Wilton Class - 21 September 2010

Dancing resumed at long last. There have been some personnel changes. Angela is going to be dancing with us on an irregular basis but I am hoping that Sandra's son and daughter in-law and her two young sisters (14 and 10) will be coming regularly. Cynthia's grandaughter Hayley returned after a four year absence and she brought a friend - Dante.

I really worried about this class. I have never had young children as students. I way over prepared but once into it found an approach that seemed to work. I kept them moving as much as I could and had them either walking or skipping. No skip change and no setting and no strathspey. I wanted them to find the rhythm of the music and get comfortable moving to it which they began to do. I was also looking for phrasing and timing. I figure if they get the rhythm then footwork can be added in slowly.

Anyway, we were nine dancers for the evening, and the dances were:

Birkenside (adapted)  (32 S 2)  R. Goldring
The Ferry Louper  (32 J 3)  R. Goldring
Crom Allt  (32 R 3)  R. Goldring
Off to Speyside  (32 J 2)  R. Goldring
Kildrummy Castle  (64 R 4 sq)  R. Goldring

All dances were from Roy Goldring's book: 24 Graded and Social Dances.

**********

Birkenside - Originally a strathspey for 2C, I taught it as a reel for 3 couples by changing the opening circle to 6 hands round and back, and the last figure to a chevron shaped push-pull poussette and a RH turn. I really could have done a lot better - a simple down the middle and up, or down the middle and up and cast would have been a much better choice. And my idea of introducing 'progression' in nice easy steps was the first casualty of the evening.

The Ferry Louper - Adapted in that I used reels and not the specified jigs. And because of the end effects I modified the track figure. The young ladies had no problem with it. I worried needlessly.

Crom Allt - This one too was adapted, but not intentionally. When I was making out the new cards for these dances I just happened to leave out 4 bars of this dance. So I improvised. Yuch. But I won't tell them if you don't.

Off to Speyside - This one needed no adapting. Straightforward throughout.

Kildrummy Castle - Nice little square dance. Best feature: simple.