New Year Jig - (32 J 3) - Bk 51
An Autumn Posy - (32 S 2) - Butterfield
Lucy Campbell - (32 R 2) - Bk 17
Ruby Wilkinson's Farewell - (32 S 4) - Bk 52
MacLeod's Fancy - (32 J 4) - Bk 33 (Drewry)
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New Year Jig:- This one is just popping out of the woodwork. From not even the radar to ubiquitous.
Easy Peasy flow, 1st woman never faces her partner but begins and ends every figure facing out. Eye contact challenged dancers have to work at it. Nice dance for opening and warming up. But I would be careful to avoid over doing this dance, which would be easy to do.
An Autumn Posy:- I call it a Xiowen special - she taught it, thereby bringing it to our attention, and it is catching on. I initially had issues with it. It is a very simple dance and that requires clean precise dancing which we don't get often enough for my taste. But the more we do it the better the dancers are doing. Yay! There must be a tune out there that fits this dance like a glove but I haven't found it. I am looking.
Lucy Campbell:- Something Society and something different… I had never encountered it before Sandra proposed it for there Kilts and Ghillies Tea Dance and I do mean never. I don't remember ever looking at. I certainly never had it taught to me and it is different enough I would remember it.
A variant RHA LHA - into a slipping figure with some traveling pas de basque that somewhat resembles a poussette, then a fugal figure into the final figure to progress.
Diagram courtesy of SCDDB and Keith Rose.
In my opinion dancing the slipping/setting figure cleanly is the key to the dance. Across the set in 4 slip steps is easy and the transition to p-d-b on inside foot should be natural. It is the slipping to the center that causes problems. 4 slip steps here are too many or else too small and in either case just plain ugly.
My solution is three slip steps to the center and a deliberate close. The left foot is free and the rotation [bar 7] is then on the easy foot and the retire is on the right p-d-b. As 1st Man I make my foot change at the beginning of the cast in the next figure. I dance p-d-b close, and leave off the jété.
A piece of me really wants to break out of the box and do the jété and begin the cast hopping on my right - making it an 'easy' cast and then stay 'out of step' for the remainder of the figure. Maybe someday I will gather the courage.
Ruby Wilkinson's Farewell to Cranshaws:- I like it. Deborah loves it! The music is delightfully different - I would NOT want our music to be all esoteric and different - but on occasion it is great fun.
The reels need work. There IS a preferred timing to reels of four. Unfortunately the Manual doesn't explain it clearly enough. In fact the manual can too easily be misinterpreted, and with double diagonal reels of four intersecting in the middle and those reels also intersecting with reels of four across the top and bottom timing becomes… critical.
In a reel of four you have to make three passes in four bars or 6 passes in 8 bars. Now where have we heard that before? Anyone?
Right you are – in grand chains. The timing of the end couples in a reel of four is EXACTLY the same: 1, 1, 2: Pass dancer by the right [1], next dancer by the left [1] and the next dancer by the right - slowly [2 steps]. You are in the opposite place from where you began, 1/2 way through the reel. Middle people simply start in the middle of the phrase (as it were). Take two to dance out to the END - no further - come in on 3 and pass on 4. In other words 2,1,1.
From the manual:
- 1st and 4th women pass by the left while 2nd and 3rd women continue to dance to the right, round the loop, to finish 2nd woman facing down and 3rd woman facing up.
The words that cause all the problems and misinterpretations:
- continue to dance to the right, round the loop, to finish … facing down and … facing up.
So Around the end we go and back into the middle of the reel - early. And confusing the dancers who are expecting to meet only one person, not two, in the middle.
(If asked I will diagram this out.)
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