strathspey@strathspey.org:44570

Chris1Ronald

Re: Difference Between Briefing a dance and Recapping a Dance

March 8, 2006, 4:50 p.m. (Message 44570, 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?

Anselm (in Germany) and others (in the UK, Austria, Monaco,....) endorsed  
this comment, while some comments from the US seem to be going the other  way.  
Someone said that there could be a cultural  difference, related to the way 
children are educated. 
 
Maybe.  But I wouldn't want the impression to get around that, over  this 
side of the pond, dancers aren't willing or able to study a  briefing booklet, or 
look up a dance in Pilling, or google it  up on the internet.
 
When I began dancing SCD in earnest (in New York) I would spend hours  before 
a dance studying the briefing booklet, using red and white dice to help  me 
figure out what the instructions meant.  (I have five red dice for the  women, 
and five white dice for the men, so I can cope with any dance up to  five 
couples.)   Plus I could talk to other dancers and discuss  any queries I had, and 
maybe walk through some tricky bits, plus sometimes  there were official 
walk-throughs in the afternoon beforehand,  plus sometimes the weekend teachers 
would teach a dance  in class.  I need these props less now, but I do always 
study the  booklet - or look up the dances in the various ways that are open to 
all of  us.   
 
In short, by the time a ball or dance finally arrives, all I want and all I  
expect is a crisp and accurate reminder of how the dance goes.  A  short 
briefing or recap, in other words.  (These terms, along with that of  
'talk-through' are synonymous to me.)   
 
Frankly, I feel I owe it to my fellow dancers to study the dances as well  as 
I can before a dance.   And I can confirm that there are  many dancers on 
this side of the Atlantic, including renowned teachers (native  American born as 
well as UK-born), who lament the trend towards long  and repetitive "briefs" 
and in fact are quite militant about it.  They  feel it discourages 
self-reliance, and helps perpetuate a vicious  circle of dancers not being well prepared 
and MCs providing longer and  longer "briefs".  
 
By the way, Anselm, that sticky dots idea seems rather neat.  I  might try it 
sometime.
 
Chris (New York)

Anselm wrote "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."