strathspey@strathspey.org:45301

James Tween

Re: Strip The Willow (square)

May 16, 2006, 8:03 p.m. (Message 45301, in reply to message 45296)

I've only ever done Strip the Willow Square on the English ceilidh circuit, 
to the instructions given by Marie (ending with promenade rather than 
balance and swing).  As the site given by Ian is an English dance archive, 
"balance and swing" would use the ceilidh version of setting or balancing, 
i.e. jump, kick, jump, kick, as in Military Twostep (without joining of 
hands).  As in things like Dashing White Sergeant or Eightsome, this would 
probably transfer into the SCD realm as set twice and spin, as Ian says.

On a tangent, English dances have both balancing (as above) and setting, 
with setting being a relaxed step similar to the pas-de-basque, coming down 
from things like Playford, but then some dances, such as Balance the Star, 
have this setting movement in them but call it balancing ... and then 
there's Contra balancing which is a bit like setting ... and so it goes on 
...

- James -