One of my go-to dances for beginning contra dancers has everyone swinging
their partner in the center of the set at the same time. It works fine.
Before I start teaching the dance, I make sure that the dancers spread out
up and down the set so that they have enough room. (If the hall were too
In my experience, two hand turns can (by dancers with their wits about
them) have dynamic radii--as in, you can have your arms fully spread when
you have room, or you can tighten in your elbows when you don't. With
experienced dancers you keep 'weight' the same in both of these
configurations: (I
>From Here To Infinity
Laurie P
~ When I dance, I cannot judge, I cannot hate, I cannot separate myself from
life. I can only be joyful and whole, that is why I dance. ~Hans Bos~ ~___
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Laurie,
I checked out the video you mentioned
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13PQT9ubOdc
and the music seemed quite quite danceable, as I would expect from the duo in
the video, Patt and Possum (Patt Plunkett and Charlie "Possum" Walden), and
suitable for the general run of contra
Louise --
"Caller's Box" has separate entries for gate and hand cast, but hand cast says
"Very similar to a gate" and the gate entry says "Very similar to hand cast."
So you're not alone.
The caller's box gate description is ":Two people face the same direction,
hold nearest hands, and
Awesome thanks.
Laurie
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On Friday, April 14, 2023, 7:05 PM, Winston, Alan P.
wrote:
Just searched my on-disk notes, and discovered two dances that call out
Beaumont Rag as a suitable tune.
Balance the Star by the McLain family. A Sicilian Circle,.
Just searched my on-disk notes, and discovered two dances that call out
Beaumont Rag as a suitable tune.
Balance the Star by the McLain family. A Sicilian Circle,. suitable for
beginners
Notes here:
https://www.library.unh.edu/special/forms/rpdlw/syllabus2013.pdf#page=17
"Colin's Carnival
Hi Amy,
“Hand Cast”, “Gate”, “Wheel Around” (which I am surprised is not
in https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm), and “Turn
As A Couple” are all fundamentally the same move.
Two people stand side by side, facing the same way, and hold
Hi, John.
I do think it's interesting that (North American) contra rules are that both
couples swinging in the middle at once is too crowded, but (North American) ECD
is totally fine with everybody doing two-hand turns (which have a bigger
radius) at once, and a Community Dances Manual dance
Hi Emily,
You say, “Can get away with in in longways dances but contras are a bit
tighter”. Hmm… contras ARE longways dances! How much space you need depends
on the dance, not the genre. A dance like Bases Loaded is a contra, but
definitely needs a bit more space up and down the room.
Hi,
Any dance goes to any tune. The genre is not important. What is
important is the phrasing, the length, the time signature and the tempo.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer,
Louise,
In the B2, is the allemande with a shadow (same one each time)? On the same
side of the set as the partner swing?
Jerome
On Fri, Apr 14, 2023, 4:02 PM Louise Siddons via Contra Callers <
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Re: Amy’s question about a gate:
>
> Is a gate the
its a RAG, Sorry. I finally remembered - ... Beaumont Rag. they play it a
little less bluegrassy than I can find on YouTube. This is close - Here's the
tune (not the players) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13PQT9ubOdc
Are there any other dances you could think that would fit?
I think this
I’ve been trying to find the video someone shared with them playing the tune.
I’ll share when I find.
L
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On Friday, April 14, 2023, 3:56 PM, Jeff Kaufman
wrote:
Hi Laurie,
Any chance you could share the tune or a recording? "Jazz" is a very wide
genre, and
Emily--
Swings in the middle work fine if there's only one couple doing them.
In your Jefferson and Liberty (which is Dudley Briggs' "Jefferson Reel" rather
than the historical Jefferson and LIberty), the 1s don't swing at all and the
2s only swing if they cheat while the 1s are going down
Re: Amy’s question about a gate:
Is a gate the same as a hand cast to anyone except me?
Jerome: let me know how it goes!
Louise.
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Hi Laurie,
Any chance you could share the tune or a recording? "Jazz" is a very wide
genre, and giving advice for matching dances to jazz is sort of like giving
advice to matching dances to "fiddle music".
Jeff
On Fri, Apr 14, 2023 at 1:58 PM Charles Abell via Contra Callers <
Amy,
I would describe a gate as a connected turn in which both dancers start
facing the same direction (in this case, into the set). One dancer dances
forward while the other backpedals, with their joined hands being the pivot
of the turn. And can I emphasize again the importance of the connection
http://dancevideos.childgrove.org/contra/contra-modern/555-circle-of-love-by-susan-kevra-duple-inproper
The dance archive here, and searching a figure name, is a great resource.
Gates come from English dances as far as I know, but I have been able to
teach them to my "barn dance" crowd for
Hi All,
I've been looking at a couple of simple simple contras.
One is Jefferson and Liberty (below) and the other is Taking Liberties with
Jefferson.
I do like the fact that the stars are in Taking Liberties. However, in my
somewhat limited calling career, I've haven't found that swings in the
Laura, I plead ignorance here. Will you please describe/define "gate?"
Thanks,
-Amy
On Fri, Apr 14, 2023, 11:18 AM Louise Siddons via Contra Callers <
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Hi Jerome (and all),
>
> I have heard the left-petronella referred to as a “retronella” — which
Hi Jerome (and all),
I have heard the left-petronella referred to as a “retronella” — which may be a
useful search term, and also produces some delight when dancers hear it for the
first time.
And although I worry US dancers would rush the gates and therefore find this a
bit unsatisfying (not
As a caller and a dance musician who sometimes plays jazz standards for contra
dances, I have found that dances that are a bit marchy (down-the-halls, single
promenades, etc) and bouncier dances (lots of balances) seem to work best with
swing tunes. And of course, some square dances are written
We have a band in the area that like to play kind of a jazzy swing tune number
- and as far as I can ever remember callers are more than a little surprised by
the tune when it comes out because the dances don’t work with it.
I want to do is find a dance that goes with a swinging jazzy tune, and
Michael,
That's it! Thanks!
I'll have to check out the others as well...
Jerome
On Fri, Apr 14, 2023, 12:57 PM Michael Dyck via Contra Callers <
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> On 2023-04-14 8:45 a.m., Jerome Grisanti via Contra Callers wrote:
> > Hello Friends,
> >
> > I have
On 2023-04-14 8:45 a.m., Jerome Grisanti via Contra Callers wrote:
Hello Friends,
I have called a dance that I cannot now find, it included a petronella turn
to the right and one to the left. I liked it because the unusual direction
is different for experienced dancers while easy for newish
Hello Friends,
I have called a dance that I cannot now find, it included a petronella turn
to the right and one to the left. I liked it because the unusual direction
is different for experienced dancers while easy for newish dancers.
Can anyone recall seeing such a sequence?
I thought it might
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