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strathspey@strathspey.org:45486

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Ian Brockbank

Ian Brockbank

RE: Regarding Dance Technique and Etiquette

June 9, 2006, 5:52 p.m. (Message 45486, in reply to message 45482)

Hi Tom,

> Regarding dance technique and etiquette -- I attend both Scottish Country
> dance classes and vintage dance classes and I have been presented with a
> problem...what to do when people want to turn using the so called "thumb
> hold". I was always taught that this turn is incorrect and in most
Scottish
> classes people use the correct handshake hold for turns. 
> However in thevintage classes (which dance a pretty good number of
Scottish Country
> dances) have what I call an American influence and while not all use the
> thumb hold, a good many do.

Is the handshake grasp correct in this instance?  When you say "vintage"
class,
what does that mean?  I have noticed when dancing at the Inter-Varsity Folk
Dance
Festival (of IVFDF to its friends) that dancers from some traditions give
hands
for turns and wheels at about eye level giving an effect like a maypole.  
Conversely, the SCD dancers were the only ones to give hands at shoulder
height
in circles - most others had straight arms pointing down with the two arms
of the adjacent dancers making a 'V' shape.  Now clearly taken in an SCD
context
both of these are not the expected grasp, but equally clearly it's what they
have been taught in their dance style.  I'm afraid I'm inclined to agree
with
your wife here - do what the teacher asks or (if there isn't a teacher)
what's common, and don't assume that SCD convention is correct for another
dance
form.

> Another irritant is the propensity of the vintage class to want to dance
the
> "Postie's Jig" using the Tulloch turn rather than the usual turns by the
> right and left giving the handshake hold.

That's common enough among SCDers around here!  Some dancers seem to see it
as a challenge for the number of spins they can do in the available time.
If they're not endangering the set (too much), what does it matter?

> Thoughts? Suggestions?

Relax?  We've got enough of an image as boring and stuffy as it is
(certainly
here in Scotland).

Cheers,

Ian Brockbank
Edinburgh, Scotland
xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx
http://www.scottishdance.net/

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