[Callers] Family dance questions

[John Sweeney via Callers]

       Yes, the spiral is traditional!  It is part of the Grand March which goes back at least a couple of centuries.

       I call a Grand March by leading it, with my wife. I wear a wireless head mike so my hands are free.

       We just start promenading around the dance-floor encouraging everyone to follow us.

       For the stationary Arbor/Tunnel, once I have got couples making arches I drop out and go to the end to start leading people single-file through the tunnel.

       When we get to the March By Platoons (2s, 4,s 8s) my wife goes to the bottom of the hall to direct the joinings, while I stay at the top to direct the alternate directions.  We find linking elbows makes the best lines - they are more compact for the turns at the bottom of the hall.

       I use the longest march/reel track I have at around 116 to 120 bpm - a good walking speed, or tell the band to keep playing.

       It works with any group.

       I often finish in a circle with
Everyone into the middle
Ladies in and clap
Men in and clap
Swing your partner

There are a number of references here:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html
  Search for "grand march"
  For example, select "Prof. M. J. Koncen's quadrille call book and ball room guide"
  View text
  Turn to Page 15
You get descriptions of all these Grand March figures:
  The Serpentine (Spiral)
  By Platoons (2s, 4s, 8s)
  In Column (Zig Zags)
  In Single File
  The Arbor (Tunnels)

       We quite often do The Arbor as a two-handed tunnel, then I take one member of the rearmost couple by the hand and start a single file line up through the Arbor - that leaves us in a single file ready for The Serpentine. You can also do The Arbor with the arching couples moving back over the other couples - single-handed arches work best then.

       When you finish By Platoons in lines of 8 or 16 across you take the left hand person of the front line by the hand and lead the front line across the front of the line then weave down between the lines, telling each left-hand end person to join the end of the line when it reaches them.  If they have lots of energy I get them all doing step-kicks in the lines while waiting.

       The following video shows a classic Grand March:
http://www.walternelson.com/dr/grand-march

       One version of a Grand March is described here:
http://www.dancingmasters.com/workshops/downloads/GrandMarch.pdf
I wouldn't use the chorus described, but it has nice description of a Serpentine/Spiral variant - that random tunneling is the only move I would be careful with if the group is inexperienced.

Another short section of Grand Marching is at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNHLBUi6d-w from 3:43

	Hope that helps. ☺

Happy dancing,
John

John Sweeney, Dancer, England john at modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent