[SCA-Dance] Rant: I want beats. I wants steps. I don't want measures.

[Tim McDaniel]

I'm doing a dance-step cheat sheet at the last minute, of course.

I'm refreshing my memory with on-line cheat sheets ...

and I'm getting frustrated with the counts that are next to the steps.

I'm not a musician.  I don't see the music.  I don't see the measures.
The musicians have their sheet music, and they play from that, and of
course they should use whatever notation works best for them, and more
power to their elbows.

As a dancer, I hear the beat.  I do steps to the beat.

"Double forward".
The music goes dum dum dum dum.
I do step step step step (or step step step close or whatever).

Four.

Not two, dammit.  Not one.  Two and one are useless and confusing
to me as a dancer.

FOUR.

Earl of Essex Alman?  Couldn't give an expletive deleted about the 6/4
time signature.  Ooze left for 3 beats, ooze right for 3 beats,
3 beats/steps forward, 3 back.

If you're writing instructions with STEPS for DANCERS, please, please,
by the blessed memory of John Banys I implore you, I want the count of
BEATS, and any counts based on the time signature be blowed.

And now I have to go back to writing up Heart's Disease, the common
dance I loathe the most.  And back to multiplying other people's
counts by 2.

DAN iel de LIN coln is RANT ing a GAIN
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com