22 November 2009: Fugues and Celtic Brooch

On 22 November we again offered an afternoon for advanced dancers only with Fugues and Celtic Brooch in the Großer Saal in the Haus der Jugend, Frankfurt.

No entrance fee was involved since we were able to use the hall after a course of the Frankfurter Tanzkreis finished. The atmosphere was informal - but concentrated. Anselm had prepared a theoretical introduction, showing parallels and differences between fugues (in music) and fugues in Scottish Country Dancing. Then we danced a few fugues, struggling with the advanced demands on memorizing paths and figures - and enjoying when it worked within the set. The three fugues Anselm had prepared for the afternoon were Mucklestane Moor (Waverley Fugues #4), Miss Taylor's Reel (Glendarroch Sheet #39), and Wing-the-Wind (Waverley Fugues #12) — although he replaced the last one by Dugald Dalgetty (Waverley Fugues #9) since we had been running late and he thought working up to Wing-the-Wind would take too much out of the Celtic Brooch part of the afternoon.

After a break we tried seven of the more than fifty figures of Celtic Brooch (by Hugh Foss)- a strenuous but rewarding and unusual form of Scottish Country Dancing in triangular sets - until we were tired. Since the participants liked it a lot - despite the energy and precicion needed - we will try to fit in another similar afternoon as soon as possible.