[SCA-Dance] The Boone Companion: "Goe abut"

Tim McDaniel tmcd at panix.com
Wed Feb 27 18:10:20 EST 2013


tmcd at panix.com:
> Men and Women chan-
> ge plcaes; and whiles
> the men goe abut, the
> women they come
> to their owne side..
> The same againe, and
> the men are as they
> were before.
...
> (1) The first time, we exchanged and then had the lords do a J figure
> (follow-the-leader halfway around the women, as in Picking of Sticks)
> into their original line's position (thereby reversing the line).
> During that, the ladies walked 3 steps to their original positions.
> There's no obvious prompt for them to go across, so it looked awkward
> when they straggled across at different times.  They also said it was
> very boring.

On Wed, 27 Feb 2013, Mary Railing <mrailing2 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> I would vote for option 1 as the most likely. Some may consider it
> boring, but so are parts of Goddesses and many other dances.

It's also imprecise, as the women have no obvious time to go back
home.

Is there *anything* that's consistent with ECD and makes it more
interesting, and also more precise in its styling and timing?  So many
ECD figues can displace a double, but Black Nag is the only one that
comes immediately to mind where it's not undone immediately.  (In this
case, it would be undone at the end of the chorus.)

For example, a random idea is

1-4: Exchange places with partner
5-12: Men walk single-file around women, women turning to face men
12: Men take hands, women take hands
12-16: Men's line forward a double while women's line backs a double

But I only recall both lines meeting or both lines retreating in ECD
-- it reminds me more of the dancing "with" the Russians in Fiddler on
the Roof.

Pousette?  But I've seen that only in Argeers and Cuckolds All Arow,
and it was always symmetric: man pushes woman back but then woman
pushed man back.

In this timing, any replacement would have to take only 4 beats.  For
example, The timing of the music doesn't allow for the New Bo Peep
approach (flee and then pursue).

In any event, with these, you'd need a generous notion of "whiles" to
fit with the description of the women moving "*whiles* the men goe
abut".

Daniel de Linccolne
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com


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