Balance the Star qualifies as a chestnut and works well. The stars
encourage a little hand jive action that is a lot of fun.
Here's my go-to dance for raggy tune sets which stole a good bit from
Balance the Star -- and Beaumont would work just fine with it.
(And per what I think others said, tembo matters. It's no fun -- not even
very raggy at -- warp speed.)
Ragtime Sammy
Contra, Duple, Improper
Ridge Kennedy
20
A-1 Right Hands Across Star (8) Left Hands Across
Star (8)
A-2 Gents Turn Back over right shoulder (peel off) make eye contact
and and swing Neighbor
(a short gypsy) (4-6) Long Swing
(12-10)
B-1 Circle Left Three Quarters (8) Partner
Swing (8)
B-2 Ladies Allemande Right 1 1/2 (8) Neighbor Allemande Left
1 1/2 (8)
Notes: The first version of this dance was made up in about 2013 for a
dance with Big Phat American K-Lee Band in Glen Echo. Early in the program
– maybe first dance, the band was going to do a set of rags. So we wanted
a dance that would work well with rags and that was pretty easy – a starter
upper. The only tricky bit here is moving from the allemande left with
neighbors to the next star. Just keep dancers mindful of which way they
will be going to progress, and it will work out fine.
The idea behind using the hands across stars was to encourage dancers to
use their free hands to do a little hand jive if the music so inspired
them. And so it did. The final ending sequence for the dance was finally
locked in place during 2015, I think. For all the time the dance was
evolving it was my “raggy, starry hand jive dance.” Recently though,
noting that bands frequently included Ragtime Annie in their raggy sets and
since (little known secret here) my first name is Samuel – well Ragtime
Sammy seems like a fitting title. Yeah, it’s a silly little dance, but when
the music is right, dancers really do feel encouraged to get into the hand
jive and more.
Ridge Kennedy [Exit 145]
Hey -- I wrote a book! *Murder & Miss Austen's Ball. *
It's a novel with musical accompaniment. Now that's different.
Read all about it here! <https://www.hedgehoghousebooks.com>
On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 3:17 AM Colin Hume via Contra Callers <
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> On Wed, 27 Apr 2022 16:46:36 -0400, Jacob or Nancy Bloom via Contra
> Callers wrote:
> > Balance The Star was written to go to Beaumont Rag. It's a simple
> dance, usually done as a Sicilian Circle, so it
> > may not be what you want for your crowd.
>
> That's the one I was going to suggest. Here's how I explain it:
> https://barndances.org.uk/detail.php?Title=Balance_the_Star
> and the vital phrase is "turn your back on your partner" - if callers
> can't get that across there is general confusion.
>
> Also a contra by Susan Kevra where she actually specified "Beaumont Rag
> and similar":
>
> Country of Marriage
>
> Longways Becket, single prog. 32 bar rags
>
> A1: Circle left 3/4. Do-si-do neighbour to a wave.
>
> A2: Balance right and left; ladies allemande left all the way
> (rapidly). Swing neighbour, finish facing across.
>
> B1: Right & left through. Men allemande right 3/4 to meet next man;
> allemande left with him 3/4 while ladies move to
> left.
>
> B2: Balance and swing partner.
>
> Dance: Susan Kevra -- English Dance & Song, Winter 1992.
>
> Colin Hume
>
> Email co...@colinhume.com Web site http://colinhume.com
>
>
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