Alison: I happen to agree philosophically with David M., but in practical terms
your observation is accurate. From the perspective of some modern urban contra
dancers, Rory O'More is almost as unbalanced a dance as you can get. The 2s'
only physical participation is in the cast-off and the cont
"...our dance organizer is against imbalanced dances anyway, and the
Rory O'More twirls are one of her favorite moves."
Unless your dance organizer is in superb physical condition, _Rory
O'More_ will illustrate for her a good reason why some dances have
active and inactive roles. To dance _Ror
At the risk of overstating the case-- and thank you, Jack, wherever you are, for
chiming in- I'll quote from another of David Smukler's essays. In this case,
he's discussing Chorus Jig but his comments about the role of the twos are
relevant in the Rory O'More context:
-
Valuing the role of th
At 04:40 PM 3/6/2008, you wrote:
[snip]
> And I am afraid I may be castigated for calling a dance where the 2's are
completely inactive for more than 32 beats!
I think the only way to deal with this is to face it head on, rather than to
attempt to "slip it by." You might talk about how "we all e
Dear Alison,
--- You wrote:
This is very bad for me, as our dance organizer is against imbalanced dances
anyway
--- end of quote ---
Immediate (and intemperate) reaction: tell your dance organizer to go soak her
head! This is a classic case of the hot-shots dance gypsies-- the "overactive
10%"--
I don't think this would work, because it is the cast off that sends
folks into the middle to do the wavy line, and getting to the center
(even if there was room) woudl be really awkward for the 2's. I
suspect this would be tricky to "balance" by alternating 1's and 2's
active because it would
Susan,
I've replied to you offlist, but I'll reiterate for anyone else who may be
passing through Memphis, Tennessee: This is the Volunteer state and we love
volunteer guest callers in Memphis, and the people to contact about calling
here are Joan and Ernest Kelly. Contact info may be found her
Alison,
I've been calling dances, primarily in upstate New
York and New England, for 29 years. I'll be visiting
Memphis in mid- April, and hope to attend the dance on
the 18th. I'd be happy to spend some time talking
with you about teaching this dance, and would be
delighted if I could call a da
I'll just add to Rich Hart's meticulous description that during the final part
of A1, the cast-off, the active couples each walk forward as the inactive pivots
them around.
It's a lovely dance, and can be a significant challenge for folks accustomed to
the current spate of duple improper and Becke
This is one of those moves that is very easy to understand when you see
it, and a little harder to describe with words, but I'll try..
I'll break it down into smaller steps, actually just 1 or two footsteps
each:
1. Actives begin on the proper side.
2. Active pass partner by R to cross set,
Hi!
I'm a fledgling amateur caller in Memphis TN, I've been doing this a little
over a year. I just called my first dance with contra corners last week, Kathy
Anderson's "Labor of Love," and it went really well, so I'm excited to be
planning Rory O'More as a follow up this week. Our band is se
And I'll just add one short story:
I founded and ran the dance in Boise Idaho for about 8 years. We had
a committee, but I took care of most of the details. When I was
getting ready to leave and move east, I was worried about what would
happen.
Not only did the committee step up to the pl
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