Saturday, March 27, 2010

27 March 2010 - K&G Ball Workshop at NHFM

Fourteen dancers convened for the first ever K&G Ball workshop.

The dances taught were:
Mole’s Frolic (32 J 3) Dunsmuir Dances (T. Winter)
Anna Holden’s Strathspey (32 S 2) 42/2 (Drewry)
On Hudson Creek (32 H 3) Between the Rivers
Maurice (32 S 2) Dunsmuir Dances (G. Thomas)
The Nurseryman (32 J 3) 37/7
The White Cockade (32 R 3) 5/11
Rakes of Auld Reekie (32 S 2) B. Priddey - Golden Oriole Book
Reel of the 51st (32 R 4/5C set) 13/10

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To warm the minds as well as the bodies I used Mole's Frolic and The White Cockade.

Anna Holden's Strathspey – The key to the dance is the first figure. Get that and the dance is yours. Whether you dance it big or dance it with control doesn't really matter but above all dance the figure as one smooth move and keep it covered and on time.

On Hudson Creek – This dance is about being just in time and that grey area where reels of four and turns intersect. The report from the floor was "lovely dance" - and I concur. Another keeper.

The Nurseryman – I will let you in on a secret (if I have already done so in an earlier post it is worth repeating) the heart and soul of this dance is not the Inverting Double Triangles. Rather it is the transition from the LHs Across on the sides which should open up early into wide sweeping curves ending in lines of three across the dance that then surge into the advance and retire. For me THAT is the dance.

Rakes of Auld Reekie – I have said this before and I'm saying it again: Dance it boldly, dance it strongly and dance it crisply. Wimps need not apply. And God how I love that final figure!

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