<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=utf-8"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;" class="">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.<div class=""><br class=""><div apple-content-edited="true" class="">
<div class=""><div class="">Read Weaver</div><div class="">Jamaica Plain, MA</div><div class=""><a href="http://lcfd.org" class="">http://lcfd.org</a></div></div>
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<br class=""><div><blockquote type="cite" class=""><div class="">On Jun 26, 2015, at 9:01 AM, Rich Sbardella <<a href="mailto:richsbardella@gmail.com" class="">richsbardella@gmail.com</a>> wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><div class=""><div dir="ltr" class="">Read,<div class="">I did not understand your reference to grapevining in MWSD. Can you elaborate?</div><div class="">Rich</div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br class=""><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jun 26, 2015 at 8:50 AM, Read Weaver via Callers <span dir="ltr" class=""><<a href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net" target="_blank" class="">callers@lists.sharedweight.net</a>></span> wrote:<br class=""><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">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).)<br class="">
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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.<br class="">
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Read Weaver<br class="">
Jamaica Plain, MA<br class="">
<a href="http://lcfd.org/" rel="noreferrer" target="_blank" class="">http://lcfd.org</a><br class="">
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> On 6/24/2015 11:29 AM, Rich Sbardella via Callers wrote:<br class="">
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>> How do you descibe giving weight, and how do you teach it for circles,<br class="">
>> allemandes, and, swings?<br class="">
>> Rich<br class="">
>> Stafford, CT</blockquote></div></div></div></blockquote></div></div></body></html>