Shall we dance?

Apparently I'm in a crowdsourcing mood this week:

Can anyone tell me how to phrase 1.5 English Pousette in waltz time in 8 bars? (1.5 in that it is progressive, unlike a full English Pousette which I am given to understand is non-progressive, unlike a Scottish Quicktime Pousette which is progressive. . . ) If it makes a difference, the dance is being done in a circle and the Pousette ends facing the next couple around the circle.

I kept arriving 1.5-2 bars too early and killed time. No one at English could phrase it beyond "you have 8 bars." That was the more helpful advice. The less helpful advice was to not worry about it and have fun. I tend to have fun if I have some idea where I'm going. Otherwise I freeze or trip over my feet. I find that rather less fun.

This is the year I've decided to make some headway in English dance. Last year I attended a few English dances and an introductory English class. This is following years and years of people telling me I could just figure it out because it was like Scottish only walking. Rather than this getting me to walk in the right direction, it generally gets me to freeze in place trying to figure out where everyone else is walking. So after a few failed English-Scottish balls, I put my foot down and said I'd wait until I could actually learn it. There is a local English dance which meets monthly and I've made it most months since moving here. I've finally had someone tell me how to set. I've gotten comfortable with several specific longways dances. I've reached the conclusion that circle dances and mixers may be forever beyond me. (I'd reached that conclusion about Gay Gorden's years ago.)

About a quarter of English dance figures seem pretty much the same as Scottish. Rights and Lefts, for example. About a quarter are about the same but are called something different. I need a translator for my brain, not my feet or body. Hay means reel, so a double crossover mirrorwise hay is no big deal. There are some unique things to English, like a gypsy and siding. But my real bug-a-bear are the things which have the same name but mean something a little different. Or a lot different.

It reminds me of what my French teacher used to call "false friends" (faux amis) Those are words in a language you are learning which sound or look like words in your own language, so you think you know what they mean. And then you discover they don't mean anything like the same thing. For example, the Spanish word "embarazar" has nothing to do with being embarrassed and everything to do with being pregnant. I should say, it has nothing to do with being embarrassed until the English speaker discovers what it really means mid-conversation. Then everyone becomes embarrassed. These dance terms are also proving to be false friends. They say Pousette and it sounds oh so familiar and comforting. Then I see what is going on, and I realize they and I don't mean the same thing with the same word. I've now learned Ladies Chain in Scottish, Square and English. If there's another version, I don't want to hear it!

On the less confused and frustrated side, this is the first chance I've had to do Scottish regulalry since 1998. The class here was described last week as a bit One Room School House, which is different from my core experience dancing on a college campus where the dance semester had a predictable pattern. We have new dancers almost every week. We have demonstration team level dancers every week. We have people in the middle every week. It's really perfect for me, where I am right now, which is needing a place to dance and build stamina and push my own technique so that I can be ready for a true experienced class in a few years. I'm pretty good at drilling my own technique. They do throw in a weekly dance for the experience folk. After a 1995 disaster, I've finally learned The Knot!

One of the few good things about moving every few years (and I'm hard put to find good things in this) is getting to learn new local favorites. I "grew up" with Ian Powrie and De'il Among the Tailors and John McAlpin. The class here is fond of Catch the Wind and this 5 couple set farce called Balgeddie. As we tend to number 5 couples, we do Balgeddie a lot. If we don't have new folks, it's essentially a house dance. It's fun and lively and I almost think I know where I'm going, but if I was to predict that a cautious dancing 10-year old would only know one dance without a briefing, Balgeddie would not be my guess. Yet there it is. I've also become enamored with a dance called Cranberry Tart. Only I would leave Cape Cod for the South and THEN learn a cranberry dance. If you're a Scottish dancer and haven't yet encountered it, I heartily recommend changing that situation. It has TWO reels of three and yet I still like it, which should tell you something. It starts with a meanwhile figure with the woman following her partner by two bars, a bit like a quicktime John McAlpin meanwhile and then ends with the reels.

Tonight I learned the Purple Heather Jig. So now I know two dances based on the White Heather Jig - the Black Leather and the Purple Heather. The Purple Heather is done to the same music as the White Heather, and Purple:White as Rigs of Corn:Corn Rigs. The first and fourth couple turn and cast in, everyone reels, corner partner is done with all 4 couples at once, everyone reels some more and then they cast back out. Apparently the March dance weekend in Atlanta will brief White Heather, start the music and each set to its own which will be danced. Chaos may ensue.

I know chaos often ensues dancing. The experienced bunch got so mixed up tonight that we had a reel of 5 and a reel of 3 and someone asked me mid-circle "who are you?" Someone cast instead of setting and someone forgot to reel and someone forgot who was a Man even though we have unequivocal "MAN" tags worn about the neck. Someone turned their partner's corner. The teacher omitted two bars in the briefing. I screwed up. The whole set screwed up. We had to stop the music and rearrange folks. We learned. We laughed. We had fun. I hope the new folks come back.

I just have more fun when I know what it is I'm aiming to do.