Playing For Dances

[Roger Hare]

7 hours ago, SteveS said:

There is no caller usually at Scottish ceilidhs, so that relieves the band of asking which tunes will fit.  Dancers are expected to know the dances, and by and large, they do, or can pick them up in real-time.

I'm pretty sure that it is (or used to be) the case that 'Country Dancing' was one of the options available in the Physical Education syllabus in some Scottish schools, so, folks used to take that option, and knew the dances. As a Sassenach who hadn't had this opportunity, I was completely stuffed. Even though I 'knew' quite a few of the dances, I 'needed' a caller to give the 'prompts'...

 

When we (occasionally) get the audience up to join in a social dance at the end of one of our Morris dance-outs, we restrict ourselves to Circassian Circle (and occasionally Abram), and make sure that the dancers are heavily salted with our own dancers...

Edited September 3, 2023 by lachenal74693

[Anglo-Irishman]

1 hour ago, lachenal74693 said:

I'm pretty sure that it is (or used to be) the case that 'Country Dancing' was one of the options available in the Physical Education syllabus in some Scottish schools

Yes, this was true of my primary school in the Highlands back in the 1950s. The only dance I can remember is "Strip the Willow," but some of my classmates were into country dancing in a big way, and one of them even devised a dance in honour of our former teacher when we had a class reunion 40 years after.

Cheers,

John

[Kathryn Wheeler]

3 hours ago, lachenal74693 said:

I'm pretty sure that it is (or used to be) the case that 'Country Dancing' was one of the options available in the Physical Education syllabus in some Scottish schools, so, folks used to take that option, and knew the dances. As a Sassenach who hadn't had this opportunity, I was completely stuffed. Even though I 'knew' quite a few of the dances, I 'needed' a caller to give the 'prompts'...

 

When we (occasionally) get the audience up to join in a social dance at the end of one of our Morris dance-outs, we restrict ourselves to Circassian Circle (and occasionally Abram), and make sure that the dancers are heavily salted with our own dancers...

My mum used to teach primary age school children country dancing during lesson time and this was in England in the 70s-90s. And it wasn’t just her school - they’d meet up periodically with other schools to have an afternoon of dancing.

 

Whilst out and about watching or doing dancing (border Morris) I’ve heard some lovely wistful comments from people who had done this as children in school including some very burly lads to their mates, which is great!

 

I didn’t have this in our school though and I was in primary in this period, so maybe it wasn’t all schools! It wasn’t until I went to uni that I came across dancing societies (I don’t remember country dancing or Morris in Cambridge then but maybe it existed - but did remember going to some Scottish ceilidh dancing. Some people there were terribly serious about it and probably did all sorts of more serious Scottish dancing.  I gave up because there’d always be some dreaded dancers you’d see coming who’d outdo each other in how hard they could whirl you round or grab your hand. Ugh!! 😆 

Edited September 3, 2023 by Kathryn Wheeler

[Jim Besser]

4 hours ago, Kathryn Wheeler said:

but did remember going to some Scottish ceilidh dancing. Some people there were terribly serious about it and probably did all sorts of more serious Scottish dancing.  I gave up because there’d always be some dreaded dancers you’d see coming who’d outdo each other in how hard they could whirl you round or grab your hand. Ugh!! 😆 

 

That's a big problem in contra dancing around here.  I know several dancers who've been injured by partners flinging them around.  in our local venue, they post notices warning against abusive dancing, but they are too often ignored.  From the stage, I've actually witnessed a dancer being taken out on a stretcher.

[Roger Hare]

9 hours ago, Anglo-Irishman said:

Yes, this was true of my primary school in the Highlands back in the 1950s....

I was thinking more of secondary schools, but now I think about it, in 'infant' school in England (also in the 1950s), we had something called 'Music and Movement' where we all jigged about (more or less) in time to the music played on a BBC Schools broadcast. It was not 'structured' in the sense that we were formally taught the steps to specific dances. Maybe it would have been good if it had been...

 

3 hours ago, Jim Besser said:

That's a big problem in contra dancing around here.  I know several dancers who've been injured by partners flinging them around...

