strathspey@strathspey.org:8370

colin garrett

Re: Mairi's Wedding

July 31, 1997, 12:05 p.m. (Message 8370, in reply to message 8323)

I entirely agree that dances should be taught as published even if they are
frequently danced in a slightly different version.  I have been dancing
Mairi's Wedding since about 1960 and most often the set has wished to do a
right shoulder pass. I hope that , when teaching,  I have always pointed
out the variations that may commonly occur.  Whichever way you do it, it is
still one of the most popular dances!

Oberdan asks for the main points of doing dances as written.  The joy of
SCD is that one can dance anywhere from New Haven to New Plymouth and know
that a given dance will be danced  (almost) the same wherever one is.  It
is very uncomfortable to find that a "local" variation has been introduced
in a dance that one is sure one knows!


Colin Garrett