Elizabeth Gilmore <[email protected]> Dec 19 09:00AM -0800
Elizabeth. If I understand correctly.. you posted this video to show people not dancing traditional.....[but of course, similar 16th cent is traditional in France! I think the style you call trad is straight line dancing with arms by the side. This unnatural style was imposed by the church to prevent people touching, for to do so implied a sexual relationship , which was sinful. Ring dances such as shown in your video have been around in Euro countries from the Middle Ages and no doubt beyond. There are handkerchief ring dances (carols when sung to religious words) where the couple must jointly hold a handkerchief between them until they are married, for to touch would imply instant engagement - or worse!. It strikes me as strange that the natural joy & abandonment you illustrate is against God. I prefer the religious culture around the Kama Sutra where people take their pleasures in God's name - a pleasure which brings a peace 'which passeth all understanding.' Men should think on this when they turn violent. In Scotland 100 years ago the fiddle was called 'a wee sinful thing' because it was used for dancing, but a cello was acceptable! (Verbatim) As ring dances are natural and ancient we should perhaps call them 'traditional' which would certainly be confusing. But dance, like language, undergoes constant change. I think you should accept both types of dance, but ring dancing in its various forms will always be more popular because it is such fun - a bit rumbustious perhaps, but fun for all that. Village dances were in the past controlled by the elders, who allowed the more energetic dances bit by bit as the evening wore on. The young were never allowed to get out of hand. The ends of Fr dances was often signalled by playing g e f d slowly a few times , thus bringing a controlled & quiet ending. ] Michael I recently talked with a friend who went to Ireland... he is an accomplished fiddler and was looking forward to finding a session to join while there... What he said he discovered was that in Ireland there are different forms of sessions... When he asked a local where the music was the local said" which do you want? "trad" or one of the other s (I forgot what he called the others) ... [Modern?] So any of you that have gone to Ireland.. did you find this true? If so... the same thing is going on there as is here .... I enjoy and want to promote tradition... but part of me really enjoys the fact that there is this music that gets people up and dancing in groups WITH each other. In France there are many dances which do this (inc 16th cent) In this video... even though it is perhaps is not 'traditional'... look how much fun they are having and how many people are involved. The music for this need not be elaborate and may be only one tune constantly repeated on a small whistle pipe. (E & C Europe) I have also noticed that the younger generation tends to want to do the more energetic dancing and will inject that energy into the dance anyway....I remember doing that myself when I was younger. AS far as dancing traditional.. maybe no one has actually taught these people what the tradtion is... and maybe they think they are dancing as everyone else does.. So keep them both going, but distinct. The 1st part of the evening cd be Trad & ending with 'modern' <http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy/t/5fa63b0b406aaed> Digest for [email protected] - 8 Messages in 2 Topics "michael" <[email protected]> Dec 19 12:57PM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "hurdygurdy" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/hurdygurdy The rules of posting, courtesy, and other list information may be found at http://hurdygurdy.com/mailinglist/index.htm. To reduce spam, posts from new subscribers are held pending approval by the webmaster.
