Hints for dancing highland dances
Some hints on dancing the dances. These suggestions have been collated from the
highland-dance mailing list. It might also
be worth checking the
Teaching hints and tips page.
NB All information in here should be treated as a friend's
suggestion - ie while we believe the information to be mainly correct, you
should apply common sense about following it. If it hurts, if it looks wrong
for you, don't do it*.
The Sword Dance
- [Posted by Emma Trentman]
I can't say that I'm completely unintimidated by the sword, but it is my
favorite dance. My teacher always says she would rather see us do a dynamite
sword and kick it off the stage, than have us do a timid sword, and not touch
it, since we wouldn't place anyway. I used to be really afraid of hilts, so I
made myself cardboard ones for my sticks at home, that were absolutely huge, to
get used to it. I also always made sure I used the hilted sword at dance
class. The other thing, which I guess is sort of a cop out, is to try to stay
closer to the blades in front of you, since you can see them, and you can't see
the hilts behind you. If your close to the blades, you won't hit the hilts!
Also, get a lot of elevation, because it's easiest in the sword dance anway,
and the more time you spend in the air, the less time you have to hit the
sword. Of course, the best thing of all is that this is a useful subject to
write a college essay on.
- [Posted by Holly Hodgkin]
"After the toe/heel step and entering into the hi-cuts before the quick time
is there an extension or not? At a competition we were at last
weekend she saw dancers doing an extension as they left the toe/heel and were
turning to face the judge."
There is an extension from the toe & heel into the pas de bas, but NO
extension before the assemble into the hicuts. It is natural to want to do an
extension after the pas de bas into the assemble ~ but in the notes we had
from the SOBHD concerning championship steps, they specifically said, "no
extension."
* In other words - if you follow this advice and get hurt, we're sorry,
and that was most certainly not the intention, but we don't accept any legal
responsibility. Or to put it yet another way: if you feel like suing, don't.
We never forced you to follow this anyway.
Extracted from postings to highland-dance, the highland and scottish step
dance mailing list.
See http://www.scottishdance.net/highland/.
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This page is maintained by Ian Brockbank
ian@scottishdance.net
Edinburgh, Scotland
