Millstone or "windmill" - term I've seen used in print for older Canadian
dances.
Bob Livingston
From: Angela DeCarlis via Callers <[email protected]>
To: Jacob or Nancy Bloom <[email protected]>
Cc: callers <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars
I've never heard "millstone" or "mill" before, but it sounds like it has
precedence. My guess is that it was (is?) a useful term at dances where
hands-across stars are default. Since that isn't generally the case in many
places any longer, it makes sense that "hands-across" has become the more
useful modifier.
On Oct 10, 2016 11:37 AM, "Jacob or Nancy Bloom via Callers"
<[email protected]> wrote:
When I attended the Berea Christmas Dance School forty years ago, and put my
hand on the wrist in front of me during a walk through, someone complained,
saying, "He said a star, not a mill!"
Is the term "mill", or the term "millstone", commonly used to refer to wrist
stars in areas where hands-across is the default way of doing a star?
Jacob Bloom
On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 10:29 AM, Jerome Grisanti via Callers
<[email protected]. net> wrote:
I agree with Chet that Louisville's default star is hands-across, although
weekend festivals in nearby cities tend toward the millstone star. I avoid the
terms wrist-lock or even wrist-grip star, as I prefer the fingers to lay atop
the adjoining wrist without using the thumb to "grip" in any way.
The Midwest where I dance/call now is pretty solidly wrist-star territory (St.
Louis, Columbia MO, Kansas City, Lawrence). When I call one-night events
(parties, weddings), I dictate hands-across stars, but when calling for an
established contra community I ask for the default.
--Jerome
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and
magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 3:31 AM, John Sweeney via Callers
<[email protected] t> wrote:
Hi all,
I have been to contra dances and festivals all over America and
everywhere I have danced everyone automatically uses a wrist-lock star
(unless the caller has specified hands-across because of the subsequent
choreography).
But I am constantly challenged in England by people claiming that
wrist-lock stars are not the standard in America.
When I go to somewhere like The Flurry and see 600 people from all
over the country all doing wrist-locks it seems to me that it must be the
standard way of doing things.
And obviously it has been common in America for a long time; this
video is from 1964 in Northern Vermont and shows wrist-lock stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=pZubTju7g_s
So, are there still significant communities that don't use
wrist-locks?
Is the wrist-lock the de facto standard?
Thanks.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England [email protected] 01233 625 362 & 07802
940 574
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events & DVDs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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