In my opinion by Bob Grant (Edinburgh Branch)
A DIAMOND IS FOREVER OR IS IT? One of the things I am often asked when I take workshops overseas is “which is the proper way of doing this or that” and I have difficulty in answering truthfully that there is often no ‘proper’ way. In Scotland we are much more casual about the different variations of things that historically are done in different parts of the country. It is understandable that dancers want to do the right thing and The Manual tries to address these questions. The danger is that it then appears to make one method mandatory. To quote from The Manual, “There was never an intention to impose a rigid and inflexible uniformity,” and we must be careful that it doesn’t appear to do just that. Perhaps the variations should be researched and noted. As dancing evolves changes do, and have to, occur but care must be taken that they are really for the better. Which brings me to the subject of this article. The worst example of rigidity is the change that occurred to the Poussette Right Round with the birth of The Manual in 1992. I think that the original should be reintroduced. It was much nicer than the current version. It used to be known as the Diamond Poussette but has been diminished from a beautiful symmetrical gem to a crudely cut stone. The formation first appeared, as far as the RSCDS was concerned, in the dance New Park in Book 19, published in 1957, followed closely by dances in Books 20 and 21. The diagrams in these books clearly show the diamond formation. Couples dance into the middle (top and bottom points of the diamond) and proceed round the track of the diamond to the side points, turning halfway through the figure about the top and bottom points. In New Park it would be impossible to do it any other way because couples one and three dance it. The new method appeared in the early sixties. Couples danced in to form a
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The Diamond Pousette as shown in Book 20. diagonal line, also forming a diagonal line at the end of bar 4. This to me is an ugly solution in that a) the symmetry of the figure is lost, b) the first man and second woman have to take a tiny, or no, step on bar 1 thus losing the joy of that strong sweep into the figure (in practice on a crowded dance floor they move too far in anyway and the figure becomes a mash of old and new) and c) the turn on bar 4 is thrown off course in that the dancers are instructed to dance into the middle on bar 3 then turn to form a diagonal line. The original had a much better surge and flow to it with all the steps being pretty much the same length as opposed to the variations in the upstart. The Manual specifies eight setting steps but I would defy anyone to dance a proper setting step on bars 4 and 7. It suggests we use ‘modified‘ setting steps but as the couples in effect dance a two handed turn the step begins to look suspiciously like a travelling one, so - here’s a thought - why
not make it one! And while we’re at it dance a travelling step forwards and backwards at the beginning and end of the figure. Both methods were acceptable up till the birth of The Manual when the original mysteriously disappeared. Now, sadly, The Manual appears to make the latter mandatory. Or does it? The Manual states that the objects of the RSCDS are “to preserve and further the practice of traditional Scottish country dances” and goes on to state that … “slight variations in the interpretation of dances published by the Society have emerged in different parts of the country since 1923. Such variations are acceptable, provided that they remain only slight and do not prove to be an obstacle to the enjoyment of dancers who may not be familiar with them.” I presume that this slight variation which has found its way into The Manual can be considered as such and those of us who enjoy the original method should be allowed to continue to dance it.
