27 February 2018 - New Haven

Again ball prep. Just four days to the ball.

I taught the following dances:

The Enchanted Castle  -  (32 J 2)  -  I. Boyd
The Bonnie Tree  -  (32 S 3)  -  Bk 46/6
Bohemian Reflections  -  (32 R 3)  -  Bk 51/12
The Twinbairn's Reel  -  (32 J 2)  -  Drewry

The Shetland Shepherdess  -  32 J 3)  -  Wallace
City of Belfast  -  (32 S 3 set)  -  Bk 48/6

øø   øø   øøø   øø   øøø  ø  øøø   øø   øøø   øø   øø

The Enchanted Castle:- It is a little different and it has a 'gotcha' moment. Dancers need to be awake the first time or two but after that it isn't mentally demanding. I am now looking for good music to pair with this dance because I will be teaching it again.

The Bonnie Tree:- The short form -- Nice!! They liked it! The hard part - John Drewry set us up when he put a nice catchy name on the figure -  "Half Turn and Twirl" - and he gets what he asks for.  That blast 'twirl'. Trying to say it as 'and pulling right shoulders back cast out to the side lines'… Goodness gracious does that slow down the briefing and make life just plain cumbersome.

Bohemian Reflections:-  Like circles? You will love this book. This dance, thankfully, doesn't have one. If teaching children a good resource. For the mainstream not very useful. This dance is OK, maybe even the best of the lot. I give it about a 72. (Inside joke from the US's Vietnam War era so don't worry about it if you don't understand the reference.) Boy am I dating myself!!

The Twinbairn's Reel:-  A Jig :-))  Reasonably pleasant, reasonably social. Not one of John Drewry's best efforts but certainly worth looking at.

Shetland Shepherdess:-  I have a positive knee jerk reaction to any dance written by Ron Wallace, deserved or not.  What I thought would be the sticking point, the multiple cross overs, wasn't.
I unfortunately do not have the one existing recording for this dance. Thumbs up.