I tried this tonight, and it went well, with the dancers really enjoying
themselves.
Lots of fun variations in the hey, not all of which were intended, but
the final circle
sorted people out nicely.
Te only negative is from an aesthetic point of view: it has 2 circle
lefts, and it
is not generally desireable to repeat a figure. Although in this case it
is all right,
as the 2 circles are very distinctive, and you will not be confused as
to where
in the dance you are.
As for a name, the original dance was named Butter. With all the mixing
up in the hey, perhaps name the dance Churning Butter.
Anyway, a definite thumbs up from the dancers.
Peter Foster
Canberra, Australia
On 30/06/2025 3:45 pm, Russell Frank via Contra Callers wrote:
Watching dancers play around at a recent dance, I had the following idea for a
“choose your own adventure” variation.
The idea is that you do a full hey, but any or all crossings can be replaced by
ricochets, with no pattern or requirements (other than that both people have to
agree on the choice made at each stage.) They can then straighten things out
by circling left until every body is on the side where they belong.
For example, here is the modification of Gene Hubert’s Butter along these lines
Becket
A1 Progress left to the next couple, circle left 3/4,
Neighbor swing
A2 Long lines
Robins chain
B1 Robins start a full hey by the right, with ricochets permitted, but not
required at each of the 4 crossings
B2 Circle left until everyone is on their original side with their partner
Partner swing
I don’t know whether the variable circle length and resulting shorter or longer
swing will be a source of fun or an annoyance, but it looks worth trying.
I think if everyone ends up where they started at the end of the hey, they
probably should do a long swing, rather than requiring a circle left all the
way, but that’s a detail.
At this point, I am calling dances only occasionally, so I won’t be trying it
out any time soon.
Please let me know what you think, and how it goes if you try it out.
Thanks,
Russell Frank
Monterey, CA
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