Saturday, August 28, 2010

New York City Summer Dance - 26 August 2010

Finally! An almost cool night for dancing and gender equality on the floor and five couples.


The night's dances were:
The Glowerin' Coo (32 J 3) J. Drewry – leaflet
Glasgow Country Dance (32 M 3) 23/6 (Bob Campbell)
The Pillar Dance (40 J 4 sq) C. Ronald – The Big Apple
Broadway (32 S 3 set) C. Ronald – The Big Apple
Five Penny Ness (32 J 5) J. Attwood - leaflet
Spiffen (32 J 5 sq) Quarries et al
Fisherman's Reel (32 R 5 sq) Petyt & Gamon
Miss Johnstone of Ardrossan (32 R 5) R. Goldring – 14 Social 2000


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The Glowerin' Coo - Taught by James Ferguson, I found it a nice pleasant wee dance. It is one of John's earlier choreographies (c.1988). 


Glasgow Country Dance - This dance used to be one the dances on Full Certificate teacher's exam. It is a little stinker that is the exception that proves the rule that women always have the difficult parts - the men have it easy. Not here. To dance this one neatly the man has to be darn near perfect.


The Pillar Dance - The Catholic school where the NY Branch dances has a very strange gym. On (in?) the basketball court there are six cast iron pillars supporting the floor above and around which the dancers have to fit their sets. so Chris Ronald wrote a dance with a pillar in the center of the set. Rather site specific, a bit on the simple side, but boy do you have to move - that pillar adds more distance than I anticipated. And its a mixer. Don't get to see many of those in SC dancing.


Broadway - I regret to say I did not dance this one, I was searching for music for Five Penny Ness, the dance which I was going to teach. My impression is that the Broadway is both straight forward and deceptive. What I like most though is the fact that Chris is always having fun with his dancing.


Five Penny Ness - So answer me this. Why is it that when we find a great dance from a choreographer we stop looking?  Jean Attwood wrote The Falls of Rogie, a favourite dance in the tri-state area, but no one ever seems to program any of her other dances.


Spiffin' - I consider this one to be a little stinker. Not that there is anything inherently difficult about it but, for some reason, most people in my set, and most of us were teachers too, found it difficult to transition from the opening birl into the left (I repeat - left) shoulder parallel reels of three.


The Fisherman's Reel - I can only remember dancing this once before (courtesy of Brian Haeckler in New Haven). Much smoother this time around.


Miss Johnstone of Ardrossan - A very nice dance from Roy Goldring. He has brought two innovations to Scottish dancing that I approve of. He wrote several 88 bar reels for square sets - which means I never have to do the Round Reel of Eight ever again. Thank you Roy, thank you! And he has popularized 5C dances that are 1C start, not 1s and 3s, and are danced once and to the bottom.



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