Rants about style

I have been a backing dancer for a couple of members of Blowzabella when they demoed a new rant tune at the Halsway Bagpipe and Gurdy Weekend, and have been complimented (at least that is how I choose to interpret it) on YouTube on my 'villainous taste in socks'. This is not a page about that sort of rant.

One reason I am not particularly keen to take the RSCDS teaching certificate is that there are a few points where their policies about the Correct Way to Do Things are, in my opinion, demonstrably wrong, and I am not keen to teach any class I run these sub-optimal ways of doing things.

Quicktime Poussette

I think that having the men begin the poussette on the left foot is imprudent - it makes it harder to dance and less elegant. Poussettes are rotationally symmetrical. If a foot change were necessary to make the figure work, it would be 1M&2L (as in the Diamond Poussette) or 1L&2M doing it. I have never had a problem with stepping on my partner or being stepped on due to moving forward/back with diagonally opposite rather than mirrored feet. In fact sticking our feet out to fourth intermediate on the jeté, we are more likely to collide if we're mirroring. But the main reason why it's a bad idea is that on bar 2 for 2M and bar 4 for 1M, you are springing to your left. If you try doing this with a RF Pas de Basque, either you will not do a proper PdB, or you will be attempting to spring onto your RF by pointing it through where your left leg is. Ouch!

Strathspey Poussette

The original version of the Diamond Poussette, as in New Park, had both couples stepping in to the centre line on the first step, and turning 1/8 ready to go out diagonally. The four points where the couples are turning make a diamond. The current standard Strathspey Poussette has 1L and 2M taking a big step across to meet their partners, who take a small LF step in, to make a line on the 1st diagonal.

b2: line is on 1st diagonal

After 4 bars, you re-form this line on the 1st diagonal. But coming in diagonally from the sidelines on bar 3, couples aim for the centre line, before turning on bar 4 and drifting into the line.

b3-4: rush to the centre line

I think they should be aiming for the 2nd diagonal, so the figure is symmetrical. This does mean you need to drift twice as far on the quick turn (maybe half the width of the set), but it does make the shape of the figure look much more intentional.

b3-4 improved: line formed on 2nd diagonal

Ladies' and Men's Chains

You begin and end the figure on your spots on the floor as well as being at possibly a different one of the spots after 4 bars, making a square/rectangle between 1st and 2nd places, that much is clear. But I think the leading people (i.e. ladies in a LCh) should be turning about 3/4, so the turns with your opposite person remain centred on '1.5th place', rather than trying to cross diagonally and, at best, having the turns drift from diagonal to 1.5th place. At worst, if they cross diagonally to each other's spots, they will crash straight into the supporting people who have danced up or down into those places.

Covering in reels

I feel strongly that covering is a RESULT of correct phrasing - provided you are making your part of the figure the same size as the others, being 1/3 of the way through the track after 1/3 of the time will ensure that you line up properly with your opposite person. It feels really unsociable if the person you are trying to dance a reel with never looks at you because they have their eyes fixed on their partner across the set!

In anti-parallel reels of three, the leading couple are clearly covering with each other, in the sense that you could draw a line between them and the midpoint of that line will be the centre point of the set. But for the supporting couples, the person they should draw this imaginary line with is their diagonally opposite person. If they try to keep level with their partner, who is doing a DIFFERENT part of the reel (i.e. if I'm a first corner and the 1s pass me LSh to start, I am the front person of the reel and have to move quickly to get into the reel, whereas my partner is a second corner and is the back person of the reel and has quite a slow start), you end up with four people trying to be in the middle of the reel all at once… Whereas if you make the phrasing even (as in Hugh Foss's article The Reel of Three Perplexes Me in the booklet Roll Back the Carpet / We Agree to Differ), the point at which you are level with the other supporting person in your reel is some way onto one of the lobes of the reel (and therefore your partner is level with their other person, on the lobe diagonally opposite you - see https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/reel-of-three.html), when the 1s are just coming round the furthest part of the other lobe. The 'centre of mass' of the dancers in your reel is stationary - http://www.covastro.org.uk/mira/mira-issue-68 shows that this is an orbit three bodies could take in space! This is a bit different from what you would do in a dance, as the bodies move slowly at the ends and quickly in the middle of the 8.

You can get an idea of how the even phrasing of a reel looks if you make a ring out of string with three equally-spaced knots and lay it in a figure of eight. If you are able to hold it steady, you can pull one knot along and the others will trace out their parts. You will also notice that the three knots never actually make a straight line along the axis of the reel - in order to get from the sidelines into the reel, some people will need to start moving quickly in order to catch up with their knot, and some will need to start slowly, so their knot can catch up with them (and the opposite at the end of the phrase). Which is what you find in reality.

