Traditional Dance
Sharon L. Pedersen
>when
>she was a little girl, she liked spinning in circles until she got
>dizzy and fell down. So when she got older, she found Scandinavian
>dance, and naturally fell in love with it.
>In general, it might help everyone if such mismatches were spotted and
>corrected.
R. David Murray (da...@upenn.edu) writes:
>I agree that is silly and impolite to denigrate different dance forms.
Wise words.
He continues:
>I would like to observe that on the whole I prefer dances, of whatever
>extraction, that are phrased well to the music (and vice versa) to ones that
>are not. This is PERSONAL TASTE. It does explain to me, however, why /I/
>find the squares of our local southern-extraction caller less interesting.
I've been reading the "Oh no Petronella" and "Ugh--Chorus Jig" and
"reports of resentment of square dance interpolation" and "Elegant (in
this context) = no swings = avoid" posts. As David says, many of
these things are personal taste. (And I'm quoting him on musical
style which isn't quite dance type, but is connected.) Still, I'd
like to try to share some of the experiences that went into reforming
my opinions of squares and swingless and unequal dances.
The best version of Chorus Jig I ever did was a six couple set
squeezed into the top of a VERY crowded hall at a Christmas dance.
One does get active VERY quickly that way! But what I remember most,
and best, is being inactive, appreciating the other 11 people in their
finery as they successively went down-the-center, and, best of all,
coming up close to my partner as the others went down-the-outside,
taking his hands, looking into his eyes, and jigging slightly in time
to the music.
This was a person who was new to contradancing; I've never seen him
before or since, but I'll never forget, with pleasure, dancing with
him.
At that same series in San Francisco we'd sometimes do squares. Ugh,
I'd think--a square. All that time pointlessly spent circling around
or promenading back home, and then everyone's so inexperienced and we
can't do any hot complicated figures. Wouldn't squares be fun if
everyone knew the figures already? (club squares, here I come...)
Before finding a square dance club though, I went to the Ralph Page
Legacy Weekend, dedicated to traditional dancing. There was a session
of squares. The music was fantastic, Ralph Sweet called wonderfully,
and I discovered what squares are for (for me at least): they're for
enjoying the music, for enjoying dancing, for having moving to the
music even if you're standing still BE dancing, and, for having lots
of time to enjoy your partner while you're enjoying the music and
dancing. (And of course if there's a complex or fast figure, that's
fun too---but not always necessary.)
Again, I don't remember a single swing. I remember my partner,
though, and his smile, and smiling at him as we danced -- bounced --
swayed -- with the music. I saw him a year later at the same
festival, and again, I don't remember a single swing, but I know we
did something together in time to the music, and even when we weren't
partners and weren't dancing, we had fun.
From the same RPLW I remember a delightful Money Musk. The line was a
little too long, and my partner and I never did become active, but it
was a delightfully elegant dance, and just plain delightful as well as
elegant, and my partner was so very graceful that I had fun just
admiring him, and I enjoyed every minute of it. Well, and now I'm
learning to Scottish dance too. Just finding my style, as John would
say.
Petronella I'd never danced at all before moving to Maine, and it has
rocketed to near the top of my all time fave list. There aren't many
things more manically delightful than whizzing down the line, spinning
and balancing and shooting down the center and up and
right-and-left-thruing and then, oh joy, you get to spin and balance
(One Thousand and One, One Thousand and Two, One Thousand and Three,
One Thousand and FOUR, Yes ONE THOUSAND AND FOUR amazingly fun
balances in this dance. Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha! says the Count.) again.
I could multiply the instances I've had of delightful old-time dancing
nearly ad infinitem, where the pleasure was in the music and the
company. Nearly incomprehensible in the modern aesthetic would be
thrilling to a particular dance partner who courtesy turns me -- no
twirls -- every time (honesty forces me to admit that he also swings
wonderfully too), and, most rare and unique and highly prized of
experiences, dancing a triple minor dance in the old style whereby the
top couple starts it, and others start to dance only when the top
couple reaches them.
But of course, we were dancing the whole time, even when standing still.
--Sharon Pedersen Mathematics Department
pede...@polar.bowdoin.edu Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine