The Poking Reel

I'm going to give this whole blogging thing another go. If I have enough time to waste on watching online television, I should have enough time to publish a blog post a bit more frequently than three times a year. I am going to start with a boring dancing post, though...

Last Thursday was the New Scotland AGM, at which XO finished his second term as New Scotland president. To commemorate, SÖ had organised me to write a dance, and SF to write a tune. I wrote a reel (The Poking Reel) but the music turned out to be a jig (The Poking Jig). Doesn't matter for the dance, and we kept the name because in XO's world, things don't always have to make sense.

The Poking Reel (J 8x32)
1-8: 1C cross down to start a Reel of 3 on opposite sides (2C out and up, 3C in and up). When 1C reach the bottom, they cross back to continue the Reel of 3 on their own sides (i.e. Inveran reels). Finish with 2C in 1st place and 1C facing 1st corners.
9-16: 1C turn 1st corners RH, pass each other RS, turn 2nd corners RH to 2nd place on opposite sides. All set.
17-24: All advance and retire (4 bars). 1C turn RH 1 1/2 to own sides.
25-32: All dance circle, pivot and chase.

X:1
T:The Poking Jig
C:S. Ferguson
L:1/8
M:6/8
K:Dmaj
|: A | ddd ABc | ddd fed | efe Bcd | cec A2A |
ddd ABc | ddd fed | eee ABc | dAF D2 :|
|: f/2g/2 | a2f dfa | gbg e2g | fed Bcd | cec A2A |
ddd ABc | ddd fed | eee ABc | dAF D2 :|

The dance was presented to XO on a fluorescent orange hoodie. Because the whole iron-on printing thing didn't work, SÖ had to write it all out by hand, including 32 bars of sheet music!

Dan(c)e

After trying his luck in Edinburgh for about a year — can't quite remember when he randomly turned up out of the blue — HSC will be moving back to Denmark tomorrow. Apparently there's many jobs for him there, and he has an interview in Copenhagen next week. With a bit of luck, and I'll know about that in two to three weeks, I might be joining him there in a little under a year's time, but until then, it's goodbye to the little drunken Dane.

Trip to Aalborg (R 8x32)

1-8 1C cross down RH to 2nd place on the wrong sides, set, and turn RH 1 1/4 times to end 1M between the 3s facing 3M, and 1L between the 2s facing 2L.
9-16 Reels of 3 across the dance; 1C end these in 2nd place on the wrong sides.
17-24 Meanwhile. 1C set, turn RH 3/4 (putting 1M at the top of the set, 1L at the bottom), set, and petronella home to 2nd place. This last petronella is more like a dodge, as supporting couples do: cross RH, set, change places on the side RH, cross LH — ending in the order 312, all on the correct side.
25-32 All circle 6H round and back.

This dance is confusing because (a) it's a 312 progression, which I never do on purpose but most of the dances I write end up with one anyway, and (b) the meanwhile bit is not J.B. Milne. Also, I might not get to dance it tonight. Grump.

Boredom alleviated

Troublesome Threesomes (S 3x40)
To alleviate Emma's boredom in India.

1-8 1C set, then cast to face 1st corners. Set to 1st corners, turn them RH to face 2nd corners.
9-16 Set to 2nd corners, turn them LH to end in lines across the dance. Set and link for three to end 2-1-3 on opposite sides.
17-24 All dance 6-bar reels of three on the sides, 1C dancing in and to their right to start. End with 1C turning RH to face 4th corner positions (these are 1st corner people).
25-32 Set to corners, turn them LH to end in lines across the dance. Set and link for three to end 2-1-3 on own sides.
33-40 1C dance half figures of 8 around 2nd corners, cross RH and cast one place out their own sides to end 2-3-1.


St Catherine of Siena (S 8x32)
To alleviate my own boredom on a Saturday afternoon.

1-8 1C cross RH, cast two places (2C, 3C step up), cross LH, cast up one place (3C step down).
9-16 1L with 3C (down), 1M with 2C (up), dance reels of 3 across the dance. End in 2nd place on own sides.
17-24 Dance eight bars of rights and lefts for three couples: all cross RH, then change places LH on the sides or on the 2nd corner diagonal, all cross RH, then change places LH on the sides or on the 2nd diagonal.
25-32 Set, then circle 6H to the left only (two-thirds round) back to own sides in the order 2-1-3.

SUSCDF 2007

This Saturday was SUSCDF, conveniently in Edinburgh. I had been part looking forward to it – as I do to most dances on the university programme, because that means seeing all those nice people that you don't get too see very often – and part dreading it. The dread was because of the dem, which I have previously said shall not be mentioned. Much.

The dem went better than expected, and probably as well as could optimistically be expected given the choreography and the music we were supposed to do it to. Glasgow had a traditional-type dem like we normally do, Celtic did the same Variations on a Theme-type dem that they always do, and Aberdeen have now managed to get seven couples in a Schiehallion reel, with eight planned for SUSCDF 2008.

Dance-wise, I don't think I've done as many dances off a programme as I did this Saturday for a long time. I only missed the two on either side of our dem, and I sat out Purple Heather Jig, as I do not understand, comprehend, grasp nor get any colour of Heather Jig. I think we raised some eyebrows when Johann asked me to waltz with him. Apparently he's wanting to improve his waltzing as a lady. (Scary images of Little Britain happening now.) I also danced with Bobby until he managed to rip a scab off his hand and started bleeding like a pig,* so I replaced him with Andy.** And I danced with Zsofia, Anna, Jen, Heather, Liz, Jenni, Holly, Jessie, Kirsty F.,*** Fran, Kirsty F.,**** Cara, Sarah, Jenni, Erika (those five in Caddam Wood, so they don't really count), Rosie, Kirsty F. again,***** and Emma.

* In Dutch you bleed like an ox, which sounds less pejorative, if only marginally so.
** What are Celtic doing right that we aren't?
*** Originally Edinburgh, now St Andrews.
**** Originally Newcastle, now Aberdeen.
***** As ****.******
****** Not the best system, these asterisks. I may have to look into using superscript, or be all old-fashioned about it. From Robert Bringhurst's Elements of Typographic Style: "For footnotes, symbols can be used if the notes are few. (The traditional order is * † ‡  || ¶. But beyond the asterisk, dagger and double dagger, this order is not familiar to most readers, and never was.) Numbers are more transparent, and their order is much less easy to confuse." Good to know Bringhurst doesn't trust all readers not to confuse the order of numbers...

The after dance party was slightly hard work. As soon as I got there I decided that it had probably been a bad plan to go, but then inertia took over and I didn't leave until quite a while later, and I was home and in bed by 3am.

Dancing

The Dunedin night that Jen and I ran together was a big success. The dances were quite manic but most people appeared to cope. Afterwards we got lots of thanks and compliments for a good programme, which was nice. The best was this old frail-looking woman who first asked me where my accent is from, and then said the programme was very nice, and that she'd also said this to 'the Jen girl'.

I don't know where my accent is from. I know where I am from, but my accent is a mutt. I have been playing with the idea of having Warren record me and put my realizations in the NeighborNet programme, to see what I come out closest to, but transcribing 110 words is a lot of work and it's not really benefiting anyone, so thus far I have been reluctant to ask.

I have now also been social convenor for New Scotland for about a month. It's quite good fun to puzzle the programmes together, and to make sure that it's not too repetitive, too difficult or too boring, to make sure that the most important dances from the most important upcoming dance programmes are covered, etc. Finding callers is maybe a bit more of a challenge, but I try to cover a couple of weeks at a time in an e-mail and I also wave the social programme around on Thursday nights and press people into calling.

This Saturday is SUSCDF. It's going to be in Edinburgh, which is conveniently close. I'm sure it's going to be a ball.

There is also a dem. We shall not talk about that. People might not survive.