[Callers] Giving Weight

[Read Weaver via Callers]

Are you asking about grapevine step? A twisting step, where you alternate the right foot going in front of and behind the left as you walk sideways. It’s how circles (of 4 or 8) are done in modern western square dancing, and in the last several years increasingly seen, to the dismay of all right-thinking people, on contra dance floors.

Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA
http://lcfd.org

> On Jun 26, 2015, at 9:01 AM, Rich Sbardella <richsbardella at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Read,
> I did not understand your reference to grapevining in MWSD.  Can you elaborate?
> Rich
> 
> On Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 8:50 AM, Read Weaver via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net <mailto:callers at lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
> In my separate beginners’ workshops, I have people take allemande hold, and then move around as fast as they comfortably can (“faster than you ever would in a dance”), paying attention to what that feels like in their hands and arms. I then have them do it again, starting fast and then slowing down a lot (slower than in a dance), keeping that same feeling in their hands/arms. Then I’ll have them do a 2-hand turn with that same feeling (my workshops most often combine contra & English), and then a circle of 4. I talk about the circle 4 being the most boring move in contra when it’s done without weight, and pointing out that it has quite a nice feeling when everyone is giving weight. (That’s also where I explain grapevining—why it’s done in MWSD (giving weight isn’t part of their style, so grapevine makes it a more interesting figure), and why it’s a bad thing to do in contra (because it makes it so much harder to give weight).)
> 
> Giving weight is the first thing I teach in a beginners’ session, partly to emphasize how important it is, and partly because it gives me the opportunity to point out everywhere else where you do it, including just a little like in a courtesy turn.
> 
> Read Weaver
> Jamaica Plain, MA
> http://lcfd.org <http://lcfd.org/>
> 
> > On 6/24/2015 11:29 AM, Rich Sbardella via Callers wrote:
> >>
> >> How do you descibe giving weight, and how do you teach it for circles,
> >> allemandes, and, swings?
> >> Rich
> >> Stafford, CT
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sharedweight.net/pipermail/callers-sharedweight.net/attachments/20150626/82929058/attachment.htm>