[SCA-Dance] Event: Northshield Dance Seminar

[Alex Clark]

At 04:02 PM 4/15/2007 -0500, Steven Bush wrote:
>As a part of the festivities, Eithni ingen Talorgain, Esteemed Baroness of 
>Jararvellir, does issue the following challenge to those good gentles 
>interested in the art and practice of dance: Half Hannikin - What’s the 
>Other Half?
>
>Half-Hannikin is one of the easiest dances from Playford’s 1st Edition
 
>but it’s only half of Hannikin. The question is: what’s the other half? 
>The dance has up and back, siding, and arming, so clearly the missing half 
>is the chorus. Hence the challenge: Give us the Other Half of Hannikin.

This challenge seems to be premature. A more timely question would be: Half 
Hannikin - What's Playford's Half? The dance, as I know it from Playford, 
does not include any "arming". At most, one could guess that the turn at 
the end is equivalent to arms (IIRC, there's at least one Playford dance 
that uses both terms for what is apparently the same figure), but that 
would be no more than an unsupported assumption. So I suppose that the 
dance described above is the modern "Half Hannigan" (to an adaptation of 
Playford's tune) and not a version of Playford's Half Hannikin. Since it is 
mistakenly referred to as being from Playford, it seems that the challenge 
was issued without consulting Playford to see if his dance works for this 
challenge.

BTW, if a dance that is to be creatively extended must have both sides and 
arms, then rather than seeking the other half of Hannikin, how about a 
quest to find "Dargagrandson"? (It would be danced to the "heir" of 
Dargason.) (But when it is found, please don't "grandfather" it in as an 
honorary period dance.)

And just imagine the possible sequels:
The Bride of Dargason.
De Nephew of Dargason.
De Niece of Dargason.
The Mother of All Dargas0n$!!!!11one1

-- 
Henry of Maldon/Alex Clark