Dance of the Month - Salterello and Trenchmore

Greetings again from Ragnar.

Well I consider myself happy with the dance ball the other week. Attendance could have been a little higher but those of you who attended gave me a solid proof that my teaching hasn't been wasted. Feedback like that makes it all worthwhile. I hope you all enjoy/have enjoyed Mistress Tamara's course on Morris dancing on the 17th. I would like to take this time to announce that I am changing the format of dance practices. The practices after the meetings will now be beginners practices. This means that although we will keep learning new dances the speed will be a little slower than we have been working with so far. The other Sundays will be advanced practices. By that I mean that we will move much faster through more complex dances (such as italian ren.) and we will even do period reconstruction (i.e. I will give out the dance steps and music as recorded in 1589, we will come back two weeks later and go over what we thought the dance should be like. We will compare everyone's notes and come up with the "Bryniau" interpretation which will go into the dance book Cynrig and I are putting together). Please note I will not go around telling you which class you belong in, nor will I refuse anyone admittance to any class. You can decide for yourselves which level you want to work at or even attend both. The more people the merrier.

Now this month's dances:

Salterello (couples in a line)
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2x {2 singles - inside foot then outside; chorus}
2x {Lords turn 2 singles (In and Out) in place; ladies do same; chorus} Ladies go first on repeat
2x {Lords: 4 singles (In) around ladies; chorus} Ladies dance on repeat
2x {Turn R hands in 6 singles; chorus} Turn left hands on repeat
CHORUS: Double (In), bransle (Out), Bransle (In), double back

Trenchmore (couples in a line)
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Doubles (L up the hall, R back, L up the hall, R back, L up the hall)
Lords and ladies split moving in a line with their own sex to the bottom of the hall and join hands with their partners again.
Couples then parade up to the top of the hall where the lead couple turns and ducks under the arms of the second couple. The then go over the third couple and under the fourth couple. All couples weave in this way down and back up the hall until they are in their normal positions.
First couple arms R 2 and a half turns. Then arms L with next couple. Arm R with partner, L with next couple and so on down to line to the bottom of the hall. They then arm R 2 and a half turns.
The dance now repeats with the second couple leading.

See you on the dance floor.