New Haven Summer Social - 13 July 2010

Last night was very warm and very sticky and still 12 dancers showed up. All but one regulars of the New Haven or Woodbridge classes and no one, regretfully, from another CT class.  That other was from New Jersey.

Tonight's dances were:

Reekie Linn  (32 J 2)  Jean Attwood leaflet

Rose and Woodbine  (32 S 3) SF 2

Mill of Fortune  (32 J 4) Jean Attwood leaflet

Gordon of Straloch  (32 S 3) Peter Price

It is Time  (32 S 3 set)  Wouter Joubert

The Cashmere Shawl  (32 S 3) Iain Boyd

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Reekie Linn - I like the dance. I am not sure that anyone else did but that could be because I used it as a warmup and no one had a functioning brain at that point.

Rose and Woodbine (aka Asilomar Romantic) - Still one of my favourite dances. Definitely on my top 50 and maybe even on my top 10 list. 

Mill of Fortune - This one was my toughie of the night. The conceit of the dance is four sequential and simultaneous half reels of four and right hand turns. It is also a timing dance -  all the dancers need to be spot on for it to work and I may have over reached considering the weather and the melting brains. We managed a few clear rounds but I didn't see it coming together and called it quits. That's when I found out that they all liked the dance. So maybe it is a winter dance and not a dog-day-of-summer dance. This one is definitely worth the work.

Ke Nako (It is Time) - A brand new dance from Wouter Joubert of South Africa to celebrate the FIFA World Cup. 

I really liked the opening 8 bars into the Hello-G'bye setting. I didn't hear a whole lot of talk after but at least one other person liked it a lot.

The Cashmere Shawl - This one just made it onto my Top 50 Strathspey list. It doesn't read as such but it certainly dances that way. Recommended! I used the Hanneke Cassel and Dave Wiesler recording of Irongray. I sped it up a bit and it worked very nicely.