David,
Do you know whether the directions for "Manhattan Chowder", as originally
published in the 1980s, suggested that the active dancers to maintain eye
contact during the figure under discussion? I don't have a guess one way or the
other and I wouldn't want to make assumptions based on evide
The earliest use I know of in a contra dance of the _action_ of dancing the
track of a do-si-do around one person while maintaining eye contact with
another person was in "Saint Paddy's Day" by Kirston Koths, written in 1982:
http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=
Kat,
I played the recording you linked to (the version on Google Drive), and
measured the tempo as averaging 110 beats per minute, with not much variation
over the length of the recording (except for the ritard at the very end, which
I didn't include in my timing). If my computer is playing the
Okay. It's time to tell an embarrassing story on myself.
Another caller and I once concocted an unusual medley for use at the transition
between our sets at an all-night dance: We would begin with one of those
four-face-four dances in which the dancers briefly get into square formation,
then me
You can hear some thoughts from sixty years ago relating to topics in this
thread in this recording of a 1962 Q&A session with the late great square dance
caller Ed Gilmore:
http://squaredancehistory.com/items/show/702
You might start by listening for a few minutes beginning from 17:53.
Laurie,
I started getting the feeling that we've been over this subject before, and I
found thread about "Beaumont Rag" started on 2022/04/27 either by you or by
some other "Laur" with the subject line "Need help fitting to a tune". I'm
forwarding below a message I sent on 2022/04/28.
In my me
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 dan
> ... iffen a dance needs a PhD dissertation ...
I'm sure that many an actual master's thesis and PhD dissertation has been
written about the teaching and learning of subjects in the primary school
curriculum.
--Jim
> On Feb 26, 2023, at 7:02 AM, K P via Contra Callers
> wrote:
>
> I dunno
.
--Jim
> On Feb 25, 2023, at 6:08 PM, Quiann2 via Contra Callers
> wrote:
>
> Jim I found your analysis to be interesting but it didn’t get to a summation
> that I was hoping to read- what is it that Robins should do at the end of the
> set to ensure that they get back i
Colin Hume wrote, regarding the dance No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk, by Chris
Weiler:
> I called this last night, and one woman said she spent the whole dance around
> the end of the set and couldn't get out of
> it, and she said a woman at the other end was in the same situation. I
> haven
For what it's worth, that "Venus Flyt Trap" dance looks like a variant of an
old singing game called "Oranges and Lemons." This description in Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons#As_a_game
has children going under the arch(es) in pairs, and thus being caught two at
Julian Blechner asked:
> Do people know any dances with a grand R+L for the set, like 3,33-33, but
> with partner and 2 shadows?
Nothing comes to mind for me. But Tod Whittemore's "Lost in Space" has a grand
R+L for the set like in "Salute to Larry Jennings", but with partner and _3_
shadows:
I tried timing the tempos in those youtube videos of Bridgerton music. My
results are mostly close to Erik Hoffman's estimates, except for
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un4SsyvnKH4
which Erik describes as "around 140". In the parts where I can hear the beat
most clearly, I time that
Jeff,
Based on how I hear the tune with my not-very-musically-educated ears, I can
understand why you might describe it as AABB (with the A and B parts both
having first and second endings). But if you happen to have published sources
for the tune, I'd be interested in knowing whether they nota
Amy,
Thanks for the lesson about hemiolas.
Since your ears are far more musically educated than mine, perhaps you can say
somethinng informative about this rendition of Beaumont Rag by Mark O'Connor
that I cited in an earlier message:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OJuXNiybth0
For the f
Jeff,
How would you describe the phrase structure of the version of Beaumont Rag that
you just cited? A A B B? A1 A2 B1 B2? A B? Something else?
In the instructional video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS2Wb6nIjlU
the narrator begins (0:00-0:39) by playing a similar version of the tune.
Laur,
It's hard to describe stuff about music in words and be sure of being clear, so
I'm going to illustrate my remarks by citing some recordings.
First, there's at least one version of "Beaumont Rag" that's a perfectly fine
contra dance contra dance tune. Check out these videos. (Times in pa
Linda,
The 8-beat A part you've described has now reminded me of "Sasha!" (which,
alas, may evoke unpleasant associations in the context of current world events).
--Jim
> On Mar 25, 2022, at 5:20 PM, Linda S. Mrosko via Contra Callers
> wrote:
>
> Well, you know, Neil, every time I've ever c
Linda Mrosko asked:
> Can anyone think of a recorded danceable tune that would fit the following A1
> opening?
>
> Shake R hands with P 1 _ 2 _ 1-2-3-4 (8 beats)
This doesn't exactly meet Linda's specification, but in case it could suggest
ideas to anyone or help anyone to understand what Lind
In a message sent on Feb. 21, I described "quadrilles" danced in Vienna with
dancers in formations that looked like Becket contra lines but that actually
consisted of two-couple sets dancing independently (except for occasional
opportunities for eye contact when advancing and retiring on a diago
John Sweeney raises an interesting point about the differences in styling
between 19th century quadrilles (Tony Parkes's definition 1) and the phrased
New England squares of today (Tony's definition 3), whether the latter have the
word "Quadrille" in their titles or not.
Where today's dancers w
To me, the word "quadrille" would usually suggest either Tony's definition 1 or
his definition 3.
Reading Tony's definition 4 reminds me that I have occasionally noticed the
word "quadrille" in titles of tunes in 6/8 meter. Looking in the book
_Advanced Square Dance Figures of the West and Sou
A couple small corrections to my previos message about diagramming:
I wrote
> ... the starting position of a duple minor contra would look like this:
>
> 1 B 3 D 5 F ...
> A 2 C 4 E 6 ..
That should read "... a duple improper contra ..."
I also wrote:
> For a single-progression d
Since this discussion has expanded to include methods of working out dance
choreography without using computers (or live dancers), here's a description of
my method.
First off, I much prefer using diagrams to using props. With diagrams if you
think you made a mistake somewhere--for example if
Jeff Kaufman wrote:
> When I was learning to call I read about diagramming dances (I completely
> forget where). ...
The section "Diagramming Dances" in Cary Ravitz's "Notes on Choreography for
Duple Minor Improper Contra Dances"
https://www.dance.ravitz.us/chor.php
describes a system
I have a little comment about terminology in the description
http://rickmohr.net/Contra/Dances.asp#DanceAllNight
and teaching of "Dance All Night".
The "corner" with whom you do the left allemande in A2 is the same corner with
whom you did the swing in A1. This is in contrast to the situa
On Jan 3, 2020, at 11:35 AM, Erik Hoffman via Contra Callers
wrote:
> ...
> I'd look for other good 40-bar tunes like:
> • Three Thin Dimes
> • Three-way Hornpipe
> • The Snoring Mrs. Gobiel
> • the 5-part Fox Hunter's Jig
> ...
Those titles could be good leads, but bewa
In this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gbLja2-Qu7c
of "Northeast on Southwest" as danced at the 2012 Dance Flurry, with Susan
Petrick calling, the A1 part is danced (starting from Becket formation) as
Circle L 3/4
Pass through along
New neighbor swing
so I'd presume
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