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Book 47
Denise Smith
Aug. 5, 2013, 10:20 a.m. (Message 64358)
We are SO disappointed with Book 47. Like many other groups, we trialed the supposedly 'new' dances only to find, when the book was published, that there are at least four OLD dances in it. These dances have been published elsewhere and we have danced them at day schools or Summer/Winter Schools. Surely a new book should contain new dances!! -- Denise Smith 76 Celandine St Shailer Park Qld 4128 +617 3209 7006 xxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxx.xxx
Denise Smith wrote: > Surely a new book should contain new dances!! The »call for dances« for Books 47/48 asked for dances that have been tested and enjoyed locally but not necessarily given wide exposure. If you want all- new dances you will have to wait for Book 49, which specifically requires new and unpublished dances. To understand what is going on we need to look at RSCDS publishing practices past and present. There used to be a time not so long ago when writing new dances at all was a practice that was frowned upon by many of the people in charge at the RSCDS, and the only legitimate »new« dances that the Society published were dances from old books and manuscripts that had been »reconstructed« (some people would probably say »mangled«) to fit modern technique and tastes. The Society only went into the business of publishing newly written dances wholesale in the early 1960s (or so – Book 22 advertises »Twelve Modern Scottish Country Dances In Traditional Form«), and at that time it was a step that did not meet with universal approval. Today in the 21st century, things have changed considerably, to a point where more than 90% of the published SCD repertoire consists of dances written within the last 50 years. For better or for worse, we no longer need to depend upon the Society to drip-feed us a dozen new dances a year. Our problem today is not finding new dances – it is finding which ones out of the many new dances that people write and publish without funnelling them through the Society are actually worth the trouble. This means that the role of the Society as far as publishing dances is concerned can usefully change from that of the only source of »approved« material to that of a curator, whose task is to identify, out of hundreds or thousands of »new« dances, those which are worthy of ending up in an RSCDS book. Of course we want these dances to have »legs«, and it makes a great deal of sense to pick dances that have gained a certain amount of traction locally, put them through a wide selection process, and keep the »best of the best«. (Tastes may still differ, but compared to earlier RSCDS books that out of 10 or 12 dances used to contain 2 good ones, 2 obvious »lemons«, and 6 to 8 middling ones, I think we're doing fine with this approach – IMHO Book 46 is one of the best books the Society ever published). At the end of the day this may mean that people who get around a lot, go to workshops and day schools, and so on, may have run into some of these dances before – simply because the dances are good ones, and workshop teachers (a small clique that also gets around a lot) tend to pick up good dances they encounter and take them along. However I think it is safe to say that for every jaded Denise ;^) out there, there are ten dancers who have never done Linnea's Strathspey or The One O'Clock Canon before. I certainly haven't danced all the dances in the new book and am looking forward to trying those I haven't done. Anselm (on the RSCDS Membership Services committee but speaking as a private person) -- Be my friend on the SCD social network: http://my.strathspey.org/f/anselm/ -- Anselm Lingnau, Mainz/Mayence, Germany ................. xxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx.xxx WIPO is the UN agency that creates copyright treaties -- it has the same relationship to bad copyright law that Mordor has to evil. -- Cory Doctorow
Hi Anselm, Very well put. I have argued for years that the society shouldn't be trying to find completely new untested dances, but should rather be letting general community testing find the keepers and then collect those and make them available to a wider audience. The fact that some of the collection are ones which have been doing the rounds should be reassurance that they're picking the right ones that people actually like. Cheers, Ian Brockbank xxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx.xxx | www.scottishdance.net | @EdinburghSCD Grand Chain the Scottish Dance Resource -- Sent from my phone, so apologies for terseness --