The Duke Reel

This one's cute. I read the book and watched the DVD on Friday and it's Monday now. Let's see if I can remember:

Rings
Body: Sides - Link Arms - Interlace - Something else.
First Figure: Figure of Eight?
Body
Second Figure: Some sort of chain?
Body
Is there a third figure?
Finish?

Ah, didn't do too well there. I remember exactly how to do the two figures, but I genuinely don't remember if they even HAVE names. Oh dear. Let's check.

Oh! Not that bad then. The correct version is:

Rings
Body: Sides - Link Arms - Interlace - Advance and Retire
First Figure: Figure of Eight
Body
Second Figure: Right and Left Chain
Body
Finish (Swing Around)

Done! Now to remember it...

Humours of Bandon

Easiest body in the world, but why do they have to repeat it so many times?! I can't stand a ceili that repeats the body in between each couple dancing the figures. Why? No need. No, no, no. [I iknow it's because it goes with the music but seriously it's exhausting].

With my rant out of the way, here's the actual dance:

- Lead Round
- Body (Sides, Half Right and Left, Sides, Half Right and Left)
- First Figure - Advance Through Centre
- Body
- Opposites repeat First Figure
- Body
- Second Figure - Centre Meet
- Body
- Opposites repeat Second Figure
- Body
- Third Figure - Ladies Chain
- Body
- Finish - Lead Round

304 bars.

If you ever use the TCRG Exam Website for help, they've added the bars up incorrectly on the dance summary sheet. They forgot about the body repeats, so just be aware.

Anyway, I'm confused about the second figure. The book doesn't specify what the 'free' partners are doing during the sidestep and rise and grind bit. Olive has them doing two threes and the rising step, but is this just an embellishment? I think it looks a little "busy" if I'm honest.

Productive weekend

More progress today with some primary and intermediate steps. I guess for open I'm going to have more luck with a slip jig, so if I need an open reel I'll just substitute a bicycle for a lift. I still don't have any heavy steps to teach - I mean obviously I can teach my own jig, but I have nothing for a hornpipe and nothing for beginner or primary. Not even sure how I'd go about choreographing a beginner jig or hornpipe since somehow I never learned one. Plagiarise the trad sets? Who knows. No negativity - I've done well. Even have a lovely sequence for my Downfall which is verrrrry slowly taking shape in my brain. Not bad.

Beginner reels and jigs

Thought it was about time I started thinking about the solo teaching part of the exam. Save for the steps I'm going to dance myself, I have nothing prepped really. So I stuck Dean in the laptop, uploaded him to iTunes, and now have a full beginner reel, hop jig, light jig and slip jig.

The slip jig is very pretty though I say so myself - this one took way longer as I kept getting distracted and making up open-level steps. Oops.

Then I had a slight wobble, because I realised these aren't just the steps I will call upon in the exam if I'm given beginner dancers. These are the steps I will teach in my classes, to my own dancers. These are the steps my future dancers will compete with, win with, and move up with.

Passing the exam is one thing. Being a real teacher with real dancers is quite another.

Attempting the Gates of Derry...

I was terrified of this because of the Gates and the Telescope, but...dare I say it? It's actually not that hard.



Advance and Retire
The Gates
Rings
The Gates
Rings
Telescope
Right and Left Wheels
Swing Around

Trouble is, this dance gets weird when it comes to the repeats. For the first repeat you don't dance advance and retire and only the two middle couples perform Right and Left Wheels and Swing Around. Then for the second repeat you do dance advance and retire, and all couples perform all movements. Why?

I decided to do this one next as I tried a practice exam that asked for an explanation of the Telescope, and as I'd watched the clip a few times and read/thought through the book once I thought I might as well try.

I nearly had it - I said that the hand-holding couples hold right hands when really it's both hands, uncrossed.

And I've also just realised (after watching the video and thinking I'd made a mistake, so checking the book) - it actually doesn't say which of the centre couples hold hands/go down the centre. I just had whichever couple were already holding hands keep them there - ie if you're couple 1 you go all the way down the set holding hands, and then all the way back up around the outside. But Olive had them swapping each time which is probably the way to go.

How did I do?

One horrendous mistake and a couple of silly ones.

- Difference between sides in Morris Reel (MR) and High Cauled Cap (HCC)? Spot on.

- Who does Gent 3 meet in Skip Across? Spot on.

- Describe Right Hands Across. I had the gents giving left hand first then right, but they do exactly the same as the ladies.

- Who does Gent 1 meet in Return Chain? I agonised over this one and would have got it right if I'd sent my dancers in the right direction. Ladies go Left, Gents Go riGht.

- Explain how Ladies Chain is danced. Spot on.

- List in order the movements of all dances. Spot on.

- Describe Back to Back. Missed out that gents pass right arm to right arm when returning to place, but spot on apart from that.

