Hi John and Austin,
Thanks for your feedback and references.
I tried the SP version last Thursday with 12 dancers at our house.
It went over well and Line balance R/L worked fine. If I had an odd
number of couples I would have done the DP version which I like
better.
Cheers, Bill
Regarding the Oval Petronella figure:
Admittedly, I haven't tried dancing it, but it doesn't seem that appealing.
Most of the satisfaction I get from a balance comes when two dancers are
both moving towards or away from a shared handhold and can share weight
accordingly.
Think of your ideal balance in ocean waves of 4: step right, step left. Now
contrast that with a wave balance where your neighbor steps the wrong way
first, meaning the two of you move in the same direction: that shared
handhold loses all its energy. It's very underwhelming.
If the balance is done in long lines with everyone moving the same way,
then the hand hold lacks energy. (As an aside: LLFB doesn't even tend to
get the good handhold energy it deserves). I did notice John Sweeney called
it "Long Lines Set Right & Left" on his website, and not in fact a Balance,
which seems much more accurate. Not wanting to get into the issue(s) of
wanting contra dancers to appreciate "setting" and other figures from ECD,
I see it devolving into a hokey 4-beat 'shuffle' on the floor.
Granted, that's one opinion. I'm sure others disagree.
Best,
Austin
Hi All,
Two Petronella balance and spins can be done around the whole set and are
equivalent
to a double slice right (but different timing).
Anyone know if this has been used before in contra dance?
Here are two simple dances I wrote with this. I've not tried them out yet,
but the oval petronella that was in the grid dance I did at our last dance went
over well.
What do you think? I'd appreciate your thoughts.
Oval Petronella DP Becket CCW DP
best with odd number of couples
A1: Oval Balance & Petronella 2x
A2: G AL 1 1/2; N SW
B1: CL 3/4, P SW
B2: Prom Across; LLFB
Oval Petronella SP Becket CCW SP
A1: Oval Balance & Petronella 1x; G AL 1 1/2
A2: N Bal & SW
B1: CL 3/4, P SW
B2: Prom Across; LLFB
I searched the callers box database for dances with double slice (always left)
and with a bit a adjustment most can be tweaked to use oval petronella.
Oval Petronella at Pinewoods Becket CW
derived from A Slice of Pinewoods by Bob Isaacs, Ann Cowan, Tina Fields,
Jillian Hovey, Mark Lattanzi, and Chris Weiler
A1: Oval Balance & Pet 2x
A2: N2 CL 3/4, Pass R along set to; N1 SW
B1: LC; 1/2 Hey
B2: Pass R across set, P SW
Another Oval Petronella at Pinewoods Becket CW
derived from Another Slice of Pinewoods by Bob Isaacs and Chris Weiler
A1: N Bal & SW
A2: Oval Balance & pet x2
B1: (w/2nd Shadow) LH* 3/4, Pass 1st Shadow R to; P SW
B2: CL 3/4; Bal ring, California Twirl
Thanks
Cheers, Bill
PS Don't confuse this with Oval Petronella by Rembrant :-)
Hi, folks.
I threw the following dance in a medley on Saturday night, and I have no
idea who wrote it or what the name of the dance is. Anybody recognize it?
Thanks, Grant.
?? (learned from Lisa Greenleaf)
Improper
A1. ( 8) Cir lf
( 8) 1s sw, end facing dn
A2. (16) Down hall 4-in-line, turn alone, ret, face N
B1. (16) N bal & sw
B2. ( 8) Long lines fwd & bk
( 8) 2s sw, end facing up
--
Grant Goodyear
web: http://www.grantgoodyear.org
e-mail: grant(a)grantgoodyear.org
Hi Seth and Luke,
This discussion has inspired me to revisit grid contras.
We danced a grid contra yesterday at our monthly dance in Christchurch.
The majority of the dancers (24) were experienced but 8 were less so.
Even so it went well and all found it fun.
Here is a video of the setting up, teaching, walk throughs and the dance.
With a bit of computer animation thrown in.
https://youtu.be/gLKBm4j7gbQ
There were a few hiccups with the filming as my camera suffered tripod
droop! I had a great birds eye view from the stage, but the
camera less so :-(
I called a variation of Petronella Fancy which I wrote in 2012.
It was inspired by Kim's Game by Colin Hume. Petronella Fancy
was originally a type of 4 face 4, but easily extended to
an arbitrary regular grid.
The variation I used last night changed the order (to suit the
music better) and used both a double progression and
double transgression.
We danced on a grid of 4 adjacent contra lines of length 4 couples.
Total of 32 dancers. The dance has a period of 10 during which
each dancer will swing 5 different neighbors (each twice).
The 2s in the left line, 1s in the right line, 2s in front hands-four
and 1s in back hands-four all travel around the perimeter of the grid.
