strathspey@strathspey.org:8437

Lynn Messing

RE: Mairi's Wedding

Aug. 3, 1997, 3:41 p.m. (Message 8437, in reply to message 8323)

At 09:03 PM 8/2/97 -0700, Oberdan Otto wrote:

>Some forms of embellishment such as twiddles (extra twirls) are either
>socially neutral or anti-social (especially when poorly executed). A
>well-executed twiddle adds nothing to the social feeling of the set.

While this may be true most of the time, I would disagree about it being a
universal. An exception that comes to mind is in the track figure of 
Flowers of Edinburgh. When the leader of the track is sufficiently far
ahead that their adding a twiddle won't throw the follower off, a
well placed twiddle can add tremendously to the flirtation of the figure.
It permits the two to make brief eye contact, and seems to say, "I *want*
to be caught, and I'm giving you a chance to catch up." Naturally, for
this to work without hurting the dance, the leader must compensate by 
travelling farther on all of the other steps, thereby being in the
appropriate position at the end of bar six. And of course, it would not
be an appropriate thing to do if the follower (or, to a lesser extent,
anyone else in the set) is a beginner. But in the right circumstances,
that twiddle does indeed add a level of sociability to the dance.

cheers, Lynn Messing  xxxxxxx@xxxx.xxxx.xxx  Pennsylvania/Delaware, USA