June 10, 2006, 12:07 a.m. (Message 45500, in reply to message 45466)
Wouter Joubert wrote: | | Nobody has pointed out that the dance is much improved by being done as a | duple minor(ie numbered one two one two one two all down the line of | dancers). Everybody starts as if couples one and two, and the dance then | goes on with the minimum number of people standing doing nothing. I was | horified the first time I met it as a four couple dance, though I am assured | that it was originally intended as such. I plead the Mairi's Wedding reel | protocol! I've seen the theory that the one-active-couple-per-set scheme was invented by dance instructors determined to maximize the dancers' boredom, and really doesn't have much history. Ultimately, this sort of dancing is just a branch of the general "contra" tradition, and the idea has almost always been to maximise the number of people dancing. It's only the stuffier crowds that have ever accepted standing around when you could be dancing. -- _, O John Chambers <:#/> <xx@xxxxxxxx.xxx.xxx> + <xxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx> /#\ in Waltham, Massachusetts, USA, Earth | | ' `