Significance of the story behind Catch the Wind" (was Tunes suitable for Catch the The Wind)

Katharine Hoskyn

July 30, 2008, 11:09 a.m. (Message 53250)

Hullo

In reply to the question about the significance of the dance - in the
original publication, The Island Bay Collection, it is explained that "The
dance gets its name from the fact that Iain courted Noeline for some time
before Noeline agreed to be caught."  The dance was written for Iain Boyd
and Noeline O'Connor.

The significance of the "chases" in the dance relate to this theme - with
1st woman leading the chase and the 1st man following.  At the end of the
dance the 1st man 'catches' the 1st woman and they turn together.  In the
reel of 3, they are dancing the same thing - in parallel - prior to the
final chase and turn at the end of the dance.

Best wishes

Katharine


Katharine Hoskyn

PS I'm not sure whether the timing of this discussion has any significance -
during the week when New Zealand is experiencing the strongest wind for 10
years from 2 -3 storms in the same week! With gusts in excess of 100kms at
times, we can't catch the wind - but we also can't miss it.  Hope the rest
of you in NZ have been able to remain upright, with home intact and
sufficient power source for heating, light and food.

campbell

July 30, 2008, 12:01 p.m. (Message 53251, in reply to message 53250)

Katherine wrote:
>In reply to the question about the significance of the dance -


In fact my question was not about the significance of the dance per se (I
know the story and I think the dance portrays the chase well) but my
question was - what is the significance of a dance that has the other two
couples standing around for so long being so frequently on programmes?  Dare
I say, why is it so "popular"?

Campbell Tyler
Cape Town

Pia Walker

July 30, 2008, 12:11 p.m. (Message 53252, in reply to message 53251)

They get a rest?

I was of the opinion that most of the 'good old dances' had a first couple
solo and that it is only the newer dances that are built for the super fit
and athletic, with 100% brain power operating at all times. :>)

Pia

Rod Downey

July 30, 2008, 12:46 p.m. (Message 53254, in reply to message 53251)

why is the flowers of edinburgh 
so popular?

dance it to the irish washerwoman and it would not be.

rod

Anselm Lingnau

July 30, 2008, 12:52 p.m. (Message 53255, in reply to message 53251)

Campbell Tyler wrote:

> Dare I say, why is [Catch The Wind] so "popular"?

Probably approximately for the same reasons that dances like Red House or The 
Flowers of Edinburgh are so »popular« :^)

For a dance to be popular, it isn't required that everybody be moving all the 
time. In fact, with much of the traditional repertoire, 1st couple gets to 
show off and the others are, in varying degrees, window dressing. It's just 
that on the whole, they don't make them like that anymore TODAY.

The other thing about Catch The Wind may be that it is, by design and the 
story behind it, a flirtatious dance. People enjoy flirtatious dances every 
so often, and even if you only get two turns as dancing couple, 64 bars of 
pretty much unsullied flirtation out of a total of 256¹ is more than many 
other dances give you, plus you get to pick beforehand who to flirt with.

Anselm

¹ Before anyone complains, that means »flirtation in movement«. Of course
  you're free to flirt outrageously while mostly standing during the other
  192 as well if you want (as always).
-- 
Anselm Lingnau, Friedberg, Germany ..................... xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx
You need to build a system that is futureproof; it's no good just making a
modular system. You need to realize that your system is just going to be a
module in some bigger system to come, and so you have to be part of something
else, and it's a bit of a way of life.     -- Tim Berners-Lee, WWW7 Conference