Strip the Willow

Subject: Strip the Willow
From: Sumac
Date: 27 Jun 99 - 10:37 PM

Our Scottish Ceilidhs here in Maine are beginnin' tae pick up steam, but alas! we hae nae dances fer a' tae jine in. When I was at Ceòlas School on South Uist last July, we attended a ceilidh every night, sometimes twa a night. The dance "Strip the Willow" was done at least twice an hour. But I can't remember it - seems tae be kind o' like The Virginia Reel here. Can anyane refresh ma memory? Th' tunes that are played are jigs. Thanks.

Subject: RE: Strip the Willow
From: alison
Date: 27 Jun 99 - 11:16 PM

Hi,

The "Strip the willow" is the middle bit of the Virginia reel. No doubt one of the dance callers will be able to give you the full details...... there is another similar one called the "willow tree". from memory you start to "strip" from both ends of the set and meet up in the middle with a 4 way arch, cast off etc.....

slainte

alison

Subject: RE: Strip the Willow
From: Bob Bolton
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 03:18 AM

G'day Sumac,

Here in Australia we seem to have most of the descendants of the Sir Roger De Coverley: As well as the Sir Roger De Coverley dating back at least 3 centuries in England, we have The Haymakers' Jig, mostly from Ireland, the Virginia Reel from America (but 'democratised' here, to allow more dancing and less watching) and a Strip the Willow that is only the 'strip' part from the ad infinitum (or nauseam).

I remember a Hogmanay, with northern English friends out here, where they did a frantic Strip the Willow to 17 minutes of one side of a Jimmy Shand LP - then popped the needle back to the start and pressed on for another 17 minutes ... all this in a midsummer night when the temperature had grudgingly eased back to about 30 degrees C (86 degrees F).

Tunes for all this are usually double jigs (a slight concession, as the Sir Roger De Coverley went to 9/8 slip jigs.

Regards,

Bob Bolton

Subject: RE: Strip the Willow
From: Penny S
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 07:16 AM

There was a moment in one of the "St Trinian's" films where the Head announced a performance of Strip the Willow, paused, glared at a disturbance among the girls, and added, "Come back, Willow Brown!"

Penny

Subject: RE: Strip the Willow
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 09:27 AM

Sumac, where in Maine are you??
At my elementary school we don't strip the willow, we peel the banana! But I seem to recall a New England contra with the name Strip the Willow; all my books are at school and I'll try to check on them when I go in later this week to finish cleaning my classroom.
Cheers from a NH neighbor- Allison

Subject: RE: Strip the Willow
From: Sumac
Date: 28 Jun 99 - 12:11 PM

Allison: I'm in a wee sma' toon just North of Portland (the ORIGINAL Portland), not far from the Granite State. Thanks for looking, I await the results of your research. Cheers, Sumac, humble Piper

Subject: RE: Strip the Willow
From: Murray on Saltspring
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 02:42 AM

The dance is related to "Sir Roger de Coverley", which is in 9/8 time (slip jig), while its descendants, the "Virginia Reel" (American) and "The Haymakers" (Scottish, I assure you) are done to ordinary 6/8 jigs. STW should be danced to its own tune, namely "Drops of Brandy" (9/8), but a lot of the time, alas, it's done to 6/8s (partly because the proper music isn't available). The dance by the way seems to be known in England as "Drops of Brandy", but perversely it's done to a selection of schottisches. If you like I'll post the instructions here, but you may want to e-mail me at [e-mail] for the thing. Another name for the tune BTW is "Hey My Nannie", which seems to be from the 17th century.-- Also, the step used in the dance has to be the running step, just stamping down three beats in the bar, as opposed to the "skip change-of-step" usual in dancing a 6/8 jig. Cheers Murray

Subject: RE: Strip the Willow
From: Philippa
Date: 29 Jun 99 - 09:32 AM

very easy (if you've done it once you should be able to understand what I'm describing)- 4 opposite 4 (usually men opposite women). Top couple swings. Top woman chains down the men's line, turning with her own partner in between each of the other 3 men. They meet at the other end and swing. Then the man chains in the same manner with the women. Then they both chain simultaneously (as in haymaker's Jig/Baint an' feir or Virginia Reel), ending up with a swing at the end of the line, and the next couple begins. usually every couple has two goes at this before the music stops.
Cape Breton variant: unlimited number of people in the lines. The man only and woman only chains are omitted: the two partners chain at the same time (should I call this a 'double helix'?) and after one pair has gone a few people up the line the next pair starts, so that a few couples may be chaining at the same time.
I [prefer the more complicated manouvers of the Haymaker's Jug or the Virginia Reel, but Strip the Willow works better when too many dancers have had too much to drink!