Hello everyone! I'm organizing a book I'd like to write and design. I'm in my last semester of design school and this is a part of my senior projects. I want my diagrams to be as clear as possible at first glance, so if you could take a survey to make sure I'm on the right track, that'd be wonderful!

Don't look ahead! Take one question at a time, jot down your answer, THEN move on. 12 total, general answers (not looking for specifics). Should take 5 minutes tops!

First Image: www.diochra.com . . .

01. What does this image show?

02. What do the markers represent?

03. Why are some green, and some orange?

04. Why are some dark, and some light?

05. What is the different between the solid markers, and the markers with the white dot?

Second Image: www.diochra.com . . .

06. What does this image show?

07. What do the middle markers represent?

08. What do the outer markers represent?

09. What do the numbers signify? Why are they helpful?

Third Image: www.diochra.com . . .

10. Why does this image show?

11. What do the sets of colors represent?

Final Question!

12. What is the subject of my book?


Thank you, everyone! You're super helpful.

Don't know if it's just my computer, but your links don't seem to be working.

First Image:
1: The image shows 4 couples waiting to dance
2: The markers represent the couples. Each colour is a different couple.
3. Green and orange colours depict which couples dance opposite each other. (Top couples and Side couples)
4. Some are light/dark so that there is a differentiation between Top 1 and 2 couples and Side 1 and 2 couples.
5. The solid markers represent the gents, the white dots represent the ladies

Second Image
6. The image shows dancers waiting to start a 6 hand.
7. Middle markers represent the gents
8. Outer markers represent the ladies
9. The numbers signify the ladies. The numbers are helpful to keep track of which lady goes where.

Third Image
10. This image shows the top couples and the side couples standing next to each other.
11. The sets of colours represent individual couples as well as top and side couples (light/dark oranges and greens)

12. The subject of your book is "Irish Ceili Dances: A Colourful Breakdown of Who Goes Where"

Image 1
1. ceili dance line up showing each couple and their position
2. Parts of the couple (gents and ladies)
3. Tops/ops tops, sides, ops sides, however, the one orange looks brownish.
4. see above
5. The ladies have a white "hole", because boys have a pole? lol - showing who's a lady and who's a gent.

Image 2
1. 2 lines of dancers, perhaps fairy reel?
2. gents
3. which lady to go to first in the figure/pattern. Fairy reel asks the gent to turn with the lady in position #1 first, then on to lady #2 in gents center and link arms.
4. same as above.

Image 3
1. 2 lines of dancers
2. tops/ ops tops, and so on.
3. Ceili dances finally made easy and with clear instruction instead of guessing where the offset X's and O's go in the original book when you couldn't review your Olive Hurley tapes. If you did an animated version, we'd all love you.

1)The first image shows an 8-hand
2)The markers represent each dancer
3)Tops/bottoms are green, sides are orange
4)The dark ones are the secondary ones...i've heard it said as first tops and second tops, first sides and second sides. The second ones are darker.
5)The ones with the white dots are the ladies' spots.

6)A 6-hand, in my head, they are about to do the Fairy Reel.
7)The middle markers are the gents
8)The outer markers are the ladies.
9)The numbers denote the order the gents go to after the gents in the middle section. Go to the first one first, the second one second. They are helpful because coming out of that spin there in the middle, sometimes it's hard for beginners to remember which one to go to first.

10)Gotta admit, this one threw me for a loop. Maybe I'm just dumb, but I had to think about it. I still don't even know what it is, but that might be because I haven't done figures in forever. It looks like....an 8-hand lined up? With the tops next to each other and sides next to each other? With their partner? But I've never seen a group lined up like that before.
11)The sets of colors represent the same thing they did before...tops are green, sides are orange.

12)The subject of your book seems to be figure dancing.

image won't show for me. I'll try again later.

01. What does this image show?
8-hand

02. What do the markers represent?
the people dancing

03. Why are some green, and some orange?
To show which people were originally facing each other

04. Why are some dark, and some light?
To show whose partner is whose

05. What is the different between the solid markers, and the markers with the white dot?
solid = girls, dot = boys?

Second Image: diochra.com . . .

06. What does this image show?
6-hand

07. What do the middle markers represent?
The middle person

08. What do the outer markers represent?
The outside people

09. What do the numbers signify? Why are they helpful?
Which side a person was originally on? I'm a little confused by it

Third Image: diochra.com . . .

10. Why does this image show?
I'm not sure... the Siege of Ennis??

11. What do the sets of colors represent?
Which side a person is on + their partner

Final Question!

