Kalia, You make a good point. My most successful contra for such applications has been Haste to the Wedding in a proper line. I have had trouble with the cast at Party Dances. Do you demonstrate it? How do you describe it? I like your suggestion of Washington Quickstep. I might try it with 1.s DSD, then 2s DSD instead of R&L Thrus. Rich
On Sat, Mar 5, 2016 at 3:54 PM, Kalia Kliban via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > On 3/5/2016 10:44 AM, Rich Sbardella via Callers wrote: > >> I rarely call a contra at a One Night Party Dance, but occasionally I am >> asked to. I have a few in my cards, but can anyone make some sure fire >> recommendations. >> >> Assume 95%-100% non dancers. >> > > Just getting to the duple minor progression can be quite a process. The > simplest duple minor I've got is not technically a contra (it's an English > ceilidh dance), but works well as a mine-sweeper to see whether more > complex duples will work. It's called the Itchington Long Dance (Hugh > Rippon, 1990). Star L/R; cnrs dosido; 1s down/bk/cast; 1s swing and look > down for new Ns. If your crowd is up for it and you've got room, the B2 > can be a general P swing, but I like to do it just for the 1s to make the > progression clearer. > > Washington Quickstep (a contra chestnut) is good too, and if the 1s lose > track of who needs to be on the right after the swing, nothing terrible > happens. Star R/L, 1s dn/bk/cast; R&L thru over/bk; LLFB, 1s sw. > > Kalia > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers@lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net >