- Describe the Finish of the MR. Spot on, except I didn't give details like "forearms bent sharply upwards". Surely that goes without saying?

- Describe Skip Across in the Eight-Hand Reel (8HR). Spot on. I often put unspecified details in - book doesn't say they all sidestep right, but I did. So don't.

- Describe and compare the first movement of the body of the 8HR and MR. Got the MR right, but totally failed on the 8HR. For some reason I sent the partners sidestepping together, but they swap places and then go on individually. I think subconciously I knew this was wrong as I then couldn't work out which way they chained - they go back the way they came. Fail.

- Describe the first two movements of the body of the 8HR. Fail as above on Extended Sides, but Skip Across spot-on as above.

- Name and describe in detail the first figure of the 4HR. I knew it was Figure of Eight and Rings of Three, and apart from sending the couples in a full circle swing rather than just a half-circle back to places, I got it right. I need to be clearer and actually state that the free gent sidesteps right and left too; I just put that "all dancers" did it, but I could be clearer to be sure. To be sure, to be sure.

Will need to review these before I move on to the Cross Reel or Trip or something. Undecided what to do next. Thoughts?

Eight-Hand Reel and Morris Reel

Tip for anyone who hasn't got this far yet: Kill two birds with one stone and learn these two dances at the same time. You won't be overloading yourself with information; these dances are exactly the same save for two movements in the body. See?

Eight-Hand Reel
Lead Round
Body (Extended Sides - Skip Across - Return Chain - Back-to-Back)
First Figure - Advance and Retire
Second Figure - Ladies' Chain
Finish

If you've done the Four-Hand Reel already, you already know Ladies' Chain. And if you know High Cauled Cap, then you know the Finish. And everybody knows Lead Round :)

Morris Reel
Lead Round
Body (Sides - Right Hands Across - Return Chain - Back-to-Back)
First Figure - Advance and Retire
Second Figure - Ladies' Chain
Finish

Back-to-Back is almost impossible to work out from the book description alone. Definitely had to rewind the DVD a few times to get that one, but it's deceptively simple once you know it. Obviously. I feel like any experienced ceili dancer reading this would think I was a complete idiot, but as a reminder I'd danced about four ceilis in my entire life before taking on this challenge, never in full and never with correct terminology. I'd never even really watched them before. So I'm doing quite well in my own little way, climbing my own personal mountain.

So here I am, with four "ceilis with figures" floating round my head. I thought a test was in order, so I constructed myself a practice paper based just on the Four-Hand Reel, Eight-Hand Reel, Morris Reel and one question on the High Cauled Cap for comparison. I answered it at work today...now I'm going to mark it. I'll let you know how I got on in the next exciting instalment...

Four-Hand Reel

My second "ceili with figures". Properly chuffed I learned this one so quickly although let's be fair, I'd danced the lead and body before.

Lead Round
Body - Square, Four Sevens, Hands Across, Down the Centre, Right and Left Chain
1st Figure - Figure of Eight and Rings of Three
Body
2nd Figure - Ladies' Chain
Body
Finish (Lead Round)



In other news I went through some of my past papers and did all the Lannigan's Ball and Waves of Tory ones I could find - I'm not using the exact same terminology and I keep wanting to put in things that aren't specified, but I'm confident I know those pretty well.

I also worked out how to do the Full Chain in Glencar Reel - took me shamefully long to do it, but I got there in the end and that's all that matters.

Next, the Eight-Hand Reel. What the hell is "Back to Back" all about?!

The Waves of Tory and Lannigan's Ball

I'm back on it! Managed to get my hands on some DVDs and since I'm happy with my knowledge of the first fifteen, I'm learning new ones. I'll be kind of sad when I know them all - I do actually enjoy the process of discovering them.

The Waves of Tory

Definitely not as hard as I thought it was going to be.

Advance and Retire - Right and Left Hands Across - Advance and Retire - Left and Right Hands Across - Lead Off to the Right and Up the Centre - The Waves - Cast Off.



Lannigan's Ball

I love this dance! I'm not sure what it is about it, but it's one of my favourites so far. Let's see if I can remember all the movements in the right order...

Ring - Quarter's Hook - Rise and Grind Step - Lead Round in Centre - Flirtation - Stack-Up - Lead Round - Ring.

Woo!

Oops!

I'm still here! Rest assured, I haven't totally given up on this thing. I haven't put massive amounts of effort into TCRGing at the moment, I admit. What little I have done has been ceili theory, but I've got so much else going on in my life that there's just been so little time. But, this is the whole reason I started studying before booking the test, and in fact not even applying until I'm 100% ready already. So that minor distractions like real life can happen without dire consequences!

