The Jack Canny Half Set is a very easy set for two couples that can be danced to jigs, reels and polkas as you like or danced like the Baile Bhuirne with no breaks in between figures. Click the link for full notes and links to lesson videos.
Author: Administrator
New Feature – Figure Videos
Rather than a lot of text explaining the new feature, here’s a video to show how it works.
Alternatively, if you’re not in a video watching mood, head over to the North Kerry Set and click on the blue video icon above the first figure
Maintenance May 5, 2016
DanceMinder will be down for a short time from 16:15 CST for back-end maintenance.
It should be back up no later than 17:00
16:55 – The site is fully up again
Dance Of The Week – Boston Two Step
The dance for this week is an easy two hand that’s good for formal dances as well as more energetic ceili’s. You can dance it straight with as much decorum as you like, or raise the energy level up a few notches and give yourself a dancing workout.
Click through for notes and video.
New dances – Aherlow & Padeen O’Rafferty
The Aherlow Set is an Irish set that you don’t find danced too often but it’s got a good mix of tune types and is one that will keep you thinking. Padeen O’Rafferty is an Irish ceili dance that’s an interesting mix of moves from several other dances (Walls of Limerick comes to mind). They’re all easy moves and this would be a good choice if you want something just a little different.
Dance Of The Week – Rakes of Mallow
The dance for this week is a relatively easy Irish ceili dance that’s good for beginners and experienced dancers alike. The Rakes of Mallow is a classic Ar Rince Foirne dance that you can find being danced pretty much world-wide. Click through for notes and video links.
Options overhaul
In preparation for a messaging system being added to DanceMinder, the user settings system has been overhauled.
Some settings you might not have been aware of are now collected into one place and a few new settings have been added that give you more control over what you see in DanceMinder.
A couple of settings in particular will be of interest to many of you. The default display for a dance. You can now set a sticky preference for seeing either the full or crib views for a dance without having to switch once you’re on a dance page. Choose “None” means that you’ll get the old behavior.
Any time you click on a link with just the name of a dance, it will be displayed using your current default. If you click on a link that takes you to a specific view, such as Show Crib View, you’ll get that view regardless of your preference.
You can also have DanceMinder save your latest choice as your new default whenever you view a dance using a specific view type. With this option checked, any time you click on a link that takes you to a specific view type (such as this one, Show Crib View) your sticky preference will change to Crib. This link Show Full View would change your preference to the Full view. This option is experimental so let us know how you like it.
The top menu bar has also changed to contain a link to your profile and the dance search page.
Run over to https://danceminder.com/user/options (you’ll need to be logged in) and take a look at all the available settings.
New Feature – Favorite Dances
Hello everyone,
There’s a new feature in town! You can now tag dances as one of your ‘favorites.’ when you’re viewing the dance either in full or crib views.
What does this mean?
Whenever you tag a dance as a favorite, using the new star icon next to the dance name, it’s added to a private collection called, appropriately, Favorites. This collection is viewable only by you unless you share it with someone using the private link you’ll see when viewing your Favorites collection. Most of the time you’ll likely just want to keep it private.
Your Favorite collection will always show up first in your collection lists and will be used for several upcoming features. It also provides a way for you to very quickly get to the dances that are most important to you through the new Favorites menu link.
In the near future you’ll be able to enable notifications so that DanceMinder will tell you any time one of your favorite dances change. This will include minor editing changes as well as when videos or comments are added or changed for one of your favorite dances.
Before that, we’ll be implementing a messaging system so that you’ll be able to choose between email notifications or web site notifications similar to what you may be used to in Facebook.
For the moment run over to DanceMinder, log in and start adding your favorite dances!
If you run into any problems please let us know through the contact page.
New dance added – Carrowbeg Set
The latest dance to be added to DanceMinder is an Irish set dance recently composed by Pat Murphy and presented during Connie Ryan Set Dance Weekend in January 2016.
The Carrowbeg Set has some reasonably simple but fun to dance moves and the third figure will no doubt remind you of the Lancers set.
Take a look for the notes and links to videos provided by Pat.
Dance Of The Week – 8 Hand Reel
The Dance Of The Week for this week is a challenging 8 hand reel that’s commonly danced at feiseanna. The 8 Hand Reel doesn’t have any moves that are particularly difficult but it requires precise movements and will give you a good cardio workout.
Click through for notes and video links.