strathspey@strathspey.org:1309

briscoe

Re: Briefings at Balls - a geographical perspective

March 16, 1995, 1:52 a.m. (Message 1309, in reply to message 1304)

On Wed, 15 Mar 1995 xxxxxxxx_x_xxxxxxxxx.xxxxxxxx@xxxxx.xxx wrote:

> Scanning the briefing arguments I've come to the following conclusions:
> 
> People in areas where balls are typically unbriefed - California (esp. San
> Francisco area), parts of Canada and UK - prefer unbriefed balls.  People in
> areas where balls are commonly briefed (other parts of US, esp. east coast)
> prefer briefing.
> 
> 
Maybe this means that people who don't like briefings continue dancing in 
areas where dances are not briefed, and those who like briefings continue 
dancing in areas where there is briefing. So maybe we are losing half our 
dancers?

More seriously, the problem with briefings IMHO is poor briefings.  I 
would sometimes rather not even know the dance and just improvise for 32 
bars than to endure the awful briefing...rambling, unphrased, extraneous 
information, etc.

Regarding, Martin Mulligan's note on a TAC AGM in 1978, I was there too, 
also as a relatively new dancer.  However, unlike Martin, I had not 
gotten any prior information that there would be no briefings!  As 
someone else said, the adrenalin did indeed flow.  And I too noticed that 
the teachers seemed quite human; their mistakes were just like mine.

I vote for briefings, except for old chestnuts, which ought to be marked 
on the advance program as "will not be briefed."  And I vote for good 
briefings...

- Mel Briscoe, Alexandria VA