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

[star7fisher at aol.com]

You wanted thoughts pertinent to Lull Me Beyond Thee, right?  Not my opinion about your epithet...or is it epitaph--whichever one doesn't include death...

I agree that before we modify for candle dance purposes, I want to get the "How to dance it as Right as we think" done.  For example, that last chorus when we discussed it should be a cast through other couple and back to place.  

Let's concentrate on getting it down right, much like we've done with Argeers and Road to Lisdoonvarna.

Meanwhile, someone suggested talking to someone about Spanish (or new Spain) type dances to suit theme for Candlemas.  

In November we'll start discussing Candle dance specifically and use the Intermediate hour to finalize styling whatever we choose to the dance.  We've done other dances that we modified for the candle dance so we'll probably modify what we dance to best suite the lighting considerations.  

BTW, I sent Gaston a heads up of the three dances we discussed last time and some links to sheet music of LMBT.  So we may resolve the speed issue when dancing with the musicians.  Meanwhile if we can find or manufacture a faster version, let's pursue that.

Thems my thoughts

Star




-----Original Message-----
From: Tim McDaniel <tmcd at panix.com>
To: bg-dance at ansteorra.org
Sent: Tue, Oct 5, 2010 2:12 pm
Subject: [Bg-dance] "Lull Me Beyond Thee" as a Candle Dance


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 
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