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Issue 3133: Addition of "Advice for Teachers" in Extra Info section

Object
Niles Roberts' Farewell to Pasadena (Dance)
Submitter
Doug Macdonald (DougMacdonald)
Assigned to
Murrough Landon
Priority
Normal
Disposition
Accepted
Description

I’d like to ask that the following text be added to the “Extra Info” tab for this dance, AFTER the already existing notes there. I’ve already mentioned this to Murrough Landon informally, but I know it’s subject to further review, so please let me know if there are any questions or concerns. I know this isn’t the usual purview for this tab, but it strikes me as a very useful place to house information of this type.

Advice for Teachers - Niles Roberts’ Farewell to Pasadena

The main focus in teaching this dance should be an emphasis on smooth and natural flow between the half-reels which make up bars 9-24 of this dance. The primary rule is that there should be no sharp corners and no sudden changes of direction in these reels. The half reels of bars 9-12 and 17-20 are oriented primarily along the diagonal, while the half reels of bars 13-16 and 21-24 are primarily on the sidelines. So, it requires a little bit of thought and physical effort to make those those half reels flow effortlessly and naturally from one to the next. With that in mind, here is some advice.

  1. At the end of the first and third half reels on the diagonal, first couple should be ready to blend into a half reel on the sidelines, but they should not be in the middle of the sidelines at the end of bar 12. Keep in mind that second corners are starting from a standing start after setting, so first couple should be approaching the sideline, but not yet quite there.

  2. At the end of bars 13-16, first couple should dance as if they’re intending to come shoulder-to-shoulder to re-form the first corner diagonal, but they should not come fully shoulder-to-shoulder. That would require too sharp a turn to go out the sideline in a graceful way. Instead, first couple should BEND their motion toward the sidelines when they’re about a meter away off each other’s starboard bow. I hope that nautical metaphor makes sense.

At the end of bar 24, first couple should end up left-shoulder-to-left-shoulder ready to give left hands for a half-turn. Their left-hand half turn should take two bars, and should be exactly a half turn, ensuring that they don’t interfere with the supporting couples crossing the set. They’ll take four bars to dance out the end of the set and cast left into the sidelines, which synchronizes them with the phrasing of the first couple.

The dance is fairly leisurely-paced, but bars 27-30 may require careful attention to phrasing.

  1. Bars 27-30: First couple has four bars to dance from the middle of the set out the end and cast to the sidelines. They should try to gauge where the sideline is, and be in line with the corners for the final setting.

  2. Bars 29-30: Second corners are changing places on the sideline AND doing a courtesy turn before the final setting. So they particularly may need to lengthen their steps substantially to make that work gracefully.

Previous Actions

  • Date  May 15, 2023, 7:11 a.m.
  • User  Doug Macdonald (DougMacdonald)

New issue submitted

  • Date  May 15, 2023, 11:26 a.m.
  • User  Murrough Landon (murrough)

Assigned changed to “murrough” (previously “None”)
Disposition changed to “Accepted” (previously “New”)

Thanks. I have updated the extra info (pending any comments from other members of the editing team).

  • Date  May 16, 2023, 9:29 a.m.
  • User  Viktor Lehmann (tone2tone)

Hey all, I am a bit torn here. On one hand - being a deviser myself - I understand the wish to explain every little detail to other teachers so as to my dances are danced “nicely”. On the other hand, I always rely on the experience of other teachers on how to teach standard progressions properly. This dance here is a nice and not too complicated dance, easy to enjoy for sure (well done, Doug!). Being a teacher myself, I would honestly say that the notes are not adding anything specific to the things I would aim to teach anyway. Trying to regulate things down to the centimeter is a bit of a stretch and I wouldn’t approach my class in that manner. Saying: as a teacher, I personally would not need the information. As a database editor, I don’t mind having instruction notes in this section of the database, yet, I would suggest to cut it down quite a bit to really critical points where one would expect that an experienced teacher would have to “drift away” from standard transitions/positions which are not to be seen in the description/diagram. Again - me personally - I could live with an even shortened version of the first two sentences: “The main focus in teaching this dance should be an emphasis on smooth and natural flow between the half-reels which make up bars 9-24 of this dance. The primary rule is that there should be no sharp corners and no sudden changes of direction in these reels.” I would then know to teach it in a flowing, not sharp manner, and the rest would fall into place.
How are the other editors feeling about it?

  • Date  May 17, 2023, 12:14 a.m.
  • User  Anselm Lingnau (anselm)

I’m not a huge fan of “teaching notes”. In my opinion anything that is important for the performance of a dance should go into the actual dance description, and anything that is not so important should be left to the common sense and expertise of dancers and teachers. With all due respect and as far as I’m concerned, if you write a dance that can only be done (or taught) properly after studying, on top of the actual description, a ream of “teaching notes” that is as long or longer than the dance description itself, you’re doing something wrong.

Having said that, I’m with Viktor here. I have nothing against “teaching notes” in the database, but generally, the briefer the better.