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Ecossaises but really schottisches

Bryan McAlister

Bryan McAlister

June 15, 2001, 12:24 p.m. (Message 26355)

The Barn dance is quite different from the Schottische, Flett if my
memory is correct cites and (American?) dance the "Quatre Pas" as the
source. It is commonly done as an ordinary round the room dance or as a
progressive dance.  We normally do both, changing to Progressive after 3
or four repetitions, and often varying the degree of progression.  One
problem with this dance is that many bands play it for too long and it
gets boring if their isn't any variation.

The schottische in my experience has two different versions..
The normal one where man faces out and woman faces in and another
version in the north and west where the second step is danced woman back
to LOD and man facing LOD.

With respect to the Collins Book be warned that there are one or two
dances that are hardly traditional or frequently encountered and I
suspect were the devisors attempts to get their own (or a friend's)
dance some recognition.  
-- 
Bryan McAlister
res009k3

res009k3

June 15, 2001, 4:08 p.m. (Message 26360, in reply to message 26355)

Regarding barn dances vs. schottisches:
Brian seems to be missing the point in my previous.
The point of intersection of barn dances, schottishcess, ecossaises is
their strathspeyness: the step step step hop.

By simply mentioning an example of how one faces in one form does not
change their common essence.

Yes, barn dances are round the room couple dances, but at the same
time by their step, barn dances are schottishces and therefore
ecossaises. Since I don't know of any barn dances that do not use this
step, I would say that a barn dance is a subset of a schottische.
Simply describing the step in French does not change this.

When you say "quite different", you both fail to explain the
difference and cite any specific reference to the Fletts.

Of course the barn dance as a programmed schottishe is boring when the
tune is played with too many repetitions, which is why the
unprogrammed schottishe is probably intended by these long versions as
the boredom is releaved by the breaking of what is essentially a round
dance into a freestyle slow polka with an infinite number of
variations as in ball room dancing.

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