Dance Cribs by Eric Ferguson
Eric has graciously made available his collection of more than 1.500
cribs for use in the DanceData web frontend, and while these have been
available for some time to logged-in members of the
my.strathspey site, they are now part of
the standard data set shown for each dance (that has a crib, anyway).
In dance lists, there is a little icon (imgi=???) which
indicates that there is a crib available for that dance.
Our only condition is that you tell us about any place where a
description has errors, is unclear, ambiguous or incomplete. Eric and
I (Anselm) will do our best to improve the cribs, but errors still
subsist. We will be most grateful if you can help us get rid of
them. (In effect, Eric worries about the content and I about the
presentation, so if there are any misformattings on the web pages I
get to sort them out, while it is Eric’s job to take care of the
actual cribs themselves.) There is a button near each crib which will
help you to prepare a correction, which I shall vet and forward to
Eric as required.
Here’s some more of Eric’s prose concerning his crib collection:
Copyright
These cribs/cues are intended for “fair use”. In some countries this
may nevertheless infringe copyright. Any crib will be immediately
removed on request of the copyright holder.
About These Cribs
I (Eric) aim to make these cribs “Correct”, “Complete”, “Clear” and
“Concise”, so that one can dance correctly from the crib alone. For
teaching please use the original descriptions with all supplementary
information (RSCDS Manual, TACnotes, discussions on the “Strathspey
List”, etc).
You may use these cribs as you wish, but I feel strongly that for a
dance, just as for all works of art, it is disrespectful to omit the
name of the deviser, even on a crib sheet.
Abbreviations
Some abbreviations that are not immediately evident have been
highlighted in bold below. Abbreviations may change between
versions. I welcome suggestions for improving the system of
abbreviations.
- ½
- Half
- 1- (etc)
- Bar numbering. If no second bar number is shown, it is an
8-bar section
- |
- separates 2-bar sections (but many older cribs still use a “,”)
- ;
- separates 4-bar sections.
- [bar n] or [n]
- number of the bar (instant of time)
- {n bars} or {n}
- duration = that number of bars
- 1C, 2C, 3C, 4C, 5C, …
- 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th , 5th … couples
- 1M, 2W
- 1st man, 2nd lady/woman, (As the RSCDS uses Woman,
we use W; L always means Left).
- 1M(1W) instruction down(up)
- shorthand for 1M instruction down while 1W
instruction up (used for “meanwhile” figures)
- 1pl, 2pl, …
- 1st, 2nd, … place.
- 1plx, 2plx, …
- 1st, 2nd, … place on opposite side
- 1cnr, 2cnr
- 1st, 2nd, corner “person” or “position” is added when needed.
- 3cnr, 4cnr
- Partner’s 1st, 2nd corner
- All
- All those dancing, not all those in the set
- P
- Partner
- R
- Right
- L
- Left
- RSh, LSh
- right and left shoulders
- clw, cclw
- clockwise, counterclockwise = anticlockwise
- LH, RH, NH, BH
- Left, Right, Nearer and Both Hands
- easy hand, EH
- the evidently most convenient hand
- LHJ, RHJ, NHJ, BHJ
- Left, Right, Nearer and Both Hands Joined
- lead vs dance
- Strictly, “lead” means RHJ, “dance” NHJ. older RSCDS
texts use “lead” for both; the correct formation is sometimes in
doubt. Some cribs still have this ambiguity.
- (2C up)
- 2C step up
- (2,3,4,1) or (to 2,3,4,1) (etc)
- indicates the order of couples
in the set at that point.
- (2x,3x,4,1)
- x indicates couples on opposite sides
- BtoB
- Back to Back as a position
- dance BtoB
- Dance Back to Back (the figure)
- BiL
- Balance in Line (i.e. setting in line; dancers facing alternate ways)
- Circle_n_ (n=3,4,6,8,etc)
- n hands round ; always starts to the left
unless specified otherwise
- A&R
- advance and retire
- Turn CPCP
- turn 1st corner RH, Partner LH, 2nd corner RH, Partner LH
- RHA, LHA
- right hands across, left hands across
- R&L
- Rights and Lefts.
- Diagonal R&L
- (1C change places RH with 1cnr positions, LH on sides, RH with 4cnr positions, LH on sides)
- S&Link
- Set and Link (for two or three)
- H.Schottische
- Highland Schottische (setting step, poussette)
- DTr
- Double Triangles
- DDTr
- Double Double Triangles (in a 5C set, above and below)
- Set “H&G”
- Set to Corners and Partner
- Reel3 (Reel4)
- Reel of three, (of four) (only one reel)
- Reels3 (Reels4)
- Reels of three, (of four) (two or more reels at the
same time) (not yet put into all the cribs)
- Reel3{6}
- 6-bar reel of 3 (only one reel)
- Reels3{6}
- 6-bar reels of 3 (two or more reels at the same time)
(not yet put into all the cribs)
- Fig8
- Figure of eight
- DblFig8
- Double figure of 8
- Gr-Chain
- Grand Chain
- La-Chain
- Ladies’ Chain
- M-Chain
- Men’s Chain
- Teapots
- 4-bar figure: 1M&1W, each with two others, dance Hands Across
(R, L or Mirror)
- PdB
- Pas de Basque
- promhold
- promenade hold
- ## (in brackets in italics)
- added for clarification only
(Comments on the crib or the dance are added when needed as a final line.)
Most cribs are arranged in 8-bar phrases. That makes it much easier to
“see” and remember each 8-bar phrase as a “chunk” of information. The
signs | ; | subdivide the phrase, where necessary, into 2-bar bits.
The sign is used “+” for those dancing a figure together, and “&” or
“and” when two individuals/groups/pairs/dance the same figure
simultaneously (eg: 1C+2C & 3C+4C RHA). Not all cribs follow this
convention yet.