13 Oct
2016
13 Oct
'16
6:53 a.m.
Hi Neal,
Thanks. But I don't understand what Ralph's smoother style was. To
me, modern contra dancing is beautifully smooth. Larry Jennings defines the
style in Zesty Contras as "zesty, purposeful, extroverted, smooth,
meticulously phrased, strongly connected, vigorous, New England, contra
dancing" and goes on to define "Smooth: Refers both to the way the dancers
carry their bodies and to the flow from one figure into another."
If anything I would say that modern choreography has made much
smoother dances; many of the Chestnuts have disjointed flows.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
Neal Schlein said:
This might shed some light on the subject -
https://www.library.unh.edu/find/archives/collections/ralph-page-dance-legac
y-weekend
Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend
The Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend (RPDLW) is held every January at the
University of New Hampshire in Durham. It takes its name from the man who
was perhaps the single most important figure in the preservation of
traditional dance in New England and was conceived to keep his legacy alive.
Begun in 1988, the RPDLW celebrates the music and dance of New England:
contras, squares, and more. From the beginning, the emphasis has been on
preserving the smoother style of dancing that Ralph Page favored.
13 Oct
13 Oct
12:52 p.m.
New subject: [Callers] Ralph Page Style
John
You have only to look to the UK to get your answer!
Think about how contras used to (and probably still are) in most UK
folk dance clubs. Less energy, longer balances, shorter swings, no
swings, in-actives etc. Look at the contras that were published in the
Community Dance Manuals. My own dance collection has many has many
dances that I collected in the UK in the late-60s and 70s which would
rarely, if ever, see the light of day at a contra in the USA today or
at the few (Zesty) Contra clubs in the UK. Dances such as: Albany Reel,
Bicentennial Reel, East Meets West, Needham Special, Wrong Side Reel.
And, if I were to include dances that only had a short neighbor swing
and no partner swing I would run out of electrons!
This is the style/content/concepts that Ralph Page taught when he came
to the UK (mid-50s I think).
I suspect that 'smooth' is being used in the description of the RPLDW,
not as Larry Jennings defines it and that 'more gentle' or 'less
driven' might have been a better way to put it.
Michael Barraclough
www.michaelbarraclough.com
--
On Thu, 2016-10-13 at 11:53 +0100, John Sweeney via Callers wrote:
Hi Neal,
Thanks. But I don't understand what Ralph's smoother style
was. To
me, modern contra dancing is beautifully smooth. Larry Jennings
defines the
style in Zesty Contras as "zesty, purposeful, extroverted, smooth,
meticulously phrased, strongly connected, vigorous, New England,
contra
dancing" and goes on to define "Smooth: Refers both to the way the
dancers
carry their bodies and to the flow from one figure into another."
If anything I would say that modern choreography has made much
smoother dances; many of the Chestnuts have disjointed flows.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
Neal Schlein said:
This might shed some light on the subject -
https://www.library.unh.edu/find/archives/collections/ralph-page-danc
e-legac
y-weekend
Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend
The Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend (RPDLW) is held every January at
the
University of New Hampshire in Durham. It takes its name from the man
who
was perhaps the single most important figure in the preservation of
traditional dance in New England and was conceived to keep his legacy
alive.
Begun in 1988, the RPDLW celebrates the music and dance of New
England:
contras, squares, and more. From the beginning, the emphasis has been
on
preserving the smoother style of dancing that Ralph Page favored.
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2:48 p.m.
New subject: [Callers] Ralph Page Style
Thanks, Michael, you nailed down what I meant perfectly. I was going to
respond that "smooth" probably wasn't the right term to have used, since it
has multiple facets.
I think of traditional and traditional-feeling dances as "smooth" not
because the choreography is technically more flowing but because they
somehow feel more lived in, as if any rough spots came naturally. They
don't feel carefully engineered and crafted to be exemplars of "flow" so
much as discovered, worn into shape through luck and happy use. Sort of a
Velveteen Rabbit effect, if that makes any sense.
Neal Schlein
Youth Services Librarian, Mahomet Public Library
2757
days inactive
2757
days old
import1@lists2.sharedweight.net
2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
John Sweeney via Callers -
Michael Barraclough via Callers
-
Neal Schlein via Callers