[Callers] Looking for a particular sort of becket dance

[Aahz via Callers]

On Thu, Jun 29, 2017, Kalia Kliban via Callers wrote:
> 
> I'm re-vamping my list of simple contra dances for new callers, and am in
> search of a very particular sort of becket dance.  The list is one of my
> hand-outs for callers' classes at camps, so the folks who'll be using it are
> likely to be nervous, brand-new callers.  To that end, I'm looking for
> sturdy, hard-to-break, low-piece-count dances.  In a perfect world they'd be
> composed of simpler glossary figures.
> 
> I already have a fair collection of simple dances to choose from, but would
> like to include one more becket dance (I have Tica Tica Timing already on
> the list).  This perfect becket that I'm looking for should _not_ start with
> circle L 3/4, and should not contain petronella twirls.  Bonus points if it
> doesn't have a whole hey, since I've already got a couple of whole hey
> dances in the list.

This is almost what you're looking for and was in fact specifically
designed for criteria very similar to what you're asking for.  The only
problem (which may or may not be a problem for your use-case) is that
because this was the very first contra I wrote, I didn't realize that it
was double-progression...

I'll also note that experienced contra dancers often have difficulty
with the California Twirl because they expect to only do that facing
up/down the set rather than across the set.  (Usually that doesn't break
the dance because they do a courtesy turn instead, just makes for poor
flow with the left allemande 1 1/2.)

Panix Dot Chat (caller at aahz.ws)

Becket formation
Double-progression, better with odd number of couples

A1  Right-and-left thru on left diagonal (8)
        (Yes, start with progression)
        (Warn ends about not moving)
    Right-and-left thru new couple (8)
A2  Circle left 3/4 (8)
    Swing neighbor (8)
B1  Pass through (4)
    California twirl (4)
    Men left-hand turn once-and-half (8)
B2  Balance and swing partner (16)

(Usually A1 is called as "left diagonal R&L thru; straight ahead, R&L
back".)
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