I think it is as easy a move as any, so if
there is room to stretch out the lines in a dance with R&L throughs, I think that is
the answer. Other than that, because of the inherent courtesy turn (or variation), some
people might use twirls or even dips to make tham late for the next move, not such a
problem with a promenade. When the lines are crowded, I'll often promenade with hands
in front like I was doing tango instead of taking a promenade position, making it often
much easier to squeeze through a crowded set.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Hart" <rich(a)harts.mv.com>
To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2011 10:50:04 AM
Subject: Re: [Callers] 50% rule
There's one dance variation that I've recently noticed.
Recently, I've noticed that callers and dancers have slightly changed some existing
dances. In both cases that I remember (Trip to Lambertville & Tica Tica Timing) a
R&L over has been changed to a promenade across. Rights and lefts do seem to be more
difficult, especially at bigger dances, and with a larger proportion of beginners. The
promenade does appear to make the dance smoother in these cases.
Is it really true that right & lefts are becoming less popular in large MUCDs? Are
other dances being modified in this way now?
Rich Hart.
Tom Hinds remarked on 8/21/2011 9:28 AM:
Jim
Although I can't answer your first question about keeping track of all the dances, I
can say something about what constitutes a new dance. I remember Ted Sannella saying that
a dance is new if it has 50% new or unique choreography. By his definition if 50% or more
of the dance is different than any other dance then it's a new dance. If a dance has
less than 50% it's a variation.
He didn't go into any more specifics and I wasn't wise enough to ask any
questions. But if you look at some of the old dances like Petronella and Hull's
victory, they have identical B parts and unique A parts. The same applies to Chorus Jig
and Rory O' More.
Squares can also follow this 50% rule. For example there are a number of squares like
Queen's Quadrille that have unique A parts while the B part is circle left half, swing
corner, promenade.
T
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3:43 p.m.
New subject: Callers Digest, Vol 84, Issue 15
Tom wrote:
He didn't go into any more specifics and I
wasn't wise enough to ask
any questions. But if you look at some of the old dances like
Petronella and Hull's victory, they have identical B parts and unique
A parts. The same applies to Chorus Jig and Rory O' More.
Pedantically: At the more-or-less-1800 time when these dances originated, the
match of figure to tune was not fixed the way we've fixed it for these
chestnuts and the way it's generally fixed for English dances now. New 32-bar
tunes were published in collections; people fit figures to them (Thomas
Wilson's "Complete System of Country Dancing" in various editions through
the
1810s has tables of figures, whether they're progressive or not, how many bars
they take, etc) and danced them, and might dance the same figures to a
different tune or different figures to this tune tomorrow night. (Not so much
unlike modern contra.) If you look at published suggested figures for dances,
or figures people wrote in their diaries as matches for tunes, etc, you'll see
a bazillion dances that are very much like:
A1: right hand star, left hands back
A2: 1s down the middle and back and cast off
B1: with the couple below (third couple in your triple-minor set)
circle left and right
B2: with the couple above, four changes of rights and lefts
The 'distinctive' Chorus Jig down the outside and back, down the middle and
back and cast off shows up in "Fisher's Hornpipe", "Trip to
Tunbridge", a
setting of "The White Cockade", etc.
All of *that* is a long-winded way of saying that they weren't remotely
concerned with the novelty of the figure or whether they were dancing a "new"
dance. They got novelty from tunes.
Which is utterly irrelevant to the original question.
-- Alan
--
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