Eleanor's Reel

by Bill Olson

Sometimes small changes can make all the difference. "Eleanor's Reel" is essentially the same dance as "You Can Get There From Here," [1] except the meaningless small change of the last eight beats of the B2. (In both dances, that bit progresses the dancers and creates a new wave of four.)

The small change of importance is going forward on the Rory o' More spins.

And suddenly you're racing up and down the hall as you target new waves to zigzag into. The dance picks up a headlong rush as the gaudily visible triple progression kicks in. It feels unique, when from a mathematical point of view it really isn't.

That's why writing dances will stay as much art as science.

(For another example of small changes dramatically altering a dance, look at "Aurora" by Mary Devlin. Now replace the allemande 2 with allemande 1 & 1/2, which makes it alternating. At the top of A1, the couple in the center will have to go forward a bit to form a new line of four.)

Instructions for this dance can be found here.
A video of this dance can be found here.
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