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Briefings at Balls
R Julian Cattaneo
March 16, 1995, 7:08 p.m. (Message 1325)
I did some SCD many years ago at Caledonian Balls in Argentina and
Uruguay. There were no briefings. But then, the same eight dances were
done, year after year; people formed their sets before coming to the
ball, and practiced beforehand. So briefings weren't needed.
So I was a bit surprised when I started SCD in Canada three years and a
bit ago to learn about briefings. (But then, I was also absolutely
astounded at how *many* different dances there were!!) I like briefings.
In Windsor, for our Annual Ball, full (printed) briefs are mailed out
with the tickets (the programme/briefs booklets *are* the tickets!), so
all have a chance to prepare the dances in advance. Some of us use the
wee green book as well. But the briefs serve to concentrate the mind;
confirm with partner and other set members what the dance is all about;
and it is neater than the huddles some others have described on this
List...
(I agree that a bad brief is worse than no brief at all!... )
Happy dancing
J
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R Julian Cattaneo xxx@xxxxxxxx.xx
University of Windsor -- Windsor, Ontario -- Canada N9B 3P4
Telephones: Voice (519)253-4232 Ext. 3919 Fax: (519)973-7032
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About 15 years ago I moved from a no-brief Branch (San Francisco) to a brief Branch (Boston), and over the years I've thought a lot about the different causes and repercussions. In San Francisco there are a couple of elements which started and sustain no-briefs: --There used to be (maybe still are) "social hours" after the class part in the Berkeley class where "request dancing" was done, i.e. no previously-set program, and dancers would request dances they knew they liked. Surprise--a lot of the same dances were requested week after week and people got to know them as complete dances (easier to remember) rather than as a string of figures (harder to remember). There got to be a "popular repertoire," that most dancers in the area knew really well, and not only that, knew they knew it. --Bunches of us used to go to the Edinburgh Castle (Scottish pub) in San Francisco and dance to the juke box. The juke box had a peculiarity that you put your quarter in, picked three dances, but the juke box picked the order, so we would have to not only know the dances but we would also have to know which dance it was, all from the opening chord. --I've always thought there may possibly be something at work here regarding distance from the source. The west coast, being farther from Scotland than the east coast, tends to try harder to emulate what is perceived as "correct." E.g. the dancing in Japan. --I'm really not sure what Stewart Smith would have said on this subject today, but his legacy still lives on and both the San Francisco and Los Angeles Branches operate in many ways in such a fashion as to permit no-briefs at balls. Other Branches are run quite differently and no-briefs are not really possible. Some elements in New England support briefs: --New England contra dancing is possibly an influence: although it's now hugely popular everywhere, as far as I know it didn't exist in California til 1975 or after (I'm ready to stand corrected!). But anyway, there has always been lots of crossover here between contra dancers, international folk dancers, and Scottish dancers, I think more here than in the west coast, in earlier times. Contra dancing is walked through and called, so dancers are used to being given the "string of figures" for dances in longwise sets. --Scottish dancers here don't like doing the same dance too often. One year I was told we couldn't put a certain dance on the Boston Ball program because it had been on the program the year before. For the Scottish Pinewoods week, the programs for the eight nights in a row are carefully constructed so as to avoid doing any dance more than once (with the exception of "Pinewoods Reel" which gets to be done twice). --I don't know enough about Jeannie Carmichael, who was instrumental in starting the dancing both here and in New York, to know how she would fit into this puzzle, but the whole setup of the monthly parties, program devisors, committees, etc is different here and does not lend itself to no-briefs. I'm of the no-brief camp myself, probably because I learned that way. As a beginner I didn't know enough to question how things were being done, but I certainly paid my dues! At my very first ball, around 1970, there were no talk-throughs, and also back then there were no little green books nor program booklets! All I had were my own handwritten notes from the classes during the month before the ball. And, I didn't know that it was okay not to know a dance. Well, I did every other dance. During the dances I didn't dance, I went into the bathroom, into the stall, shut the door, and snuck out my notes for the next dance. After all that, my own reaction wasn't discouragement, or a feeling that Beginners Have Rights Too; I just wanted to learn more dances. However, I can see that some people might be discouraged, and we might be losing some fine people that way. I personally continue to prefer no-briefs mostly because I think that knowing dances should be an enviable pursuit, along with footwork, phrasing, pleasing manner, etc. Now when I go to balls, I can neither get myself to prepare in advance, nor listen to the talk-throughs! Help! Sincerely, Barbara McOwen Arlington, Mass.