strathspey@strathspey.org:44735

Bryan McAlister

Re: Less stress on Footwork

March 17, 2006, 12:16 a.m. (Message 44735, in reply to message 44725)

As the "good" dancers will obviously be maintaining eye contact hew can 
they tell if the footwork doesn't meet their high standard?


In message <xxxxxxxx.xxxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxx>, Eric Ferguson 
<x.xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xx> writes
>Campbell's approach has more to commend it.
>
>In social dancing, poor steps hardly disturb the set, but it spoils the joy
>for all when positioning and phrasing are wrong.  Dancers who are late
>(think of Grand Chain, Allemande, the turns of "turn corners and partner"),
>or early or far out of place can turn a lovely dance into a contest to get
>through and avoid collapse.  I too often see the attitude "if the set did
>not collapse, the dance went well".
>
>Why do we not give good timing and positioning, and dancing with the music,
>the top priority in our teaching?  We would all have fewer frustrations at
>our dance events.  I know a new dancer who says "I need to think so much
>of my feet and the formations that I am leaving it to later to also listen
>to the music". It shows that some newcomers pick up a wrong order of
>priorities.
>
>Of course, in dems we DO need good footwork, but that is not the issue
>under discussion.
>
>On 13 Mar 2006 at 9:39, xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xx.xx wrote:
>
>> At the risk of making myself hugely unpopular, may I venture to suggest that
>> the lesson to be learned here is that footwork needs to be downgraded to an
>> optional extra in SCD, rather than a qualifying skill.  I shall use my own
>> experience to illustrate the point.
>

-- 
Bryan McAlister