[Callers] Dolphin Heys in contra dances

[Alan Winston via Callers]

On 6/12/16 10:42 PM, Liz and Bill via Callers wrote:
> Hi Luke,
>
> There is a New Zealand connection. Do you know the origin of the move?
> I suspect it comes from the Scottish country dance which was in honour of a dolphin named Pelorus Jack.
> https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelorus_Jack
> http://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/video/pelorus-jack.html
>
>
I was going to say more about this myself.  Yes, the dolphin hey name 
refers to "Pelorus Jack", although at about the same time (early-mid 
1990s).   Incidentally, "Pelorus Jack" was just one dance in a book by 
Barry Skelton which had multiple dances, including "Dancing Dolphins", 
which used the figure, which he seems to have called "tandem reels", 
although some people who publish cribs call them "alternating tandem reels."

Skelton got the figure from Barry Priddey's dance "The Flight of the 
Falcon".

Here's a nice rendition of "Flight of the Falcon".
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pdkMrxy4SHM

(Ignore the part where the guy is claiming that contra derives from 
Scottish dancing.)

In the Scottish content,the heys happen on the diagonal in a 
three-couple minor set, and it happens on one diagonal, then the other, 
so there are two heys.  The active couple go round all four corners 
(like flying around pylons).  It's huge fun.

By 1997 the move had been imported into English country dancing with 
Mary Devlin's dance "Halsway Manners" (after a dance camp at Halsway 
Manor in England), where the move is simplified somewhat by having it in 
the men's line and then in the women's line, rather than on the diagonal.

Since then it has appeared in various modern 'English' dances, including 
the Friendly/Sackett "Potter's Wheel" (who may have gotten it from the 
Scottish source, since they are also Scottish dancers/leaders), my own 
"Movement Afoot", and Christine Robb's "Sapphire Sea", and in all those 
cases it's a single hey and goes across the set.  ("Sapphire Sea" has a 
really clean entry into the hey and a great tune; it became the flavor 
of the month on ball programs in 2015 and 2016.)

WIthin the last few months I danced a dolphin hey in a contra dance to 
Yoyo Zhou's calling; I think it was his dance but I didn't write it down.

I wrote "Movement Afoot" at BACDS American Week in 2013; it's set to 
Steciak's Waltz, which I heard Larry Unger play there several times that 
week.  Contra dancers can readily do it and have enjoyed it when I've 
called it at "Trash English" night at that camp, but it probably 
wouldn't fit right into  a contra dance program.  Here it is anyway.  
(The tune is a very ethnic-sounding driving not-very-waltzy waltz):


MOVEMENT AFOOT
Alan Winston - thought of it at AmWeek, Jul 3, 2013
longways duple minor
Tune: "Steciaks" in waltz book II, by Larry Unger

A1: 1-2: Men set forward to women (boureeish, stamping optional)
     3-4: Men fall back as women come forward
     5-6: All turn single R
     7-8: All RH turn halfway

A2: As above, with women leading.  Keep right hands ...

B1: 1-4: ... take left hands as well  for Clockwise half poussette 
(progressed)
     5-8: contra-style Mad Robin (W1 and M2 through the middle first)

B2: 1-8: 1s acting as a unit, dolphin hey for three
          (M1 turns round coming out of the mad robin to give Left shoulder
          to M2, W1 takes the lead, giving right to M2 on the other side,
          M1 takes the lead to arrive progressed and proper.)


NOTE: Alan is agreeable to couple-dance style variations in the 
half-poussette,
and in general hopes for a spirit of flirtatious play.

Here's a version of the dance; I prefer it played much less politely and 
a bit faster, and I want the A1-2 to have the people who aren't going 
forward to hold their ground while their partners get right up in their 
faces, but this nonetheless gives some of the flavor.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLdxiy9k4y8

-- Alan