Yes, I've been severely 'mis-handled' by enthusiastic lady dancers on more than one occasion 'North of the border'. Great fun though if you manage to emerge as 'walking wounded'...😊

Edited September 4, 2023 by lachenal74693

[wunks]

Everyone "swings" differently.  It's ok to let 'er rip with a willing (and capable ) partner if you keep your wings in.  Some give back no weight at all.  Gage your partner as you join up and keep your center of effort in one spot to avoid trouble!

[SteveS]

14 hours ago, Jim Besser said:

 

That's a big problem in contra dancing around here.  I know several dancers who've been injured by partners flinging them around.  in our local venue, they post notices warning against abusive dancing, but they are too often ignored.  From the stage, I've actually witnessed a dancer being taken out on a stretcher.

At a ceilidh I once witnessed a potentially serious accident between a high-heeled shoe and a sporran.

[Clive Thorne]

We were playing at a ceilidh (Melodeon) where the bride's mother took a tumble and was taken away in an ambulance (broken hip).

[Leah Velleman]

I guess that's what playing the melodeon leads to

[Clive Thorne]

On 9/4/2023 at 8:47 PM, Leah Velleman said:

I guess that's what playing the melodeon leads to

Yes, definitely "The Dark Side"!

[Gary Chapin]

I don't play for dances often, but when I do it's French or Breton music. I wrote a poem about playing for dancers.

 

https://medium.com/scrittura/form-of-a-dance-19ebe439de95?sk=564d3e205e38ebd7639e4cc2a1c272e7

 

Cheers

[Robin Madge]

I play for a U3A dance group twice a month. We have had one faller in the last four years that caused a dance to stop but mostly they want to dance slower anyway. We are now trying to speed them up a bit as it is supposed to be exercise!

 

Robin

[David Barnert]

14 hours ago, Gary Chapin said:

I wrote a poem about playing for dancers.

And I wrote a set of rules about playing for Morris Dancers:

 

Quote

Barnert's Laws of Morris Musicianship:

 

1) If the dancers are comfortable, the musician is cold.

 

2) The dancers will tell you what to do.

 

3) If it sounds lyrical, you're playing it wrong.

 

4) Keep the dancers in the air until you are ready to play your next downbeat.

 

5) The morris musician should be able to transpose printed music on the fly from any key into the key of G major.

 

6) Try to keep your fingers clean at pub stops.

 

7) If you're playing the pipe & tabor and the dancers insist upon dropping their hats at your feet, you might or you might not allow drool to fall from your instrument onto them. Either choice should be deliberate.

 

😎 It is rarely in the best interest of the dance to have more than one musician playing at a time. (Corollary: U-No-Hoo counts as three.)

 

9) Don't play it the way it's written.

 

10) Don't play it the same way twice for the same audience.

 

11) If any dancer forgets their bells or baldricks, the musician is wearing the spare.

 

[Richard Mellish]

I had clear priorities when playing for morris.

Top priority: play loud enough to be heard above the sound of the dancers' clogs and sticks and general street noise. (Rationale: if they can't hear you, you might as well not be playing at all.)

Middle priority: keep the rhythm.

Bottom priority: play the right notes.

 

[Clive Thorne]

1 hour ago, Richard Mellish said:

Bottom priority: play the right notes.

 

But not necessarily in the right order?

[AndyNT]

1 hour ago, Richard Mellish said:

I had clear priorities when playing for morris.

Top priority: play loud enough to be heard above the sound of the dancers' clogs and sticks and general street noise. (Rationale: if they can't hear you, you might as well not be playing at all.)

Middle priority: keep the rhythm.

Bottom priority: play the right notes.

 

As a morris dancer and musician, I would definitely swap around the top two. Rhythm is the pulse of the dance, and must come first.

 

Playing loud, but not in the right rhythm can/will cause havoc!

[Clive Thorne]

16 hours ago, AndyNT said:

As a morris dancer and musician, I would definitely swap around the top two. Rhythm is the pulse of the dance, and must come first.

 

Playing loud, but not in the right rhythm can/will cause havoc!

Ah, but playing the correct rythm but being heard will cause similar chaos. Perhaps they both should be first equal.