Issue 1876: Additional information

Object: Mississippi Dip (Dance)
Submitter: Mark Dancer (Aelfric)
Assigned to: Viktor Lehmann
Priority: Normal
Disposition: Fixed
Description: This is described in the Guide (nee Collins) as a 16 bar dance, and no type is given. It’s described in the Collins Little Book as a 32 bar 4/4 march to a hoedown tune (which is strange, because I believe a hoedown is normally in 2/4 time, but the 2/4 would correspond with the two steps per bar). Each bar in the Guide becomes two bars in the Little Book. It’s described in the CD booklet for the Glencraig SDB’s CD “Ah’m Dancin’! Old Time Dances” as a 32 bar “singalong” reel, with the tunes from American popular songs of the 1920s and 30s.

Each set of instructions is slightly different, mainly in how to do the “dip”, and whether the couples waltz or polka in certain sections (polka makes more sense given the duple time).

I think the dance should be described as a 32 bar unknown, round the room, couples dance, with the rest of the information appended as a note.

Sources: the Guide; the Little Book; and the CD

Previous Actions

Date Nov. 21, 2019, 2:11 p.m.
User Mark Dancer (Aelfric)

New issue submitted

Date Nov. 21, 2019, 3:02 p.m.
User Mark Dancer (Aelfric)

Dance itself is probably best described as a medley of J72+R104+J136+J136+J136+J144

Date Jan. 13, 2023, midnight
User Viktor Lehmann (tone2tone)

Assigned changed to »tone2tone« (previously »None«)
Disposition changed to »Fixed« (previously »New«)

Hi Mark, I find this a bit tricky. If some describe it as March, some as singalong Reel - it seems to depend on the recording and the instruction variation what is made of it. It can’t be both at the same time AND a medley in general. I agree with the 32 bars though; I amended the dance and added notes to explain the difference between the 16 and 32 bar counts. As per the rest, I didn’t add that much information and rather deleted some redundant bits from before. For a ceilidh dance with so many variations, I think it doesn’t make to much sense to go into details. I could not even tell from the recordings if the “American popular songs” thing is valid as a general rule for all these recordings as I for sure do not know enough of those very old standards… Hope that’s fine for you this way, and thanks as always for the detailed info which enables us to update the records as best as we can.