[SCA-Dance] Translating Dance Names

[Monica Cellio]

>> There could also be a practical aspect to this.  I'm sure we've all
>> heard the complaint, "I know the dances, I just don't remember the
>> names." Would it help to have the names in English?
>
> I'm not sure it would, actually -- I've generally found that people are
> no better at remembering, eg, Chestnut and Mage on a Cree by name than
> they are at Geloxia and Petit Vriens...

I can think of two factors that might be relevant:

First, English might help if the name of the dance is suggestive of
its content.  Gelosia, or "Jealousy", mimes a story of interchangable 
affections.  "Chestnut" is just a random name, so it's probably no
more memorable than "Gelosia".  (Offhand I couldn't tell you which
ECD Chestnut is, or for that matter Mage on a Cree.)  Most dances
don't seem to have names as strongly tied to the content as this
one, so I don't know how much this helps.

Second, it might help people who are completely unfamiliar with the
structures of the foreign language.  A sequence of meaningless phonemes
is harder to remember than even an arbitrary word that you know.  The 
person might recognize "Petit Vriens" just fine but not be able to 
generate it on his own (and thus not be able to request it without 
describing it).

I'm a fan of giving people more than one hook.  I generally use the
original names for dances (e.g. in set lists), but if I know what it
means I think it's good to give that too when announcing or teaching
the dance.  Can't hurt; might help.

She'erah