strathspey@strathspey.org:40331

Ron Mackey

observations on The Weathercock

Jan. 17, 2005, 3:02 a.m. (Message 40331, in reply to message 40327)

.")
> 
> OBSERVATIONS ON THE WEATHERCOCK, devised by Veronica Hughes, from the Leeds 
> Silver Jubilee Book, 1987
> 
> (which are not meant as any sort of criticism of this dance that is cleverly 
> devised and fun to do)
> 
> Bars 29-32 state:  "Second woman with third woman, third man with second man, 
> first woman with fourth woman, and first man with fourth man, turn with right 
> hand to finish on own sides in order 2, 3, 4, 1."  (This is preceded by a 
> four-bar double right hands across and some additional wording that doesn't make 
> a lot of sense to me.)  HAS ANYONE ELSE NOTICED >

	Yes, that is good as a teachers note but I like the brevity of the 
original.  Roy Goldring does the same in John of Bon Accord. At the 
end of the 1/2 reels 1s are instructed merely to turn by the right hand 
and cast up one place on their own side.  He makes no mention of the 
amount of that turn, probably being pragmatic and allowing for the fact 
that most couples will not finish the 1/2 reels with a predictable degree 
of precision.

 
> Additionally, although this dance is neither overcomplicated nor extremely 
> difficult in its elements, it has taken much more time and effort than others of 
> its apparent level of difficulty for even experienced dancers in my class and 
>
	I attend three classes and the same is true for each of them!
 
> If, in those uneven same-gender turns at the end, dancers will hold on just a 
> tad longer than usual, they will orient themselves for the reel of four to 
> begin the next round (as well as remind each other that that is what next 
> occurs, as this seems otherwise to be the point of another unusual epidemic of 
> amnesia).

Yes

> And finally, perhaps it was even the intent of the deviser to create such a 
> picture, but the dancers in my class have created a mnemonic picture for bars 
> 17-24 of an actual weather vane (the left-hand turners in the center) and of 
> their partners as birds flying around and, when they take hands and set, 
> lighting onto the weather vane.

	Never thought of that angle. But It needs to be admitted that 
many 'birds' fly the wrong course.  :~))