[SCA-Dance] La Volta at the Madison Early Music Festival

[Del]

On 20/08/13 20:11, David Learmonth wrote:
> Hey Del, isn't she supposed to be supported on your leg?  Or is this
> photo in the moment after you have withdrawn it?  Or is that only for a
> different version of La Volta, and not the tassle lift?

Yes, she was certainly supported on my leg for the first part of the 
lift but wasn't after she got moving upwards.  I dropped my leg back 
down for balance after she was high enough.  Basically to get someone up 
that high you need a combination of the leg lift and a lift from the 
waist & hips.  Actually I'm reasonably happy with my posture and balance 
at the point of the lift shown in the photo, I have a background of 
having done high lifts doing swing/jitterbug in my younger days and I 
sometimes had problems with posture back then and had to work on it a 
fair bit.  Getting a partner up to that height without having correct 
balance isn't going to happen.  However flinging a partner up to a 
height somewhat over my head height isn't anything new to me.

> (because otherwise, isn't the Lady doing all the work here, really?)  :P

No, trust me, she's not.  :)

Disclaimer -- Irina / Alliette is a little bigger than Lynnette but not 
a whole lot bigger.  It still took a fair bit of timing and balance to 
get the lift right, we'd practised for an hour or so before hand to get 
the timing and height and distance correct, the latter of which I had to 
judge by eye on the floor.

The back story to the photo is that every year at Canty Faire there is a 
tassel kick competition which has actually become popular especially 
amongst the younger gentlemen.  Points (subjectively) are awarded for 
style, grace, correct galliard technique, steps, turns, etc, with bonus 
points awarded for tassel height.  Most contestants have the tassel at 
or around knee height.  When Alliette arrived on the floor she asked for 
the tassel to be raised to over her head height, to the somewhat 
amazement of the spectators.  She then galliarded in and as she 
approached the tassel I stepped in and picked her up in a volta 
turn/lift continuing upwards to have her kick the tassel at a height she 
couldn't otherwise have reached.  Nobody knew that was going to happen 
except the two of us so it produced a fair amount of amusement.  It 
wasn't allowed in the competition of course but we didn't do it for that.

There is of course no such thing as a "tassel lift" in Lavolta, that is 
entirely my invention.  The tassel kick dance comes from Negri who 
doesn't mention anything like a lavolta.

Del