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Just danced this at the 2017 Asilomar weekend in California. Great music by Ron Wallace an Hood Wink & Swagger (& Friends). A rollicking good time.

A very interesting strathspey and personal favourite which was on one of my own dance programmes in 2006. 1st and 4th couples should stretch their figures of 8 a bit to make it work out well, but it is really great fun. After the rondels (which are centrosymmetric as well!) 1st and 4th couples face out to start another go.

No birl here that I can see; and it’s Dance Odyssey, not Dancy.

A Reel for Alice is dedicated to Alice Murphy and is contained in a book of Roy Goldring dances also called A Reel for Alice and Other Social Dances.

Roy Goldring notes on the index page “Alice Murphy was a critical helpful tester of my new dances and is (sic) seems appropriate that the last one she checked should bear her name.” I believe that she was also a dance teacher and would test the dances in her classes.

The simultaneous figures of 8 on the sides are great fun. But who was or is Alice?

Exciting dance with lots of involvement. Flows well until the final 8 bars: Advance and Retreat which spoils the momentum built up and the final dancing couple’s turn is also a little disappointing.

…that calls for balance and good technique in the hallo-goodbye setting and good involvement of the three dancing couples. Good tune, too.

Our small group loves this dance. We can adapt it slightly to cater for 3 and 5 couple sets (the odd couple either makes 6-hands across, or just turns alone).

This dance is good to teach to people who believe they’ve seen everything. One fun aspect is that every other three-bar phrase starts on the left foot, which works out reasonably well. Also, the turn-corners-and-partner bit is more relaxed than usual because there are three bars per hand rather than two.

I loved this dance!

Flowing very well!