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From: Malcolm & Helen Brown - York <m.brown@netcomuk.co.uk>
Subject: Re: RSCDS -Clapping
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 98 19:52:11 GMT
> Chris wrote:
>
> > We all make mistakes!
>
> Is one way you can distinguish the advanced dancer - by the speed they
> recover from their mistakes?
>
> (And for those advanced dancers who sometimes forget the next 8 bars,
> it still counts as a mistake when they come to a "hover", instead of
> their usual flow!)
>
I sometimes amuse myself with the visual imagery of the notes created by the
musician(s) hovering about me (whether quavers or quarter notes) until I
properly account for them by the actions of my feet and body. After
acknowledgement they merge into the warm background glow of the energy of
the dance.
I've heard Ellie Briscoe talk through a dance phrase using words like, "and
now we come to the circle around and back which is customarily forgotten".
When I come to that point where I "custumarily forget" a phrase, the notes
begin to hover around me like an increasingly dense swarm of black
bumblebees.
If the dance is a strathspey, I generally can acknowledge them before they
become too menacing and angry. In quick time, they rapidly become thick and
threatening and often the only way I can dismiss them is a hasty retreat to
my next appointed place. All of which is a long way of getting back to an
earlier comment that a strathspey is more "relaxed" than a reel, jig, or
hornpipe. The relaxation is not in the focus or physical exertion required,
but in the relative comfort that one generally can recover before the notes
begin to swarm.
...Keith
+-----------------------------+-------------------------------------------+
I Keith Eric Grant I Common sense and a sense of humor are the I
I I same thing, moving at different speeds. I
I Atmospheric Science Div I A sense of humor is just common sense, I
I P.O. Box 808, L-103 I dancing. ... Clive James I
I Lawrence Livrmr Natn'l Lab I I
I EMail: keg@llnl.gov I (or perhaps dancing is just common sense) I
I FAX: (925) 422-5844 I I
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