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Intros and recaps (was Taking the floor)

Jim Healy

Jim Healy

March 6, 2006, 9:54 a.m. (Message 44505)

Greetings!

Doug Schneider’s post and subsequent clarification raises a couple of 
points.

As I always understood it, the main purpose of the eight (or four) bar intro 
was to alert the dancers to the change of tempo from the previous dance and 
give them a feel for the new tempo as they made up sets. The point that has 
been made elsewhere is that, until relatively recently, there were no recaps 
at all. The order was: band intro, MC calls for ‘missing’ couples and 
confirms sets made up, all dance. The introduction of recaps, lengthening 
the time between the intro and the actual start of dancing, suggests that a 
re-think of when the ‘intro’ is played, perhaps along the lines Doug 
suggests, could prove useful.

The second point (from the clarification of the difference in Doug’s 
terminology between recap and brief) points up a growing trend that, in my 
view, needs to be stopped. Recaps or whatever you want to call them should 
be brief! 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.

Jim Healy
Perth and Monaco
Bryan McAlister

Bryan McAlister

March 6, 2006, 11:55 a.m. (Message 44509, in reply to message 44505)

The MC could do 2 things - they could ask every set whether the 1st 
couple knows what they will be doing and ask couples to quickly swap 
position (if everyone does why bother recapping) and they can call the 
dance 1st time through both of these practices should reduce the amount 
of time taken.

In addition, dancers could be asked to refrain from applauding recappers 
who simply read the entire instructions.



In message <xxxxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxx.xxx>, Jim Healy 
<xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx> writes
>The second point (from the clarification of the difference in Doug’s 
>terminology between recap and brief) points up a growing trend that, in 
>my view, needs to be stopped. Recaps or whatever you want to call them 
>should be brief! 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.

-- 
Bryan McAlister
Helen Brown

Helen Brown

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

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