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strathspey@strathspey.org:44541

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Anselm Lingnau

Anselm Lingnau

Re: Difference Between Briefing a dance and Recapping a Dance

March 7, 2006, 11:22 p.m. (Message 44541, in reply to message 44502)

Malcolm Brown wrote:

> While I have no objection to a brief re-cap, I really cannot see the
> justification for anything more. Presumably it is possible to get hold of
> the programme, and the instructions, before going to the dance - what is
> wrong in putting in a little homework, or even learning the dances while
> travelling to the dance?

I'm absolutely on Malcolm's side here. I'd also say that if the dances on a 
program require extensive explanations and walk-throughs then perhaps they 
should not have been on the program to start with.

The other thing is that for a re-cap to be worth the time it needs to be 
helpful. I have had occasion to listen to many re-caps that were a complete 
and utter waste of breath simply because they left everyone in more of a 
muddle than before. If it is all right to require dancers to do their 
homework in advance, this must apply even more so to those who are supposed 
to give the re-caps -- yet many re-cappers either appear to be seeing the 
dance description in question for the first time in their lives when they're 
up on the stage to give the re-cap, or else seem to harbour the delusion that 
the full original dance description from the book, read out verbatim, forms a 
suitable re-cap for that dance (to name but two phenomena commonly 
encountered).

On a different tack: I may have said this before, but the SCD group in Münster 
(in Westphalia) operates an interesting system at their annual ball: 
Obviously one cannot ask whether walk-throughs are desired on a 
dance-by-dance basis, as there will be people who will absolutely insist on 
walking through the »Linton Ploughman«. So at the entrance everyone is given 
a number of little sticky dots (like 3), which they can then put beside the 
dances on a huge copy of the ball programme (stuck on a nearby wall) that 
they are most desperate to walk through. The top few dances (like 3) with 
most dots nearby are the ones that will be walked through.

Anselm
-- 
Anselm Lingnau, Frankfurt, Germany ..................... xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx
Never believe anything until it's officially denied.        -- Margaret Atwood

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