Great stuff, WLD, at last something we can heartily agree on! I have been a dance muscian for a good many decades, and I like playing the Birdy Song, and people of intelligence and charm love dancing to it. And I can safely say that mazurkas do not feature heavily in the repertoire of stuff I play at dances, though I do know a couple I play for fun and for people to listen to.
   What I don't agree with you is your evident hostility to schottisches and mazurkas. Thinking about them actually seems to make you angry, and many other people hate the Birdy Song. Why does all this hostility infect the folk scene? Personally, I love mazurkas, schottisches, and the Birdy Song.Though other things make me extremely angry, so it's not as if I'm just a calm person. The modern plotlines in the Archers make me ill, for example.