I've been trying to rename it to "Angry Bird", but I haven't got much
buy-in yet.


On Sat, Jun 1, 2013 at 12:55 PM, Jonathan Sivier <[email protected]>wrote:

> On 6/1/2013 11:10 AM, James Saxe wrote:
>
>> Can any of you pinpoint who introduced term "Mad Robin" with
>> it's current contra dance meaning, or when, or what dance they
>> were describing?
>>
>
>    The name, and figure, almost certainly come from the English country
> dance Mad Robin (Playford 1687) as reconstructed by Cecil Sharp in 1922.
>  In this dance the 1's do the figure of dancing around their neighbor,
> usually while maintaining eye contact with their partner, and then the 2's
> do it.  In the figure as it has been imported into contra modern contra
> dances it is usually done with everyone moving at once.
>
>    An idea for a workshop.  Do a variety of older dances, ECD and early
> American, with various figures now considered to be standard in contra and
> square dance as well as modern dances with those figures. Possibilities
> would be Hunsdon House (1665) with a grand square and Mad Robin as well as
> any one of several different dances from the 1600's and 1700's with heys
> and contra corner type figures.  I think I will propose this as a possible
> workshop for our local dance group, though it will have to be in the fall
> since our summer schedule is already set.
>
> Jonathan
> -----
> Jonathan Sivier
> Caller of Contra, English and Early American Dances
> jsivier AT illinois DOT edu
> Dance Page: 
> http://www.sivier.me/dance_**leader.html<http://www.sivier.me/dance_leader.html>
> -----
> Q: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
> A: It depends on what dance you call!
>
>
> ______________________________**_________________
> Callers mailing list
> [email protected]
> http://www.sharedweight.net/**mailman/listinfo/callers<http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers>
>

Reply via email to