Thread

strathspey@strathspey.org:44540

Previous Message Next Message

Bryan McAlister

Bryan McAlister

Re: Briefings

March 7, 2006, 11:19 p.m. (Message 44540, in reply to message 44530)

To some extent the need to brief is influenced by the 
difficulty/unfamiliarity of the programme.

Always assuming you are starting with dancers with some experience...a 
dance programme could be constructed with a mix as follows

Easy well known dances - No briefing required?
Dances that an inexperienced dancer can get through with an experienced 
partner(s).  No briefing required?
Difficult dances - Briefing of no value - you don't know it you can't do 
it restrict number to (say) 1 each section of programme
Very new or local dances - Briefing (or even walk thro) usually required

Follow that formula, and Briefing shouldn't really be required and 
inexperienced dancers only need sit out the Hard dances. An additional 
criterion to bear in mind might be "not in Pillings"

Of course the MC an always very quickly summarise the first 16 bars-it 
only takes a couple of seconds and gets everyone through that "cross and 
cast or turn and cast?" moment.

In message <005301c64213$14e372a0$xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx>, Gary Knox 
<xxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx> writes
>
>To Brief or Not to Brief - is a question that was debated for several years
>in this area. Monthly parties were always briefed as they are informal and
>the desire to encourage new dancers to participate is very important. The
>Branch Committee's last directive was that most dances at a formal ball
>would be briefly briefed; a briefing was not required for complicated dances
>that took longer to brief than dance.
>
>I can remember one discussion where it was pointed out that memorization is
>much more important in Scottish schools (and the use of those brain cells)
>than in US schools where the philosophy seems to be to look it up if you
>need to know.
>
>My guess is that most dancers in this area with 4 - 10 years experience
>could not dance more than a dozen dances if they were only given the name
>and had not danced it recently or studied for a program.
>
>
>Gary, San Francisco Branch
>______________________
>Gary Knox
>3673 Stoneglen South
>Richmond, CA  94806-5261
>xxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx
>
>

-- 
Bryan McAlister

Previous Message Next Message