Thread

strathspey@strathspey.org:27838

Previous Message Next Message

Ian McHaffie

Ian McHaffie

Re: Request for written instructions for Australian Ladies

Oct. 10, 2001, 2:01 p.m. (Message 27838, in reply to message 27829)

Rosemary: I looked at the printing history on my edition of Glasgow 
Assembly: -- 5th printing, 1990 -- and, who knows, there may have 
been others since! This must make it one of the most popular books 
other than the RSCDS publications, some of the eariest of which must 
have been through multiple printings and editions by now.

In looking through the Glasgow Assembly book again, I made two 
interesting discoveries.

Firstly, there is a note about Australian Ladies, which I hadn't 
noticed before,  -- thanking Iain Boyd for the changes in bars 23 & 
24 and bars 31 & 32 -- and also for a change in bar 8. I wonder what 
change that was?? Perhaps the previous version had the dancers finish 
the four hands across on the sidelines and then dance in for the lead 
up. The dance was devised in 1967 for four Australian Ladies. Is any 
one of them a Strathspey subscriber? Perhaps one of them recalls the 
occasion and the changes.

My second observation was how clearly all the dances are described. 
Bob's descriptions seem to set a standard for how to describe a dance 
for someone who hasn't seen it danced. I have sometimes tried to work 
my way through an unfamiliar dance from the written instructions, 
only to find out that I didn't really know at the end what the 
devisor had in mind.  Bob's clarity often needs more words than there 
is room for on a "crib". --- Which relates to a previous thread. 
Should a crib teach the dance precisely from scratch to someone who 
has never heard of it? Or should it serve to remind a reasonably 
experienced dancer of the main figures?

Ian McHaffie
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx.xx

Previous Message Next Message