{"items": [{"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635078325822", "anchor": "fb-635078325822", "service": "fb", "text": "Hey, that looks like fun!
One thing that struck me about the video is that, because he always shoots from the fireplace side, pretty much all of the people in the foreground are young (with one notable exception :-) ), which might create a somewhat false impression of who actually does this kind of dance.", "timestamp": "1384016273"}, {"author": "Jeff", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635084997452", "anchor": "fb-635084997452", "service": "fb", "text": "This has long been on my list of things to do. Along side of learning Bal.", "timestamp": "1384021914"}, {"author": "Josh", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/118273920476267337216", "anchor": "gp-1384051323054", "service": "gp", "text": "This is somewhat true of folk dancing in general, and I think very true of English as well. (Not as much Scottish, at least in my experience, where a lot of social Scottish dancing in fact happens in the context of a class. Which is fun too, but not quite the same.)", "timestamp": 1384051323}, {"author": "Brad", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/116032343632043704302", "anchor": "gp-1384081674821", "service": "gp", "text": "I do think for contradancing it helps to be able to think clearly in three dimensions and see patterns. I seem to have impediments in that department, as I went to contradances several times a year for 20 years but always stayed at the \"beginner\" level. I needed special lessons from friends outside the context of dances to get the basic skills like how to swing, how to balance, how to do a hay, etc. And I never did get the hang of waltzing, despite lessons from five or six experienced dance teachers (I lived with contradancers) and a two-month formal course in waltz. My joking excuse is that I'm too tall (6'4\") so it takes too long for instructions to travel from my brain to my feet.\n
\n
\nI play music for dances, and it's interesting to see how skills from one kind of dancing translate or don't translate to other types. We sometimes do Irish ceili dances, contradances, Qu\u00e9becois dances, and Breton dances (from Brittany) in the same evening, and the ceili dancers, Qu\u00e9becois dancers, and contradancers have no trouble shifting among those three styles, but all three groups find Breton dancing very challenging--probably because it involves specific foot patterns and arm movements rather than the sort of group dance patterns you encounter in the other three genres.", "timestamp": 1384081674}, {"author": "Gordon", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635307361832", "anchor": "fb-635307361832", "service": "fb", "text": "What if your feet are all thumbs? How hard is Contra dancing. I hear Ronald Reagan and Oliver North Contra Danced. No, they danced with the Contras, that's something a little different.", "timestamp": "1384204125"}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635411513112", "anchor": "fb-635411513112", "service": "fb", "text": "Gordon: One of the beauties of contra dancing is that your feet don't matter -- if you can walk, you can dance. I'm hopeless at any kind of dancing where I have to know which foot to use when, but I fell in love with contra dancing immediately on exposure (at the age of 50, by the way).", "timestamp": "1384272117"}, {"author": "Dean", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635414117892", "anchor": "fb-635414117892", "service": "fb", "text": "Last time I was at the scout house (about 7 or 8 years ago), I noticed that mean age was actually dropping from year to year. I figured that this video was just the result of that trend continuing for several years.", "timestamp": "1384274187"}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635414557012", "anchor": "fb-635414557012", "service": "fb", "text": "Dean: That's part of it, but mostly it's that the younger dancers tend to congregate in the set nearest the fireplace, so the video is actually somewhat misleading in the impression it gives of the overall age distribution at the Scout House. (By the way, if you look carefully, you'll see me and John pass by at different times in the background.)", "timestamp": "1384274561"}, {"author": "Dean", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635417306502", "anchor": "fb-635417306502", "service": "fb", "text": "I was looking carefully, but I missed you the first time. You were quite easy to spot, once I knew just who I was looking for.", "timestamp": "1384276628"}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635417356402", "anchor": "fb-635417356402", "service": "fb", "text": "I'm not there for long. It helps that I know that skirt.", "timestamp": "1384276699"}, {"author": "Dean", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635417456202", "anchor": "fb-635417456202", "service": "fb", "text": "Not necessary. I spotted your face. it was interesting, because I wasn't even focusing on that end of the picture. It just caught the corner of my eye, and then I watched that end of the line more carefully, until I saw both you and John. BTW, who was the band/caller? You can't quite see them. I have a pretty good idea who the clarinetist was, but I'm not sure about the others.", "timestamp": "1384276813"}, {"author": "Robert", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635418803502", "anchor": "fb-635418803502", "service": "fb", "text": "Not 100% sure, but I think it's Elixir, which means the caller is Nils Fredland. (The fiddler is almost certainly Ethan, so...)", "timestamp": "1384278078"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/635070147212?comment_id=635422955182", "anchor": "fb-635422955182", "service": "fb", "text": "The caller is Nils and that's Ethan and Anna, but the rhythm section is different. Owen Marshall and Garret Sawyer I think.", "timestamp": "1384281078"}]}