About this Cotswold Morris Cheat Sheet Version 50 * WHAT IS THIS? A set of very quick notes for looking up a dance at, e.g. a Cotswold Ale, when told the name of it, that one will be dancing it & one has forgotten what the heck it was. It is prioritised so that the important bits [like stick or hankies] come first & details later. To keep instructions for so many dances & traditions pocket sized and small it has a lot of abbreviating. * HOW TO LOOK UP A DANCE Simply look it up by name [the tradition follows the name in brackets]. The instruction are split between that unique to the specific dance right there, the common instructions for the tradition that can be found under the name of the tradition & common instructions for Cotswold. In case of conflict the more specific instructions take precedent. * USUAL ORDER OF INSTRUCTIONS The props needed [hankies, sticks etc.]. Form of dance [corners, 8 person etc.]. Chorus. Sequence of verses & choruses. The basic stepping used. Detail of specific verses. Dance start & end detail * DANCE STRUCTURE ABBREVIATIONS Ch = CHorus(es). Vs = VerSe(s) [as distinct from Ch]. VsS = VerSes Sequence [the Ch & Vs in a dance]. Basic = the set of steps & hand movements used for general travelling in a dance. * DIRECTION ABBREVIATIONS L = Left. R = Right. F = Forwards. B = Backwards. up/down = towards top/bottom of set or vertical. * FOOTSTEP ABBREVIATIONS Consist of the foot [L or R] and where it goes [F, B, S, C, I or A] and/or a method [hop, leap, jump, ww]. S = Side [away from other foot]. C = Close [to the other foot]. I = In-place. A = Across [infront or behind other foot]. ww = Without Weight [just move not step onto]. * CLASHING uft = Up Forehand Tips. dft = Down Forehand Tips. dbb = Down Backhand Butts. etc. ttm = Tip To Middle. * OTHER ABBREVIATIONS USED WITH R & L ft = FooT. h = Hand. sh = SHoulder [as in which to pass by]. * TURNS cw = ClockWise. acw = AntiClockWise. Angles in degrees. cw & acw are with respect to clock on floor or [for limbs] facing towards oneself. * OTHER ABBREVIATIONS FTJ = Foot-Together-Jump. deg = DEGrees. D1 = Dancer number 1 etc.. Square brackets '[...]' just contain extra info. * SEQUENCES In most cases one thing following another is simply separated by a comma or 'then'. For clarity if having to call a dance, verse sequences are separated with '|' bars. * REPEATS Repeats may be explicit like 'repeat that', simply abbreviated to 'ditto' in a sequence list or specified by 'x' & a number after something which means "done that number of times". Round brackets '(...)' are used to group together several instructions so they can be referred to immediately afterwards as one chunk. E.g. "Rhop, clash x 2" means " Rhop, clash, clash" but "(Rhop, clash) x 2" means " Rhop, clash, Rhop, clash" because the whole enclosed chunk is repeated. Curly brackets '{...}' denote instructions that change with each repeat of chorus or verse they are in. with comma-separated lists inside are. E.g. "Rhop, {clash, Rleap}" in chorus would mean "Rhop, clash" in the first chorus but "Rhop, Rleap" in the second. If a list runs out before the dance does, start reading the list from the beginning again. [For fast reading I have compacted many instructions by using brackets within brackets with brackets and lots of "ditto but..." constructions. Sorry if this is confusing to non-mathematicians!] * MISC Unless otherwise stated: Heys start with top couple casting up & out; Half Gyp, Whole Gyp, Back to Back etc. pass Rsh; and hankies are held by one corner. Often (but rarely mentioned) there is a preparatory hop before a step starts; those are not covered here. * THAT NOTORIOUS FOOT AMBIGUITY For some people, "Rft start" means "start by stepping onto Rft"; for others it means "start by standing on Rft & stepping onto Lft". In these notes, the starting ft means the ft first stepped onto [ignoring preparatory hops] not the supporting ft. Similarly Galley R etc. means step on Rft & rotate Lft not rotate Rft. Rleap is leap from Rft whereas leapR is leap onto Rft. * IS THIS DEFINITIVE? Definitely not! If I knew what I was doing well then I would not need to have written myself a cheat sheet! Expect lots of mistakes (and, anyway, there are lots of variations in how groups perform the same dances). The notation is not standard either, just something I made up for my own use and later mangled into ASCII. * DISTRIBUTION & DISCLAIMERS These notes are downloadable from duramecho.com. It was compiled by Andrew Hardwick of Lagabag Morris. They are mostly from Lagabag’s repertoire or were learnt at Ales. The dances are believed to be public domain except where otherwise stated. No responsibility will accepted for errors, injuries etc.. These notes are distributable free of charge under the GNU Pubic Licence & Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike licence. Have fun!