12. What is the subject of my book?
Figure dances

01. What does this image show? An 8 hand

02. What do the markers represent? Ladies!

03. Why are some green, and some orange?
Signifying 1, 2, 3, 4th couples

04. Why are some dark, and some light? hm 1st and 3rd and 2nd and 4th couples

05. What is the different between the solid markers, and the markers with the white dot? Ladies and Gents

Second Image: diochra.com . . .

06. What does this image show? Fairy Reel

07. What do the middle markers represent? Gents

08. What do the outer markers represent? Ladies

09. What do the numbers signify? Why are they helpful? Lady on the Right and Left. (right is 1st lady) Helpful to know which lady goes where/first

Third Image: diochra.com . . .

10. Why does this image show? eek a ceili I'm not familiar with! Haymakers jig? It can't be. ladies are vs. gents in that one. hmmm

11. What do the sets of colors represent? the couples!

Final Question!

12. What is the subject of my book? Ceili dancing made easy!

The links don't work for me

Ok I'll give it a shot!
First image represents a 'normal' 8 hand set up (when I say normal I mean the set up for the majority of 8 hands).
The markers represent dancers.
The green couples are sides and the orange couples are tops (or vice versa but it makes more sense for the next question if green are sides).
Light coloured are leading and dark coloured are opposites.
The markers with the dots are ladies...for no other reason than they are on the right of the gent haha.

The second image represents a 6 hand set up, likely to be fairy reel.
The middle markers would therefore be gents.
The numbers...oh i'm a bit old for fairy reel these days...I know you number off the couples when you set it up. Yeah I'm lost. They will be helpful for the diamond and square and the arches (more so the arches, I think 1 is the lady that goes under first?).

The third image represents another 8 hand, I'm going with the gates of derry...but then I have no idea what the colours represent because I thought it would be couples, but if it is then they should be opposite from eachother. Ok maybe it's the seige of ennis. Then it's couples.

The book is '30 popular ceili dances - for dummies'

Sorry for the typing as I think!
Further feedback - it took me a while to cotton on to this, but that's because I had no context. I'm sure that with the right context (as in, you generally know what book you are reading!) these diagrams would be useful.
I'd be interested to see how you will represent couples moving along in a long progressive ceili? I think that's difficult for a lot of people to grasp. Perhaps numbering them is a good idea?

Look forward to seeing the book (hopefully before I take my tcrg!!!).
Good luck!

The links don't work for me either...

If you're writing a tcrg study guide..... THANK YOU!! (my answers are the same as everyone else's haha)

Tee hee, thanks everyone! And you can still take the survey, don't mind me.

I'm sorry if the images aren't working for you. Very strange. They are simple JPGs, no reason why they shouldn't work. I made a page for you with the images embedded; can you see them here?
www.diochra.com . . .

Okay, now I'm going to discuss the book, so if you didn't take the survey yet. DON'T READ! You sneaky thing you!

/* SPOILER ALERT */

You're all quite right, I am working on a ceili book! Its working title is 'All Hands In: A Ceili Book for the Rest of Us'. It will cover the usual 30 ceilis as well as an additional ~20 ceili dances that are not in An Rince Foirne. Yes, there are dances not in ARF! And some pretty fun ones at that, with names like 'Petticoat Swish' and 'Biddy, the Basket-Woman'.

My main frustration with the TCRG has been the rote memorization of the ceili dances and the awful way in which they are presented in the official book. I've decided to use my love of and training in design to make life a little easier for those of us looking to become certified teachers. I'm not sure if it'll be one big book or a few small books; maybe both. The big book would have a spiral binding, that much I know, to make it easy to use in the classroom.

It's not a TCRG study guide per se—it will be focused on teaching ceilis outside of any organization. I'll be giving a basic rundown leaning towards the CLRG style of dancing, then making comments or repeating a dance as needed for CRN's style. I hope to include tips as I teach and learn myself, how to make it easier for tiny kids vs adults, how to explain things in a way that makes sense, and so forth.

cmdc said "If you did an animated version, we'd all love you." In an ideal world I'd be able to include a disc of proper music as well as a CDROM of animations. I'd really like to do an Olive Hurley-esque video with everyone in t-shirts and shorts to match their marker colors. But that's in the future—the book comes first, then animation, then video if ever. And if anyone wants to provide music for the book, let me know!

(As an alternative to CDs/CDROMS, being easier and less wasteful, these could all be put on a dedicated website for download/viewing.)

I'm not sure when this will come out, as I've just started. I would like a teaser book to be ready for October/November.

