strathspey@strathspey.org:44476

Volleyballjerry

Re: Taking to the floor (I'm with Simon!)

March 5, 2006, 4:55 a.m. (Message 44476)

It seems to me that we had this same discussion not very long ago.  I was 
again beginning to think that I was alone on the face of the planet not being in 
the least bothered either as a dancer or as a briefer (as we generally call 
MC-ers here) if the floor is not cleared and the sets are partially (or even 
fully) formed before the dance is specifically announced...until I saw Simon's 
message (below).  (Perhaps in set dancing in the past, SCD et al., there was not 
always a preprinted program, and the floor was cleared and partners not taken 
until the dance was announced because folks didn't know what dance it would 
even be until it was actually announced.)  I find myself, when briefing, 
employing much the same phrasing as Simon:  I see that you're already forming / 
you've already formed / sets for...and saying it cheerfully.  At our recent Burns 
Ball I briefed a section and found that I was sometimes cueing the band to 
play its own identifying "announcement" of eight bar after there were already 
sets formed in front of me, having still given them the breathing time that they 
needed between dances.  As I mentioned when this was discussed recently, even 
with the "premature" formation of sets (which I personally refuse to 
necessarily consider as such), I see it as positive enthusiasm for the dancing, almost 
always carried out in polite and orderly fashion, hardly ever with folks 
mowing down others as they rush to the top.  So why on earth not?  I'm definitely 
with Simon on this.

Robb Quint
Thousand Oaks, CA, USA

In a message dated 03/03/2006 5:44:45 PM Pacific Standard Time, 
xxxxx.xxxxx@xxxxx.xxx writes: