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strathspey@strathspey.org:45504

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Jim Healy

Jim Healy

RE: Regarding Dance Technique and Etiquette

June 10, 2006, 11:14 p.m. (Message 45504, in reply to message 45497)

Greetings!

Tom Mungall asks:
>Regarding the thumb hold for turning, I am wondering if anyone has
>witnessed or knows of someone who utilized this hold and got their
>thumbs injured?
Yes, and that's the safety problem with it. If the hold is taken properly 
there is little risk of the hand slipping and it is perfectly adequate to 
hold a partner who has lost his/her footing. The problem comes in taking the 
hold, when in order to take it properly when dancing at a reasonable jig or 
reel speed, you either have to slap the hands together (inelegant, at best) 
or you risk catching your thumb on a finger or the other thumb with a fair 
risk of a 'stave' (whatever that is in other versions of English) or, in the 
case I refrerred to at the beginning, a broken thumb.

When I was dancing in Scotland outside the RSCDS in my youth, however, it 
was probably the third most common hold after linked arms, followed by the 
'cleek' as mentioned by Robin Lambie. The 'handshake' hold was only used by 
what seemed then to be the overly genteel.

Jim Healy
Perth and Monaco

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