On to the "answers". There is no right answer, and I made up the designs without checking any ceili manual, so I may be off on anything.

FIRST IMAGE.
01. What does this image show? An 8-hand.
02. What do the markers represent? Dancers!
03. Why are some green, and some orange? Some are tops and some are sides.
04. Why are some dark, and some light? Leading and opposite couples.
05. What is the different between the solid markers, and the markers with the white dot? They designate ladies and gents.

SECOND IMAGE.
06. What does this image show? A six-hand.
07. What do the middle markers represent? Gents.
08. What do the outer markers represent? Ladies.
09. What do the numbers signify? Why are they helpful? The mark each lady so it's easier to keep track (the diagrams will eventually show movement).

THIRD IMAGE.
10. Why does this image show? Siege of Ennis in my mind.
11. What do the sets of colors represent? Couples.

Laurie (SeniorLady), you brought up CONTEXT. Absolutely. I wanted to test you all without any context (besides hello, we're on an Irish dancing board) to see just how easy it was to understand them without explanation. The book will, of course, have very clear explanation of each difference.

You also asked, "I'd be interested to see how you will represent couples moving along in a long progressive ceili? I think that's difficult for a lot of people to grasp. Perhaps numbering them is a good idea?" I'd either number them, or play with shapes. I want as little reading as possible—more automatic-gut-understanding instead of search-scan-read-think-understand. I originally toyed with the idea of labeling tops and sides with a "T" and an "S" but color seemed more straightforward.

1. Why, it's a very clever setup for an 8-hand ceili!
2. The markers represent the ladies position, and the non-marked places are gents.
3. Different colors represent top and bottom couples vs. sides.
4. differentiates between top & bottom, 1st sides and 2nd sides
5. as said above, ladies vs. gents
6. This looks like the advance and retire figure from trip to the cottage.
7. middle marker is the gent
8. outer markers are the ladies
9.numbers signify top vs. side ladies, lets you know which gent (top or bottom) they go with
10. advance and retire, it appears, with top and bottom couples in the same line, and side couples in the same line, alternating gent/lady/gent/lady.
12. Why a book of ceili diagrams, of course!

~Erin~

Well, you can sign me up as a purchaser of your book! I love doing ceili!

I'm using internet explorer. Still can't see any images, just the dreaded little red x in the corner

Well, drat. There is no reason why IE should act like such a lunkhead; I'm not doing anything fancy at all. Well, except that it's IE and it likes being a lunkhead. Try Firefox or Google Chrome?

01. What does this image show?
4 couples in '8-hand formation'
02. What do the markers represent?
A person
03. Why are some green, and some orange?
So you can work out who is a 'north-south' couple and who is an 'east-west' couple.
04. Why are some dark, and some light?
To differentiate between different couples
05. What is the different between the solid markers, and the markers with the white dot?
One is where the male dancer stands, the other where the female dancer stands

06. What does this image show?
People in formation for a 6-hand ceili dance
07. What do the middle markers represent?
The men
08. What do the outer markers represent?
The women
09. What do the numbers signify? Why are they helpful?
Numbers help to differentiate between the two female dancers of the same colour
10. Why does this image show?
Dancers in place for an 8-hand that does not use the circular fomation
11. What do the sets of colors represent?
The couples/corresponding couple
12. What is the subject of my book?
Ceili dancing

Okay, I just have to say that I feel really stupid now. I should have remembered that since this is on a dance site, it would most likely be dance related. I couldn't figure out a single thing; I was thinking they were some kind of psychological test patterns or something (I guess that's what I get for reading all those old school psych books).

Anyway, as soon as I read the first reply I was like, "Ohhh, that's great. I'm an idiot." So I thought I'd sure my stupidity with you.

Good luck with your book!

Twitchkit, you never know, I could be developing a psych study of Irish dancers using ceili symbology!

01. dancers in 8 hand

02. dancers - like the pointy side that i'm assuming shows the front of the dancer so you can tell if they turn directions.

03. green are tops, orange are sides

04. first tops(sides) vs. 2nd tops

05. one is gent and one is lady

06. 6 hand

07. gents

08. ladies

09. which lady goes first

10. 8 hand

11. What do the sets of colors represent? the two groups facing each other, 2 couples on each side

Final Question!

12. What is the subject of my book? ceili dancing!

Twitch and Ashe, that's what I thought when I very first saw image 1. I was like...perhaps an abstract shamrock...bats, the number 7?!?! Then I was lik...uhh...wait, perhaps she really does mean ceili?