[SCA-Dance] Suggestions Wanted

[Charlene Charette]

As done in the SCA, Trenchmore is rarely done to the musical phrasing
and might be easy and energetic enough for a contra group.

--Perronnelle

On Sun, Apr 24, 2011 at 10:15 AM, Mary Railing <mrailing2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Trying to think of what dances fit that description, the first dance that comes
> to mind is Posties Jig. As long as the dancers don't collide, it doesn't matter
> if they are on the phrase. It's a high-energy dance that *isn't* longways
> duple-minor, so it would provide a good variation from whatever duple-minor
> dances you do include.
>
> Another dance that might work is Black Nag. With the exception of the hey, the
> chorus figures are very forgiving, and even the hey, because there is a turn in
> place at the end that is easily left out if the dancers are behind, is more
> forgiving that most heys. It's another high-energy dance they might find fun.
>
> --Urraca
>
>
>
> ________________________________
> From: Mary Railing <mrailing2 at yahoo.com>
> To: Scot and Michelle Henry <cshenry at peoplepc.com>
> Cc: sca-dance at sca-dance.org
> Sent: Sun, April 24, 2011 10:19:08 AM
> Subject: Re: [SCA-Dance] Suggestions Wanted
>
> I don't do contra, but I read the ECD mailing list, where there is frequent
> discussion of calling ECD for contra dancers and of the differences between
> contra and ECD, what makes contra "more fun" for some people, etc. You could try
>
> looking through their info  http://www-ssrl.slac.stanford.edu/~winston/ecd.htmlx
>
> One issue that repeatedly comes up in those posts is that many contra dancers
> don't feel obliged to stay with the beat as long as they get through the figure.
>
> Since contra dances aren't linked to specific tunes, there is less incentive to
> pay close attention to the music. Since ECD  choreography is linked to specific
> music (and renaissance balli even more so) we get used to tying to be on the
> correct foot at the correct beat and expecting the music to tell us what to do.
> Apparently this is a foreign concept to many contra dancers, and the
> opportunity to just bliss out as you swing your way down the line is what makes
> contra fun for them. So maybe you need dances like Trenchmore that work that
> way, rather than dances like Jenny Pluck Pears that require paying close
> attention to the phrasing of the music.  Also don't think that you are failing
> or that the dancers are failing if everybody is not on the beat, but the dance
> isn't crashing and they are having fun.
>
> Note, I am saying this as an outsider reporting other people's observations.
> Your group may be different.
>
> --Urraca
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