Comments | nightengalesknd: Devising the Spiffy Spiffin

nightengalesknd

Devising the Spiffy Spiffin

Oct 31, 2014 20:23

While some of the following is written in dance jargon and will be incomprehensible to non-folk Dancers, some of it is just plain wordplay that should be comprehensible to most wordplayers. Suffice to say, we had a time in dance this week ( Read more... )

Comments 8

glynhogen November 1 2014, 01:39:43 UTC

The Spiffin sounds like a perfectly cromulent figure.

nightengalesknd November 1 2014, 16:25:28 UTC

I think it is. Depending on which incarnation. Which is what amuses me.

Also, does the adjective "cromulent" ever appear without the adverb "perfectly"?

glynhogen November 2 2014, 14:42:23 UTC

I was just thinking that the other day! And no, I don't think I've ever heard of anything being imperfectly cromulent. It would be a great name for a band.

jedibl November 1 2014, 22:40:31 UTC

Isn't there an actual dance called Spiffin? In which case, people might be confused if the figure the Spiffin does not occur in the dance Spiffin.

Also, if you need more 5-person dances, there's a strathspey called Dragonflies(?) that is quite nice (and is a strathspey).

nightengalesknd November 2 2014, 17:22:38 UTC

There. . .apparently is. Which none of us had ever heard of and which did not come up in our teacher's brief search. Oh well. I'm not sure the dance has a life outside of our class anyway.

We tend to hover at the 5-8 range these days so more 5 person dances are always appreciated. Last week we did 2 6-person triangles. Unfortunately the databases (Scottish-Country-Dancing-Dictionary and MiniCrib) I've searched only have a 4 couple set dance called Dragonfly (singular.) Any idea where I can find the directions?

jedibl November 2 2014, 18:21:03 UTC

A little research suggests that it must be in this book: http://my.strathspey.org/dd/publication/1010/ which gets pulled out regularly in Pittsburgh for exactly the same reason (5 person evenings...) Not sure if the dance itself is on the internet anywhere, or only in the book.

mst3kforall November 4 2014, 04:00:35 UTC

That sounds really fun! Also your descriptions and turns of phrase make me laugh with delight (everything from the derivation of spiffin to "a non-figure figure I dislike in Strathspey time and adamantly refuse to contemplate in quicktime"). It has been too long since I danced!

(The comment has been removed)

nightengalesknd December 16 2014, 00:23:32 UTC

Welcome!

A lot of my locked posts are about developmental pediatrics, developmental disabilities and medicine and disability in general. So I shall unlock!