Last night as I got to the last few columns of pieces to sew together, I turned the iPhone to shuffle the English Country Dance Playlist and played “Name that Dance Tune” to pass the time. Here’s the take home message from listening to a couple hours of random dance tunes:
- There are dance tunes for which I can instantly give you the dance title.
- There are dances which I can not only tell you the name, but a clear memory of when I learned it or did it.
- There are dances that I don’t connect the tune, figures or name, but I can tell you that I learned it in a particular pavilion of Pinewoods Camp.
- There are dance tunes I can tell if they belong to a set dance or a longways.
- There are dance tunes that put a particular movement in my brain. I remain skeptical about these since an eight-beat figure can fit to any eight beats of music.
- There are dances which, given the title, I can provide you with a doodled tune.
- There are dances which I could probably give you most of the figures, or at least the crux move, with or without being able to doodle the tune.
- There are any number of dance tunes that I’m familiar with but don’t remember their titles, let alone anything about the dances themselves, but fewer of these than I would have guessed.
