Schottisches

UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Schottisches

Village 11. The Short Easy Sotiisi Flying on Shovels l Riding Rainbows I Climbing Waterfalls

Country 14. Southern Highland Schottische Uplifting Air I Rolling HillsI The Attempted Picnic

Town 10. Showdown Schottische Dueling Lovers I Measure for Measure I Sash vers Sporan I Face-off Swing

Court 13. Swish, Switch and Swing Side-by-Side I Back-to-Front I Under and Over I Heart-to-Heart

The Purple Tulip

(extracted from Lost Dances of Earthly Delights, Volume 1 - Autumn 15)

 

Rise up Shepherd and Follow

 

 

This is a traditional American carol, first published as 'A Christmas Plantation Song' in Slave Songs of the United States, ed. W.F. Allen et.al. 1867. The songs in this collection were mostly collected during the Civil War from slaves on islands off Georgia and South Carolina. The Shorter New Oxford Book of Carols sees the tune as related to several British folk songs and indeed to a Welsh Christmas carol.

 

To make the most of these snazzy Scandinavian figures be sure to share weight. To get around twice when turning as a couple with the step-hops in B1, B2 and C the M should step around the W with his l.f. while she steps between his feet adn along the l.o.d. with her r.f. and then vice-versa. The dance figures echo the lyric. The reference to the 'star in the East' and to 'leading to a place' are matched with the M and W tracing circles around the other. The exaltation to follow is matched with the rising from bended knee and being lead by the other. Both drift away from each other when urged to 'leave your sheep and lambs', and drift so far away when urged to 'leave ewes and rams' that they find new partners. The M mirrors the W on parallel chassées when urged to 'follow, follow', and the W traces a final orbit around the M when they are urged to 'follow the star'.

 

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer

 

 

Johnny Marks created the character of shiny-nosed Rudolph for a publicity pamphlet as part of the Christmas sales campaign of an American mail-order company. He later turned the image into a song which cowboy star Gene Autry sung at Madison Square Garden in New York in 1949. The song went on to be one of the most successful songs of all time - with 140 million recordings by 500 different performers.

 

To get Rudolph all harnessed up and ready to fly down out of the Artic I've sequenced in this dance some wonderful jenkka/sottiis figures from the 4-horse carriage dance common to Finland and Sweden. You can flow without stopping from one time through the dance into a second and third time - either in same foursome, or, by switching direction with outside hand upon a prearranged prompt and harnessing yourself with a new couple in front or behind, danced in alternating roles.

 

Variant: You can start with just one (or a few) pairs of couples dancing, and then, by stopping after each time through the song and finding a new couples to join you and your partner, you can snowball into everyone dancing.