Welcome to the Merry Dancers Scottish Dance Leaflets series. This is an experiment designed to investigate the feasibility of publishing a series of dance descriptions both in the traditional fashion and on the Internet.
All Merry Dancers leaflets are available in printed form and in various electronic formats - both as HTML hypertext and as a PostScript file which is identical to the printed version. Both versions are derived automatically from a common source document. This means that, rather than sending me mail asking for a printed copy of the leaflet, you can download the PostScript file and print a copy yourself. This saves you and me work and money for photocopying and postal charges. On the other hand, since both the PostScript and the HTML version derive from the same input file, both versions are identical as far as the contents is concerned - so if you don't have access to a PostScript printer or don't mind the slightly inferior quality of HTML output, you can stick to the HTML version which is a lot smaller to retrieve.
I have been distributing leaflets for a while at balls and workshops in Germany (where I live). However, since the dances are listed in Keith Napier's index, I have also begun to receive requests from overseas! If there is sufficient demand, we could probably arrange for distribution of Merry Dancers leaflets through the usual channels such as SNDC or TACbooks, to make them more accessible to people who aren't on the Net. (As of now, I'm handling the distribution myself.)
The Merry Dancers leaflets operate on a strictly non-profit basis. Since the price of a single leaflet would necessarily be rather small, the bank charges incurred by transferring payment would defy all proportion. For now, if you'd like to pay anything, feel free to make a suitable donation to a charity of your choice (the RSCDS comes to mind). - On the other hand, I'm not really prepared to sink huge amounts of money into this project. So, if you're writing to me by snail mail, please do include appropriate return postage (a SASE or an International Reply Coupon) because the postal rates in Germany border on the outrageous, especially for mail abroad.
If you're thinking about redistributing Merry Dancers leaflets to your friends (or enemies, depending on how you like the dances), feel free to do so. The only thing I ask is that you keep the disclaimer posted at the bottom of every leaflet, and that you obey the `non-profit' philosophy of the whole thing. This means that you shouldn't ask for more money than what it takes to cover your photocopying, handling, etc. of the leaflets (I'd say that anything over half a dollar, US funds, per leaflet would probably be vastly exaggerated).
In case you want to participate in this experiment by submitting a dance to be published as a Merry Dancers leaflet, I'd be delighted to evaluate anything you'd care to send, as well as do the typesetting etc. for the version to be published. You would retain copyright but grant me (and the dancing public in general) a `non-exclusive license' to distribute the description non-commercially in its verbatim form on paper or on the Internet - just like the leaflets that are already available in the series.
If you have comments, ideas or suggestions feel free to send me e-mail (my address is given at the end of this page) or to write a letter the traditional way - my address is
Anselm Lingnau