strathspey@strathspey.org:8346

Stefan Barthel

Re: Mairi's Wedding

July 30, 1997, 12:55 p.m. (Message 8346, in reply to message 8323)

>Again I guess it gets back to one of my favourite "hobbyhorses" and that is
>that teachers really do need to set a reasonably good example.

Right. You have to show it's fun to dance! And sometimes it's much fun to 
dance Mairi's Wedding passing right shoulder or even do extra loops in 
passing, clap hands ore something else. But you should tell your 
beginners - before taking them to a social - not to worry about unusual 
things. But those things should not be copied by the beginners, as long 
as they are not sure about it. 

Sometimes it's a question of your style of teaching. What is a good 
example? To be always right, or to be flexible to react suitable to 
unexpected situations?

Normally I agree to dance as it has been intended by the author. Most 
often there is no sense in changing it, because it can't be done better. 
But some old traditional dances do not have the one author, and more than 
one possible way to be danced (apart from the RSCDS one). And some dances 
like Petronella, Mairi's W. and some more came to their own life, apart 
from their authors. Who knows how they will be danced when we are dead? I 
guess they still will be fun! It's a living tradition.

Last Thursday we tried out different ways for extra loops in Mairi's 
Wedding. Why? We know what is 'correct', but we wanted to be prepared to 
do it the other way as well. And there are ceilidh's with noone dancing 
the 'correct' way. But if we do it differently, we want to do it nice as 
well.