[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
The grapevine step while circling is very common in Modern Western Square Dancing. It is even in the definition of Circle Left: "Some regions dance 8-dancer circles with a walking step with no turning motion of the body. Other regions dance 8-dancer circles with a grapevine step, with the body and arms turning left and right, in synchrony with this step, allowing the dancers to make eye contact with their Corners and Partners successively." Square dances and contra dances often used to be danced on the same evening. I have no idea which style it started in, but it may well have been absorbed from one into the other. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England j...@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
We used to grapevine while circling in the Hudson Valley in the late 80's, but it was probably just us young'uns that thought we were extra cool. :/ On 12/19/22, K P via Contra Callers wrote: > All this grapevine chitchat got me thinking: Krikey, this is one of those > instances where you don't realize something changed until much later. Kind > of like trying to remember the last time you rolled down a grassy hill as a > kid. > > We used to do the grapevine-ish step when circling when I started contra in > Ottawa about 25 years ago - kind of as a way of allowing one to look both > forward and back. I have no idea where or when that stopped. Weird! > > Ken Panton > ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
All this grapevine chitchat got me thinking: Krikey, this is one of those instances where you don't realize something changed until much later. Kind of like trying to remember the last time you rolled down a grassy hill as a kid. We used to do the grapevine-ish step when circling when I started contra in Ottawa about 25 years ago - kind of as a way of allowing one to look both forward and back. I have no idea where or when that stopped. Weird! Ken Panton ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
John is of course corrrect that grapevine exists in other contexts than IFD. However, I'm pretty sure I'm right about the source of the grapevine step in contra dancing in the SF Bay Area in the mid-1980s because I know some of the people who were doing it were involved in IFD. -- Alan From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2022 3:49 PM To: contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step Alan suggested that the Grapevine was borrowed from IFD. It could also have come from a number of ballroom styles of dance, or from early Line Dancing. It is such a basic piece of footwork that it occurs in many genres and may have arisen in multiple ones. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England j...@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
Alan suggested that the Grapevine was borrowed from IFD. It could also have come from a number of ballroom styles of dance, or from early Line Dancing. It is such a basic piece of footwork that it occurs in many genres and may have arisen in multiple ones. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England j...@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
Here in the SF Bay Area, when I started contra dancing in the mid-1980s it was pretty common for people to use a grapevine step in any circle in any contra dance. I guess that fell into the category of "common variation" rather than choreography that used it. I think by 2000 it had become rare. (Initially because it was done so frequently I didn't realize it was borrowed from IFD and thought it was just part of the tradition.) -- Alan From: Chris Page via Contra Callers Sent: Saturday, December 17, 2022 3:03 PM To: Elizabeth Bloom Albert Cc: contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step Not that I've run across. There's a few traditional ones that are sometimes done with a step-swing balance. (Some interpretations of "The Young Widow" or occasionally "Money Musk".) I've also run across a few obscure contras in print that use the grapevine step, though I've never encountered those on the dance floor. Cheers, -Chris Page Los Angeles, CA On Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 9:06 AM Elizabeth Bloom Albert via Contra Callers wrote: > > dear callers and dance writers, > > has anyone out there come across/written a contra dance that incorporates the > dance move, Yemenite (as in “Yemenite right; Yemenite left”), from Israeli > folk dance? > > thanks much !! > > > > > -- > Elizabeth Bloom Albert > > ___ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
David Smukler wrote a waltz-time circle mixer with a Yemenite Balance, that you might conceivably call at a contra dance evening. It is called Banjo's Mistress. I regularly call Don Armstrong's Grapevine Jig, or my variation of it. A step-swing balance is just one of 50 ways to do a Balance; see https://scholars.unh.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048&context=northern_junket page 13. American contra dancers used to use lots of those and pride themselves on doing a different balance each time through the dance. Sadly, that is an embellishment that seems to have disappeared over time. We still do lots of step-swing balances in England, I encourage them in some contra dances where they fit well. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England j...@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
Not that I've run across. There's a few traditional ones that are sometimes done with a step-swing balance. (Some interpretations of "The Young Widow" or occasionally "Money Musk".) I've also run across a few obscure contras in print that use the grapevine step, though I've never encountered those on the dance floor. Cheers, -Chris Page Los Angeles, CA On Sat, Dec 17, 2022 at 9:06 AM Elizabeth Bloom Albert via Contra Callers wrote: > > dear callers and dance writers, > > has anyone out there come across/written a contra dance that incorporates the > dance move, Yemenite (as in “Yemenite right; Yemenite left”), from Israeli > folk dance? > > thanks much !! > > > > > -- > Elizabeth Bloom Albert > > ___ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
[Callers] Re: the Yemenite dance step
Ralph Page once joked that some dance writer who was overly interested in novelty would probably write a dance with the call, "Down the center with a mixed pickles step." A contra dance with a Yemenite step seems just as improbable. Jacob On Sat, Dec 17, 2022, 12:06 PM Elizabeth Bloom Albert via Contra Callers < contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > dear callers and dance writers, > > has anyone out there come across/written a contra dance that incorporates > the dance move, Yemenite (as in “Yemenite right; Yemenite left”), from > Israeli folk dance? > > thanks much !! > > > > -- > > * Elizabeth Bloom Albert * > ___ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net > ___ Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net
