At the risk of overstating the case-- and thank you, Jack, wherever you are, for chiming in- I'll quote from another of David Smukler's essays. In this case, he's discussing Chorus Jig but his comments about the role of the twos are relevant in the Rory O'More context:
----- Valuing the role of the "supporting cast" As in many other chestnuts, the twos have an important and perhaps underappreciated role... Just think of your slow progress toward the top of the hall as paying your dues in the contra world. Keep dancing. Sooner or later, whether this time or another, you will reach the head of the set. Your turn will come to be a number one couple for time after time, supported by all those other dancers whom you helped out on other occasions. But, aside from the importance of being there for the ones, could it be that there are other hidden opportunities in the number two role? Absolutely! First of all, you have the gift of time. You can watch other dancers, and learn from observing them, an increasingly rare opportunity in our contemporary everyone-moving-all-the-time contra choreography. Some of this observation is social (Who's dancing with whom tonight? Look at the amazing matching smiles on those two!), and some is dance-related (Oh, that's how Mary and Tom do that really neat balance!) (Aha! They only go six steps down the center and then they take two full beats to turn alone). Another benefit can be found in the reduced physical demand placed on you as a dancer. After being active for a while, enjoy this time to relax as an "inactive," required only to ensure that turning contra corners goes well. A program that varies the activity level from dance to dance will allow more people, young and old, to participate in dancing, and to feel energized and not exhausted by their participation. However, if you are not ready for a rest, you have an invaluable opportunity as a number two dancer to improvise some clogging steps during the first half of Chorus Jig. This sort of "jigging"--a free-form way to play along with the band--has become rare in the contemporary dance scene. Freestyle clogging while standing out as a number two dancer is only possible if the inactives are, well, inactive. If everyone is moving, there simply is no opportunity for the solo foot percussion that resonated on dance floors in years past. Speaking of the band, the number two role also offers you the chance to devote more of your conscious attention to the music. ------ As Jack says, some of these older dances really validate the notion of this being a community-centered dance form, rather than the couple-centered activity that many seem to think it is. David P.S. Shameless plug: CDSS is publishing Cracking Chestnuts, the collection of essays by David S. and myself on some twenty classic dances. Music, detailed commentary, an appendix with more suggested dances... We're told that it should be available by this fall.
