strathspey@strathspey.org:45703

Peter Price

Re: dolphin reels revisited

June 30, 2006, 11:38 p.m. (Message 45703, in reply to message 45675)

I am finally getting a sense of the issue.

Headquarters has set a definition (of the reels in Pelorus Jack) in
concrete and there is disagreement.

My take on the matter is this-
per my dictionary the reels in Pelorus Jack can be classified as
Tandem reels- with the variation of lead change. That is what is so
and therefore I have no problem teaching those reels as "tandem reels
with lead changes" per the new manual (which I haven't seen).

I have not seen Barry Priddey's dance "Flying Falcon" either, but from
the tenor of the thread they would be the same as those found in The
Capercaillie and Land of the Heather Hills (The Capercaillie Book). I
would teach these as Tandem reels with lead change also.

Headquarter's definition of the reels preempts any issue of who
invented the reel first, and the question of "is it really a Flying
Falcon reel or a Dolphin Reel" is moot.

However one question has not been answered. In The Dolphin Book, Barry
Skelton has two different kinds of reels. First there are those that
qualify as "tandem reels with lead change" as in Pelorus Jack. in
these dances he carefully sets up the reels by specifying that one
dancer falls in closely behind the other- i.e. in tandem.

There is a dance where he is very specific in having first couple
finish side by side and that the couple keeps parallel with the axis
of the set throughout the reel ( i.e. Dancing Dolphins). These are NOT
tandem reels - 1M and 1W are dancing on two distinctly separate tracks
that cross each other in four places (on each side of the loops). So,
what do we call THIS reel - if anything?

And now the real fun begins-
there are several dances where BS is not specific. Where he says
something like  "first couple finish in the middle facing up" and we
do not know if that is side by side or with one behind the other.

Take a look at #2 -The Playful Porpoise
To my eye the reels here can be danced either as "tandem reels with
lead change" or as the reels in Dancing Dolphins are danced. Both
interpretations are possible and reasonable.

The difference between the two kinds of reels is at the crossing point
when moving between the two loops- in a tandem reel the dancers cross
in sequence (one after the other) while in the parallel reel the
dancers are crossing at the same time, side by side.

Comments anyone?