Comments Latest Comments
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!
This is a dance for advance dancers, great flirting though! :-)
This is a very good dance and the recorded music (Muriel Johnstone, Keith Smith, and Jim Lindsay) is superb. The dance stays within the traditional forms but there is some subtle play with the elements that makes the dance stand out from the crowd.
On its own merits this dance deserves to be in the standard repertoire - the music takes it to an even higher level.
When I teach the dance and play this music the room becomes quiet, the dancers lose themselves in it and forget to start dancing. Two thumbs up.
This one is different, in a good way. I got some strange looks when I taught it. I learned it to a set of REELS - (Fire in the Rye 6x32 - Music Makars - Jig for Joy). Liked the dance, loved the music. My class also liked the dance loved the music.
I believe it was created by a primary school teacher and her class in Dunbeg, Scotland. So it’s easy to learn.