Determined to lift myself out of my downbeat-ness, I decided to go over the troublesome figure. Death by repetition. I've worked out where I was going wrong, and in doing so I've reminded myself that this is actually the ONLY figure I ever have problems with when doing practise exams. Here's why: I forget that the rings go BOTH ways before letting the lady or gent out. Sidestep and threes, sidestep and threes, letting them out on the second lot of threes. Because I was insistent that the figure takes 24 instead of 32 bars to do once, I was trying to get away with letting the "spare" dancer in/out after only one lot of sevens and threes, First Ring/Second Ring style in Haste to the Wedding. No, wrong, bad, slap.
1) Top couple advance. Top gent retires while top lady performs a figure of eight, passing around opposite lady then opposite gent. Both ladies advance to form a ring of three with the top gent. = 8
2) Ring performs sidestep and threes to the right and back - opposite gent does likewise in place. On the last two threes, top couple form an arch and opposite lady passes under to take the original place of top lady, and opposite gent joins the ring. = 8
3) Ring performs sidestep and threes to the left and back - opposite lady does likewise in top couple's places. On the last two threes, top couple again form the arch and let opposite gent under to take the original place of leading gent. = 8
4) All have a swing around back to place. = 8
5) As at 1, with opposite couple advancing and opposite lady performing the figure of eight around lady then gent. = 8
6) As at 2, ring allowing top lady out to position of opposite lady, top gent in. = 8
7) As at 3, allowing top gent out to position of opposite gent. = 8
8) Swiiiiing. = 8
...and you're done. 32 bars to complete once, not 24. Ring goes both ways. I had this mere weeks ago - let's hope everybody turns up next week so I can finally put this one to bed.
No comments:
Post a Comment