It feels like even more adjustment (because you have to alter the track in the middle as well as at the ends of the phrase - it's the same amount of fudged as doing half a reel and stopping) is required in the last phrase of Mr Iain Stuart Robertson - the 1s can phrase their two half reel quite evenly, but the supporting couples will have a hiccup in the middle, where 2M and 3L need to slow down, while 2L and 3M speed up. This is because doing a complete reel, after half way though the leading people are heading towards the opposite end of the reel (and the next pass is with the person they passed first), whereas in MISR, the 1s effectively do the first half of the reel twice, heading to top gentleman's and bottom lady's place both times (and their next pass is with the person their partner just passed, rather than the other supporting person, who's just been looping round).

Reels of Four

The more I read of Reuben Freemantle's SCD Dictionary, the more it seems that he shares my heretical opinions (LF start in QT poussette being silly, diagonal covering in reels) : ). His diagram of the Reel of Four clears up a niggle I've had - my normal mantra for the reel of four is right-on-the-end, left-in-the-middle-or-turn. If I'm 'dancing' it with coins, the people coming to the ends of the reel don't need to move, but can stay on the spot (as I believe they are meant to, as far as possible, in the Highland dance the Foursome Reel - IIRC you're meant to keep the loops of the reel as flat as possible, having your body sideways on) while I make the middles pass left. I have wondered whether the ends are meant to line up on the axis of the reel on their first step or their second. Obviously, in retrospect, they pass through that end point half-way through the middles' LSh pass.

As with the reel of three, the four dancers never all line up on the axis of the figure, except at the very beginning and end, when they come off their spots on the track ready for the next figure.

It's also clear from this series of diagrams why some contra callers prefer to teach Ladies' Chains before reels of 4 - the track is pretty much the same as the leading role's track in a chain, but people are taking your hand and guiding you. The standard contra entry to a reel from the sidelines has the ladies passing RSh in the middle while the gents loop LSh round the outside. The diagrams show the standard SCD reel, which is RSh on the end, LSh in the middle, so is the gents' track in a Men's Chain, but you can still see how it starts from the four corners of the box - start at part C with the two gents facing in, ready to change LH / pass LSh.

3C dances in 5C sets - 4s slip to the bottom

I should never have cause to resent someone joining a set, so I am unwilling to join as 5th couple in a set if I don't think the MC will give us 10x through the music (which might be better as 2+8x rather than 8+2x - that way you can make use of the final chord rather than leaving the dance hanging when you cut the recording off). But if we are only going to do 8x through, the 4s should drop to the bottom of the set after their leading time rather than sticking in 2nd place. Even though it feels like the 4s should be included, because they've given up their second leading turn to the 5s, it's actually the 2s who suffer, only getting three shots at dancing from any place. Jere7my has done the math[s] on this: http://jere7my.livejournal.com/350913.html

Alternatively, the 1s and 2s slip to the bottom after one time through. This gets the unusual progression out of the way while people still have it fresh in their minds rather than later on when they have forgotten and are dancing on autopilot.

2C dances in 4C sets - 3s should start

Official practice has only the 1s starting, while the 3s and 4s stand around getting bored. This means that the 1s and 2s get three goes at leading and three goes at supporting, but the 3s miss out on a supporting time through, and the 4s on a leading time. This is not fair and not in the egalitarian spirit of SCD.

I think this comes from the tradition of only the 1s starting several hundred years ago. But this was because 1st lady decided what the figures would be, and was teaching them to her minor set as she went along. As they went down the set, they would get more and more couples involved (and your time waiting at the bottom was a rare opportunity to talk to your partner with no chaperone!). Once the 1s worked their way back to the top, they would drop out and the dance would peter out until only the last few couples were dancing. You could achieve the same thing in SCD's 4C sets by having the music run 9x rather than 8x.

But these days we know what figures the dance will involve, so clearly the 3s could start too, so everyone gets the same amount of fun.

When I am at a dance and end up in 3rd or 4th place, I make sure to ask the other couple if they intend to start. The disadvantage is that then they don't get a time through where they can watch, like they would in 4th place in a 3C (4C set) dance.

Splitting couples

The only time it is acceptable to insist that a couple split up is if they are beginners and will only be able to cope with a dance if they are paired with someone experienced.

If all the ladies have got up and there are men sitting out when sets are being formed for a dance, I suppose it's OK to ask whether a female couple would be willing to split and dance with two men, but an acceptable (and, I would think, default) answer is "No" - they've chosen to dance together - why should they not do so just because you were slow in finding a partner? And it's certainly not acceptable to split up a male couple who were happy to dance together.

Men not being willing to dance together seems especially silly in SCD where i) so many figures involve taking hands with your same-role neighbour anyway (lines of 3 advance and retire, R&L when both couples are proper), ii) the standard swing hold is symmetrical and not very close - right elbows plus joined LH - and the swing is not used to make the progression happen (which is often the case in contra), and iii) there are very few figures where the gents and ladies do anything different.