Wilton Class - 22 March 2011

The girls were not present so the opportunity was there to get a start on the dances on the Tea Dance. It was an interesting evening because I was teaching dances that we had done before and the class was having a difficult time with them.
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The evenings dances were:-
Admiral Beaufort  (32 J 3) set mixer
Auchindrain  (32 R 3) web leaflet
The Burn of Sorrow  (32 S 2)  B. Priddey
Gypsy Dreams  (32 S 2) T. Glasspool

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Admiral Beaufort:-  The first 24 bars are borrowed from Iain Boyd's dance The Calm before the Storm.  The last eight bars are a variant of the set and link used by Jane Lataille in her dance Dragonflies.


Auchindrain:- A straight forward dance with nothing, absolutely nothing tricky about it.

The Burn of Sorrow:-  when I drew my 'pilling' and wrote the crib I had an oops. I misread the directions. What I read was 1C dance a 2 bar RH turn once round and a two bar loop around partner - what Barry wrote was a Rh turn going on for 1 step and then a three bar loop around partner. The crib will be corrected Real Soon Now.

What I don't get, however, is how hard everyone seems to find the Tourbillon. It is not rocket science.
Both couples turn with two hands in two bars. First man turns three quarters ending in second woman's place while first woman turns once round and finishes back in her own place. This means they can not hold hands for the whole of the two bars. If  first coupledrop appropriate hands (man's left/woman's right) you can 'unwind the turn to end in correct places. Second couple similarly - second woman turns three quarters, second man once round ending second woman in first man's place after dropping the appropriate hands.

I have had this rant before and it is getting old. But the figure is very pretty and I find it very enjoyable and more than worth the effort.

Gypsy Dreams:- 24 bars of pure delight leading into 8 bars of absolute terror - the dread Tournee.
What a bunch of horse pucky. the Tournee has one moment where you need to think, or not if you have really learned it. And it too is a beautiful figure but it does take a lot of work to perfect. Unfortunately too many dancers don't care to perfect. Sigh.