strathspey@strathspey.org:27921

Martin.Sheffield

Loch Leven Castle

Oct. 18, 2001, 11:37 a.m. (Message 27921)

Malcolm mentioned Loch Leven Castle, a dance that had not been easy to
learn, apparently. It is not a dance I am familiar with, so I had a look at
it in bk 21.
I noticed that 1st & 2nd couples are expected to finish a ladies' chain in
positions other than those in which they began. 
Then, after a 2 couple promenade, the men have to change places in 2 bars,
while the ladies ... smile, hop up & down on the spot, wait patiently for
their lord & master to return, or stifle a yawn?
This is what I call a flawed dance, with unsatisfactory transitions and
nothing particular to recommend it.
Why does anyone in the RSCDS bother to teach it, when there are so many
other interesting choreographies to be tried?

(In case anyone is getting ready to write back and tell me that the Manual
tells you what to do after the ladies' chain, I'll add that, when one
couple has to cover more ground than the other in what should normally be a
balanced symmetrical figure, there is something wrong. The imbalance is
even greater, if, referring to the Manual's diagrams for a ladies' chain,
the dancers have performed a skewed diagonal chain that takes them even
farther from where they are supposed to finish in Loch Leven.  

What is the latest official take on ladies' chain, by the way? Are the men
expected to dance as the words tell us, or as the diagrams show us?)
Martin,
 in Grenoble, France.

 http://perso.wanadoo.fr/scots.in.france/scd.htm
              (dance groups,  events,  some new dances ...)