Round of sixteen

Mixing my metaphors here, it's tennis season!

We recently tackled the Sixteen Hand Reel at class for the first time. Really enjoyed it. It's actually not a difficult dance at all, it's just the sheer number of people to keep track of. The actual movements are simple enough and the first four movements of the body are just hop 234567 back 23 back 23, lather rinse repeat. No Olive videos on YouTube but this group go through the body after the first figure:



I wish this was an option for competition. It would be a good bridge between ceilis and figure dances as well, getting kids used to moving around 15 other people and staying in line. If there was a 16 hand jig as well then it could be its own competition. Actually, I'd LOVE to make up my own ceili. How do you get them ARF-approved? ;)

Seriously though, I can't be making up ceilis when I've not finished my set dances yet. I've done a fair amount of practising my current sets in my shoes, and apart from turnout and the occasional memory lapse they're not too bad. I just need to remember that actually only one of my jigs starts with bounce treble up swing up - seems like every time I dance any jig I do the opening of my Fiddler step without thinking.

I haven't tackled any written practice in a while but I'm still confident on this so no worries. The worry is only practising once a week in heavies, but genuinely most weeks it's all I can manage. 171 days to go. That's 24 weeks or so. 24 heavy practises will NOT pass me this TCRG exam. Step it up.