Black nag

[ladyofastolat]

Any Oxford folk remember how we used to dance "Black nag"? We learnt it last night, from the original 17th century instructions, and parts of it felt familiar, but parts of it didn't. I definitely remember the "GALLopy gallopy gallopy gallopy; GALLopy gallopy gallopy gallopy; GALLopy gallopy gallopy gallopy; All. Turn. Round" bit, and the "CORners cross (3, 4), CORners cross (3, 4), SIDES cross (3, 4), All. Turn. Round" bit, but I don't remember the siding, and I can't remember any heys, though Pellinor thinks he can.

(You can tell that I used to teach these dances in my Oxford days, since I can't dance any of them without chanting the moves out loud.)

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Hi, sorry for being totally off-topic here but I asked a couple of colleagues about your Dad's testosterone question, and here is what they said:

"In adults, levels of T are very different between the sexes. Free testosterone is easily 5-6 times higher in men that women, with no overlap in the healthy population. I assume similar numbers will apply to total testosterone (most testosterone is bound to carrier proteins). From my recollection, in prepubertal children, the titers are pretty much similar (and low). During embryonic development, T is again higher in males than females (because it is produced mainly by the developing testis). However, I don't know if ANYONE knows numbers for human embryos (although I'm sure a lot is known for mice and rats). In development, T often has its masculinizing effects on the brain by being converted to Oestrogens (oestradiol) by a hormone called aromatase. This happens locally in the brain. The reason why circulating oestrogen does not have this effect is again due to binding proteins (alpha-fetoprotein), which prevent oestrogen from reaching those tissues if it originates in the bloodstream. This protein is turned off at post-natal day 7 (I'm not sure what species this data is from, but I think it's humans)."

"As for tissues: T and E [i.e. oestrogen] circulate in the bloodstream (bound to carrier proteins typically), and because they are lipophilic, can cross into any tissue (including the brain) freely (at least the unbound portion). So I expect tissue levels to be fairly similar. What does differ is the distribution of receptors throughout different tissues. And as said above, you do get higher local levels of E where aromatase is present (conversion from T)."

So, it sounds as if there is essentially no overlap, certainly in adults, and probably in utero too -- quite different from height. Interesting. Hope this is of some use to your Dad!

Neuromancer

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry, quick clarification -- when he says " in prepubertal children, the titers are pretty much similar (and low)", he means similar between girls and boys, not between children and adults. So there is a lot of overlap before puberty (although the brain has already been wired differently by the prenatal testosterone). - N.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I'll pass it on to my Dad

[hmmm-tea.livejournal.com]

I'm sure whenever I've done it it's been

Lead up double and back twice
Gallopy gallopy thing
Side both ways
Crossing thing
Arm both ways
Men hey, women hey

or something like that.

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

That's how we did it last night, too. The thing is, we used to dance some dances back in one of our student societies, and they were transmitted through oral tradition over several generations of students. For example, there was one dance that included a move in which we were told to run around madly going "woo woo woo!", which we have since concluded was probably a hey once upon a time but got changed due to faulty memories, or people not being able to cope with a hey. Any Black Nag that we danced back then could well have been very different from the proper Black Nag, but I just can't remember how we used to do it.

Black Nag

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Gallopy gallopy gallopy gallopy
x3
All turn around

Corners cross (tum, tum); corners cross (tum, tum); centres cross (tum, tum)
All turn around

Figure of eight bit, each side in turn, while the other side jiggles about on the spot looking attractive. All turn around.

And then gallopy gallopy back again.

Didn't know it had a name - always thought of it as "the gallopy gallopy one".

Creatrix

Re: Black Nag

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

I have a very strange wife ...

Re: Black Nag

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Not at all. A very helpful one.

Re: Black Nag

[ladyofastolat.livejournal.com]

Ah! Thanks! So that's why only parts of the dance were familiar on Monday. It sounds as if the Arthurians managed to mislay a couple of the moves - though the ones we did do, we did correctly.

Strange how we always used to practice all these different dances, but at banquets were only ever did "kick kick kick whee!" and horse's bransle.

[jane-somebody.livejournal.com]

Yep, to add my remembrance to Creatrix', definitely no heys. There were no heys at all back in the Old Days, and since then only the circular hey reconstructed back into King of the Fairies.

...I now have the gallopy-gallopy tune stuck in my head, of course ;-)