[Callers] Fewer than 6 dancers - Ideas?

[Winston, Alan P. via Callers]

Jacqui --

I feel your pain.  (I spent a couple of years trying to run an English Ceilidh series - bouncy sweaty dances with swings - and while we once had 42 people we more typically had 6 or fewer.  I collected and made up a bunch of five person dances, but most of them aren't very contra-y.  Once I had a set of five person dances I barely needed them.)  Over the years I've gotten a lot of use from "Polka Dots", which is almost the same dances as "Domino 5", which Kalia posted.

Anyway, here's a couple of two-couple contra dances which should work with whatever the band wants to play for it, plus a five person dance and something that goes to the English tune "Sellenger's Round' but accommodates 3 to about 7 people.  (Ended up doing it with 9 recently because 3 people came late and joined in.)

Its really tempting to cancel a contra if you only have a few people, but  you don't want to punish the people who showed up - they may have foregone other options for their evenings.  And there's a sense of triumph if you can show them a good time.  I think its important to have options ready to go, so you can start on an energetic note and keep things happening, and if any new person shows up they see something going on rather than nothing and maybe stick around to get in the next one.

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PROMENADE FOUR
Two couples facing, improper, up and down.
duple-meter 32 bar music
Alan Winston, 9.10.2016
(Came up with at Civil War Dance when I had only two couples left.)
Beginner-ish.


A1: forward to meet the other couple and retire
      1s cast down, 2s lead up, face other couple again (now indecent)

A2: Repeat with the 2s casting down.

B1: Ladies chain up and down the set

B2: From courtesy turn with partner continue into a promenade and wheel to face
the other couple from new places, improper.
If time, swing partner.
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X MARKS THE SPOT
Antony Heywood, 1992 (in "An Enchanted Place")
Possible ceilidh use.  NIB: 4x32-bar American reels
Two couple set, partners side-by-side facing across (Becket)

A1: 1-4: Right-hand star once round
    5-8: Ladies chain over, not back (men cast L out of the star)

A2: 1-8: Women coming back pass right shoulder to start a straight hey for 4.

B1: 1-4: Opposites swing
    5-8: Partners back-to-back by right shoulder

B2: 1-4: Partners swing (progressive)
    5-8: Left hand star once round.

(Everybody's progressed one place clockwise; repeat 3x until all are home.)
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SELLENGER'S WHEEL
Alan Winston, 11/16/2003
cut-down version of Sellenger's Round for 3-7 people, no partners needed.
Formation: circle of people facing in 
Tune in Barnes, 5x.

I: 
A:  Slipping circle (*really* slipping)  left and back to the right.

B:  Chorus (same each time).
    Set forward right and left
    fall back straight
    still facing in, set right and left
    turn single
    Repeat

II:

A:  Lead into the center and back
    Repeat

B: As above

III: 

A: right hand star (contra style wrist grip keeps you from having a mess)
   left hands back

B: As above


IV:

A: Basket left and _keep going_, not back to the right.

B: As above

(Finish with slipping circle again, but if you're repeating don't do slipping
circle twice in a row - it's lame).

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PEGGING THE NEEDLE
12/3/2004 Alan Winston
5-person-set, in a line holding hands, facing to right of line.
32-bar jig, reel, polka

A1: Thread the needle: keeping hold of hands, #1 leads line
    through arch made by 4+5.  Finish in circle facing in.

A2: #2-#5 join hands in ring, raise to make four arches;
    they sidestep slowly left throughout WHILE
    #1, with any stepping and path, goes in and out through the arches.

B1&2: (0) #2 and #5 break; #1 takes #2s hand, and the other arches stay up.   
      1&2 go under the 2-3 arch;
      1&2&3 go under the 3-4 arch;
      1&2&3&4 go under the 4-5 arch and draw the line straight in any
      direction.
      #1 and #2, holding hands only with each other, raise the joined hands
      as an arch and take it over the heads of 3-5, finish at bottom and turn
      into line, with #1 in fourth place, #2 in fifth place.

NOTE: This has the potential to wander all over the floor.

-- Alan