Most attention is paid to the general form and direction of each dance and to the basic foot movements. Complexity such as detailed foot movements and exact timing and rythm information have been deliberately excluded as this would be of little benefit to the beginner.
The notes should therefore be used as an 'aid-memoire' and cannot be regarded as a substitute for practice with music.
For further dance information, the reader should consult other more detailed books. It should be noted however that these notes are intended for use by the Hursley International Folk Dancers and the dances may differ slightly from other standard descriptions.
As a further aid to the beginner, the dances have been categorized according to difficulty (see main dance listings):
The main aim in developing the notation has been to describe each dance as briefly as possible whilst including all the basic leg and foot movements. In general, each leg movement is described by one single word so that the beginner can repeat to himself a sequence of words and at the same time making one leg movement for each word. These leg instruction words will be termed 'verbs' as they correspond to English imperative verb commands. All verbs used in the notes are indicated by an initial capital letter. Many verbs imply the word 'Step' and are not true verbs in the normal English usage, for example:
Behind, - means Step one foot behond the other.
It is intended that each verb corresponds to one beat or count in the music and as far as is possible this is indicated by separating each verb by a comma.
Two particular verbs which require explanation are:
'R,' - Means Step to the right with the right foot.
'L,' - Means Step to the left with the left foot.
In most other cases it will be clear which foot or leg is moved (normally the opposite one to the previous step). However, in ambiguous cases or in circumstances where it is not obvious, the following notation is used immediately after the verb:
(R) - means 'with the' or 'on the' right foot.
(L) - means 'with the' or 'on the' left foot.
Adverbs may be used to qualify the steps and these will appear after each verb and are uncapitalized. They usually indicate particular placements of the feet or changes in direction.
e.g. 'in front', 'across', or 'to centre'
Directions of dance movement which are common to a complete sequence of steps are described by adverbs or phrases immediately after the sequence number and are separated from the Verb string by a semi-colon. Two abbreviations should be noted:
LOD - means in Line of Dance
AOD - means Against line of Dance.
Whenever two leg movements have to be made quickly or within one musical beat they are written as two verbs separated by a slash (e.g. L/R).
If one movement is stretched to occupy two beats, then this is indicated by double commas (e.g. Sway(R),,).
Within each dance section the steps are grouped together into coherent or convenient sequences of steps which can be remembered as one basic unit (usually all movements in one particular direction). Each sequence unit is given an identification number and contains a string of easily remembered verbs. In addition, other useful information may be added such as general direction indicators, qualifying adverbs, foot indicators, some arm and body information, and, if necessary, some notes on timing and musical beats.
Unneccessary information regarding detailed body or arm movements and musical bar notes is avoided as it is hoped that this can be obtained from practice with the music.
No guarantee can be given for the accuracy of compilation or the correctness of notation. However it is hoped that even though the notes may contain errors they will still be of use to the beginner.
In order to improve future versions of these notes, please make comments regarding any of the following:
Please print out any incorrent portion of the dance notes and write comments or corrections on the printout. These will then be periodically incorporated into future editions. It is also hoped to added further dances as and when they are compiled.
Thanks go to Syd and Mad Chapman for their encouragement and painstaking effort in verifying these notes, to Heather Murphy for her patient help in compilation and to Pat Riley for assistance with several dances.