[Bg-dance] "Lull Me Beyond Thee" as a Candle Dance

[Tim McDaniel]

I've done some research on "Lull Me Beyond Thee" (LMBT), alias
"Lulling Beyond Thee" in the Playford 1651 table of contents.  I think
I have a better handle on the issues (though I've not yet looked for a
faster recording).

It was suggested that it might make a good Candle Dance for
Candlemas.  I've thought about it for a bit, and I have a couple of
concerns:

(1) There is a lot of hand-holding in this dance: fall back and
forward in a line, hands around (a circle).  The problem I see is
candles.

A notion mentioned at the last practice was to replace the hands
around with a right-hand star.  Similar changes could be made
elsewhere.

After thinking on it, I'd suggest not making significant changes that
are contrary to Playford while we're learning a dance, because then we
can't dance it at other events or with people who already know it.

If it's a part that's not in Playford: I've already seen major
differences in parts of LMBT that are unclear and have significant
variation, so these could be justified as "well, that's our local
reconstruction".  But, for example, "hands round to your places" is in
Playford.

If it was a question of mutating, for example, Heart's Ease, I'd see
no problem with it, because experienced and inexperienced people here
have some dances down cold (though, contrarywise, we have them so cold
that it might be hard to consistently remember to do a variation).

We might do small variations, like (for example) instead of holding
hands in a line, fist-bump-and-press at waist / torso height, or it's
the responsibility of the person with the free hand to carefully grab
or touch the next person's wrist.

(2) The parts from Playford that are actually clear indicate that
there are turns with no time provided for them.  The problems I see
are (a) the Georgetown site's slick floor and (b) candles perhaps
being blown out in a fast movement.

On the other hand, Le Bens has a couple of zero-time turns (double to
meet your partner, double to trade lanes, the person now outside has
to pivot 180 in at most one beat stolen from the "double to trade
lanes"), and they worked fine.

If we do last time's slow rendition by Country Capers, these problems
are mitigated, but they are replaced by the "I Can't Drive 55" problem
some people adduced after a couple of tries last time.  (Though
dancing English Country slowly might be an interesting exercise in
learning form and style.)

Thoughts?

Danihel "When I dance that slow, you know it's hard to steer
And I can't get my tush out of second gear" Lincolinum
-- 
Tim McDaniel, tmcd at panix.com