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John Chambers

John Chambers

Re: Glasgow Highlanders

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
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