strathspey@strathspey.org:44512

Helen Brown

RE: Intros and recaps (was Taking the floor)

March 6, 2006, 3:24 p.m. (Message 44512, in reply to message 44505)

Greetings

Jim said

>I now flee the room whenever Quarries' Jig (an excellent dance) is 
>on the programme because the 'brief' tends to take longer than the dance. 
>Doug's suggestion that not only should there be a full length talk through,

>as one would find in a full dance description, followed by what seems to me

>to be a recap, fills me with horror - all that dancing time wasted. Given 
>the number of dances on programmes today, recaps are necessary and here to 
>stay: turning social events into classes is not.

Two or three years ago, I was at the St Andrews Branch Dance during Summer
School.   John Sturrock was the MC and Quarries' Jig was on the programme.
John introduced his recap by saying this was the "cheese sandwich dance" - a
perfect description I think.   When I am MCing and giving a brief recap for
this dance I usually say it "has the Quarries' Jig formation" although I am
prepared to elaborate if required.   All our Branch dance programmes are
advertised two to three months in advance in the Newsletter so dancers have
plenty of time to swat up on dances they don't know.   We have recaps at
recorded dances but not at band dances - cribs are provided with the ticket.

Helen

Helen C N Brown
York, UK