This week I did step it up a little and made the effort to write out all 15 of the ceilis I've learned so far. I finished it yesterday after working on it off and on fora few days, so last night I sat down with the book to mark it. Here's what happened:

Walls of Limerick - didn't make any mistakes. Well, you'd be hard pushed to! One thing I did put, was that in 'Dance Around' partners take crossed hands. That's not actually specified in the book, but I let myself off because I think they would let me off. Right?

High Cauled Cap - no mistakes on formation or names of movements. When describing the body I inexplicably forgot to mention that the stamp and clap is repeated twice before starting the sidestep each time. My version just went "stamp, stamp, clap clap clap, hop 234567 back 23, back 23 and repeat" rather than "stamp, stamp, clap clap clap, stamp, stamp, clap clap clap" etc. For the second figure, Circle and Cross, I said that gents exchange places rather than 'advance to opposite ladies' - just a slight difference in terminology but I was harsh and took half a mark off for that. Again for the third figure, Ladies Chain, I said that they take crossed hands when, strictly speaking, it's not specified. They specify crossed hands in the second figure though so I left it. No problems with the Finish which I was worried about as I blanked!

Siege of Ennis - no mistakes. I didn't describe 'sides' book-perfect, so I'd hope they'd let me off because it was otherwise spot-on.

Harvest-time Jig - nothing major. In Left Hands Across I made a silly error and said that the dancers take left hands first, then reverse and give left hands. D'oh! Obviously the second time they give right. In Step and Turn I forgot to specify that the gent takes the left hand of the lady on his left to perform the turns. That was it though, not bad!

Rince Fada - this was the only dance where I gave the wrong name for a movement, which I guess is quite good. I called the fifth movement 'Down the Centre' when it's actually 'Advance Down Centre'. I should remember that because they face the other couple head-on rather than sideways. I correctly said that the Right Wheel goes around clockwise, but then also put that the Left Wheel goes around clockwise, which of course it doesn't. Otherwise no major errors.

Bridge of Athlone - I mixed up Cast Off and The Bridge a little - the last thing I wrote for Cast Off should be the first part of The Bridge - but other than that I did well.

Haste to the Wedding - managed to get the name of Up the Centre' correct for the first time ever! It is "up" the centre rather than down because the even couple are leading, so they go up rather than down the set. When odds are leading it's always 'down'. If I can remember the Siege of Carrick (and I can!) then I should have no excuse for forgetting that rule. Anyway I mixed up the start of one movement with the end of another again - Leading couple actually take the odd lady into the circle at the end of Up the Centre, not the start of First Ring.

Siege of Carrick - near perfect! There were just some terminology differences - I was using odd/even couple rather than top/bottom couple which is no biggie I don't think (I hope!) and for Right and Left Wheel the book specifies that the dancer's hands are shoulder height with ladies above gents, but I didn't mention that at all. Important? I don't know. Hopefully I'll remember to include it in future just in case.

Antrim Reel - I had the ladies and gents crossing on the wrong shoulder in Sidestep and Heyes. On the first repeat, Ladies cross on the Left!! I made the same direction error in Left and Right Wheels - they go anticlockwise first. Other than that, no problems!

Glencar Reel -I got the formation right but numbered them incorrectly. For some reason, from left to right it goes 3-2-1 rather than 1-2-3. But why?! Anyway that meant that in Figure of Eight I had the dancers turning the wrong way - I knew which number dancer commences the figure of eight, but because I'd numbered them back-to-front they were turning in the wrong direction. I also had the Ring going to the right first when really it's left then right. I don't full understand the Full Chain either, may need to ask on TCRG board, so I got that wrong. Gents go anticlockwise and ladies go clockwise - I mixed that up.

An Rince Mor - I only had a problem with Link Arms here - I had the gent giving the wrong arm to the lady. It actually goes - right arm to left lady, left arm to partner, right arm to left lady, both hands to partner.

Haymaker's Jig - I love this one. No problems at all, except I put in things that the book doesn't specify (like which direction the leading couple swing during Link Arms).

The Fairy Reel - in Slip Sides I called them the 'remaining ladies' but the book calls them the 'free partners' - I much prefer that terminology! In Gents Centre and Link Arms I had the gents linking arms with their partners when in fact it's hands. I didn't specify that, during the Square, the ladies turn in on the two short threes. But that was about it really!

The Rakes of Mallow - I sent the trios swinging in the wrong direction at the end but that was the only mistake!

Bonfire Dance - nothing massive. I didn't say that, in The Rose, the ladies advance to their partners before turning to finish in original positions, and I also said that they take both hands when it fact it's just the right hands. In Swing and Exchange Partners I wasn't hugely clear that the partners exchange places with one another, but overall it was good enough.

Not too bad of an effort considering the complete lack of enthusiasm of late! I suppose I'd better put more effort into actually dancing though, plus learning the other 15. So near yet so far.