THE RODNEY ROOMS DANCES

BY

Douglas J Dean

Note: This document has been formatted to print with proper page breaks and no navigation bars - but the page numbers haven’t been updated from the original. This note will also be removed, see print preview.

THE BACKGROUND TO THE DEVISING OF THESE DANCES

I started dancing in 1947 when there were 13 (R)SCDS Books plus the Border Book making 180 readily available dances. The average age of Scottish Dancers in the Liverpool Area was about 25. We enjoyed Scottish Dancing because it offered more disciplined, precise dancing than other country

dances and also contrasted fast and slow time. One could also let ones hair down by swinging. Swinging as then danced was an advanced technique, as you must not interfere with other dancers, you must finish precisely at the end of the allotted number of bars, in the correct position and facing the right direction. It was the opportunity to let your hair down, in a disciplined manner that kept the interest and support of the younger dancers, including me. That interest has to a considerable extent now been lost. Ceilidh dancing allows the exhilaration but not the same mental reward that comes from doing something that requires more concentration and expertise.

In Liverpool you had the choice of at least two places to dance each night and at weekends there was always dancing at Youth Hostels. One of the reasons for the popularity of Scottish Dancing was that you could not ballroom dance on the rough floors at the Hostels and dancing round a handbag had not been invented. In Liverpool the area club of the YHA ran Scottish Dancing every Friday Night at Harold House, most Mondays and a big monthly dance at the Rodney Rooms.

At that time there was one down side to Scottish Dancing which was that many of the early dances were boring, also 18 were only 24 bars long and 9 were only 16. To add interest we started to add variations such as having the 2nd couple in Petronella start setting on the wrong foot and then cutting the diamond clockwise round the outside of the 1st couple. We also devised ‘The Square Petronella’ as a joint effort.

The so called traditional Scottish Dancing (i.e. post 1923) had not become rigid and dances were being modified to improve the flow. An example of this is bars 25 to 32 in ‘The New Rigged Ship’ were in the 1st edition of ‘Won’t You Join the Dance’ Auntie Jean gives the modified instructions of ‘cross and cast for 3 twice and use the next two bars to come up the centre’ as opposed to the official instructions of ‘cross and cast for 4 twice’. Some Groups were still dancing the 1930 4 quarter turn Poussette most were doing the new 1932 version and a few were still waltzing round. Auntie Jean was still fishing for the best Strathspey travelling step and each year at the summer school a different version was taught. Mary Gudger (one of ‘Miss Milligan’s Young Ladies’, a teacher at the summer school from the end of the war including the certificate class and finally a society Vice President) used to say “Do what she says while you are here, go home and do what you have always done and if she is still doing the new version when you come back then change.”

It is against this background of continuous improvement to Scottish Dancing both in figures and as Auntie Jean also said in the changes to ‘The New Rigged Ship’ attempting to make the flow of dances more smooth and pleasant that I started teaching in 1951 at the Post Office next to the ‘Liverpool Speaking Clock’ were Derek Haynes started dancing. In spite of having a copy of Audrey (Audrey’s Barbed Wire Dress) Beeston’s ‘Guide for the Teaching of Scottish Country Dancing’ (Which I know Derek had a copy) I felt the need for additional dances to give sequence to my teaching and started to devise dances with that purpose.

When doing my National Service in the Gordons in Malaya I polished up my dances and tried to make the movements flow from figure to figure. On my return I found that McNab had given the world ‘the thinking dancers dances’ and felt there was no need for mine. I soon came down to Reading and started teaching there as well as in Newbury and Aldermaston still using some of my teaching dances. In 1957 I married Marion who was a far better teacher than 1, and that was practically the end of my teaching for 38 years.

When, prior to retirement, I started to sort out my academic papers I found a few of my notes and began to resurrect some of the dances for my own teaching. A recent casual remark by another dance devisor that it was difficult to compose dances which flow from figure to figure made me decide to produce this little booklet as in these dances I have tried to ensure that the end of most figures leaves the dancer facing the correct way for the next.

A couple of the dances do not belong to the early 50s, one I devised overnight for the wedding of my Niece in Canada in 1996 when she asked if I would run some Scottish Dancing in the evening of the wedding. ‘Marjorie’s Strathspey’ was devised when I was asked to run a dance for her birthday. I am not really happy with either and if anyone has any ideas I will be glad of them, especially as Marjorie’s partner has written a rather good tune to go with the dance. Some of the remainder have been modified in the light of more recent figures and ‘The Gravy Train’ has been both a Strathspey and now a Jig with two endings. I also reserve the right to change any of the dances to improve them.

There should be no need to state that hands are given where ever possible as this was how all the early dances where danced and as Jean Milligan always taught, for instance as stated in the Scottish Dance Manual ‘Won’t You Join The Dance? 1st Edition’ Page 67 in a comment at end of the Chapter on Formations, “In all formations it is advisable to give hands freely and wherever possible, as not only is it very helpful, but it adds greatly to the social feeling of the dance. It also helps to maintain the shape of the set and to keep the lines straight.” My emphasis on ‘wherever possible’ but Jean Milligan’s own words.

CONTENTS

Repeat with new top couple.

Repeat from second place.

Repeat having passed a couple.

NOTE: Bars 1 to 16 represents the twists of spiked wire constituting the barbs on the wire. Bars 17 to 24 represent the rope form. Bars 25 to 32 represent small and large loops of the barbed wire.

Repeat having passed a couple.

On the repeat 1st Cpl. finish crossing down with Lt. hands to the bottom.

Repeat having passed a couple.

Repeat having passed a couple.

The dance was devised for the initial teaching of reels of 4 as all except a single odd couple can dance the dance in two couple sets during teaching.

The dance can be danced as a 2 couple dance in sets of 4 but inexperienced dancers can have difficulties separating the adjacent reels of 4 when all dancers are dancing in the 2nd repeat.

Repeat having past a couple.

It is important that the dancing couple only use the 6 bars of bars 17 to 22 dancing the ¾ figure of eight and do not fill the whole of the 8 bars in bars 17 to 24 as they require bars 23 to 24 to do the tight right hand turn with their partner.

Repeat having all progressed one place clockwise

The Dance

Repeat having passed a couple.

The Story

Repeat from having passed a couple.

Repeat having passed a couple.

Repeat having passed a couple. Finish second repeat crossing with Lt hands to bottom place.

The dance is based on a traditional Welsh dance but uses half the number of bars for each movement. The first 8 bars are totally different as it was not reasonable to dance in 8 bars what was danced in 16 bars in the Welsh version, nor was it easy to start the 2nd repeat.