HI Maia,
“Dedication to historical accuracy?”
No, it can’t be that since the current move bears no resemblance
to the historical move!
It always seem strange to me that people who accept that the Petronella has
been changed from the original Petronella in these ways:
- four people active instead of two,
- holding hands instead of alone,
- balancing before instead of after,
that these people can’t accept a further change of adding clapping!
It always make me smile when callers say, “As in the dance Petronella” –
because it really, really isn’t!
https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/video/petronella.html
I love the clapping when it fits – the whole room working
together is wonderful. The best reason I have heard for not doing it in a
sequence like “Petronella then Swing” is that, if you do clap, then you are
saying to the person you are Swinging, “Wait a minute; I would rather clap than
spend more time Swinging with you!”. I would rather Swing!
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England [email protected] 01233 625 362 & 07802 940
574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
From: Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <[email protected]>
Sent: 22 May 2024 16:50
To: Shared Weight Contra Callers <[email protected]>
Subject: [Callers] Cures for the Claps?
tldr: those of you who are anti-Petronella claps (in general, not just in
specific cases where they interrupt flow from the spin into the next move), I
want to understand why!
Clapping on Petronella turns has been the overwhelming norm ever since I
started dancing, but I know that it wasn't always this way, and that some folks
vehemently dislike it. Well recently I've noted the (baffling?? inexplicable??)
rise of clapping after the spin on Rory O'Moore's, which makes my blood boil
(it's so satisfying to catch hands in the new wave out of the spin, why would
you ever NOT do that??), and it's making me think more about Petronella claps.
Clapping on a Rory bugs me so much because it interrupts the momentum of
spin-and-catch-hands. I'll admit that I don't understand the objection to
Petronella claps, at least through that lens. Like certainly, in a specifically
Cure for the Claps-type* dance (with e.g. Petronella spin into allemande left,
Petronella spin into swing, etc.), clapping interrupts the momentum, and it's
way more satisfying to spin directly into the next move. But given a bog
standard "Petronella, Petronella, balance and swing" or similar, I don't feel
like the claps interrupt the momentum or disrupt transitions, and in fact are a
nice fun way to fill space.
To be clear, the above isn't an argument in favor of Petronella claps, just me
explaining where I'm coming from. So now we come to my question:
1. those of you who are anti-Petronella claps, can you explain why? I want to
understand! Is it a satisfying momentum thing that I've just never experienced
because I'm so used to clapping? Dedication to historical accuracy? Something
else entirely?
2. what dance(s) would you use to make your case to a contemporary contra hall,
that aren't explicitly written as Cure for the Claps dances? Petronella spin to
a swing feels great, and of course you shouldn't clap there (although some
folks inexplicably do, sigh)—but if you'd prefer that we didn't clap even in a
dance like Tica Tica Timing, then a CftC dance isn't the whole story. If you
had the infinite good will of a contemporary contra hall, and were able to say
to the dancers "don't clap on the Petronellas in this one and just pay
attention to how nice it feels to X and how satisfying it is to Y", what dance
would you use, what things would you tell the dancers to clue into, etc. to
make your case? (And what would you ask the band for?)
Thanks as always for your expertise!
Cheers,
Maia
* Cure for the Claps contra: a dance that discourages clapping during the
Petronella turn, often by putting moves directly after the Petronella that flow
nicely from a spin. May be intentional or incidental. See e.g.: The Cure for
the Claps
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=10364> (Bob
Isaacs), Becket in the Kitchen
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=17> (Becky
Hill)
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
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