The 6 remaining couples form 3 pairs that vibrate back and forth.
This is the version we danced.
Petronella Fancy DP
A1 (4) [Entire oval along the set] Balance ring (4) Petronella turn
(4) [Entire oval along the set] Balance ring (4) Petronella turn
A2 (4) Pass through along (NR)
(4) Pass through along (N2R)
(8) N2 neighbor swing; face partner
B1 (8) Men allemande left 1 & 1/2
(8) Partner swing
B2 (8) [Groups of four] Circle left 3/4 [with N2]; face along
(8) Lines across the set forward and back
In general this dance is interesting if the grid does not have many
interior hands-four rings, as those couples vibrate and see very
few neighbors.
Here is the original
http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=12042
It had a single progression and this means that couples traveling around the
perimeter are out very frequently which is not much fun.
I can easily generate animations for other size grids if anyone is interested.
Cheers, Bill
On 10/10/2018 9:05 a.m., Tepfer, Seth via Callers wrote:
> When a couple moves up and down the lines, we call that 'progression'.
> When a couple moves ACROSS the lines, I call that 'transgression'. Not
> counting four face fours (aka mescolanzas, double countras) I know of three
> dances that 'transgress' in some form or another:
You may have seen my "Feeling Gravity's Pull" which I posted at the end of
the recent Mad Robin teaching thread.
In that dance, there's a move where partners are facing in side by side on
the outside of the set (where the Gents have forward momentum and the
Ladies neutral to backward momentum) and my intent was for them to rotate
around their inside hand connection with the Gents going forward and Ladies
backing up once around. (As opposed to the Gent walks a circle around the
Lady.) So the net effect would be like a courtesy turn, in going around a
central point between the dancers, just a little "wider."
I believe the correct term for this would be "Hand Cast" but I had a dancer
who was adamant about it being a "Gate" in ECD so when I posted the dance
that's the term I used. I've again done some googling and found no ready
reference to a "Hand Cast" in ECD and only the slightest in a contra
context, yet the term sticks in my mind.
What say ye? Is "Hand Cast" a thing and correct in this context?
Thanks,
Don
In addition to Pong, the grid contra I've tried at two dance weekends,
there's also some six face six dances I wrote; only "two out of three ain't
bad" has actually been field tested. I've had it succeed and be enjoyed,
I've also had it degenerate into a circle mixer.
http://www.madrobincallers.org/2014/02/26/6-facing-6-contra-dances/
On Fri, Oct 12, 2018, 7:20 AM Bill Baritompa <bill.baritompa(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
> Hi Seth,
>
> Ages ago you mentioned your dance Transgressions on SW and I made
> some snapshots of it.
>
> I checked callers box and notice that the link to the snapshots
> in the caller's notes of
> http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=12040
> is no longer valid as picasaweb is dead.
>
> I've moved the snap shots here:
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/uxB2Qh4Ya7K31cBX7
> so you can send an update to Chris to fix the callers box listing.
>
> I've also added a few more snapshots of the paths and neighbors met.
>
> Luke Donforth wrote a very interesting grid contra which he called Pong.
> It has both progression and transgression which changes during the dance.
>
> The paths of couples are diagonal but bounce off the boundary of the grid,
> thus solving the problem of some couples not moving very much or at all.
> However this was at the expense of have 'changing states' that dancers had
> to be
> aware of.
>
> https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/msg10581.html
> http://www.madrobincallers.org/2017/09/19/pong-a-grid-contra/
>
> I had corresponded quite a bit about it. He actually tried the dance at
> one point.
>
> I've attached some comments about it and this is video about the math
> https://youtu.be/S_qCbQIAFbQ
>
> Cheers, Bill
>
>
>
>
>
When a couple moves up and down the lines, we call that 'progression'.
When a couple moves ACROSS the lines, I call that 'transgression'. Not counting four face fours (aka mescolanzas, double countras) I know of three dances that 'transgress' in some form or another:
* Out of Bounds*, Will Mentor
* Becket's Crossing, Chris Kermiet
* New and Improved, Super Ultra Snake Oil #9* (seth's riff from) Roger Diggle
What others are out there?
Seth
*Technically these are 'minor' transgressions since they only go over to the other line and then come back. Still, they are 'crossing the line'!
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I was in the MRI tube yesterday and this dance asked to be written down. To
any one's knowlege does it exists?
In the MRI. Imp.
A1- in ring bal. Petronella, repeat; N swing
A2- LLFwB; Ladies/Raven chain
B1- ladies/Raven chain; P swing
B2- in ring bal. Petronella, repeat; balance California twirl to new N.
In the B2 you can skip the courtesy turn and make a bit lonher swing with
your partner if you choose.
I really don't like a lot of turning and spinning due to a personal balance
issue but this felt fun.
Thanks all.
Mary Collins
