Watching dancers play around at a recent dance, I had the following idea for a “choose your own adventure” variation.
The idea is that you do a full hey, but any or all crossings can be replaced by ricochets, with no pattern or requirements (other than that both people have to agree on the choice made at each stage.) They can then straighten things out by circling left until every body is on the side where they belong.
For example, here is the modification of Gene Hubert’s Butter along these lines
Becket
A1 Progress left to the next couple, circle left 3/4,
Neighbor swing
A2 Long lines
Robins chain
B1 Robins start a full hey by the right, with ricochets permitted, but not required at each of the 4 crossings
B2 Circle left until everyone is on their original side with their partner
Partner swing
I don’t know whether the variable circle length and resulting shorter or longer swing will be a source of fun or an annoyance, but it looks worth trying.
I think if everyone ends up where they started at the end of the hey, they probably should do a long swing, rather than requiring a circle left all the way, but that’s a detail.
At this point, I am calling dances only occasionally, so I won’t be trying it out any time soon.
Please let me know what you think, and how it goes if you try it out.
Thanks,
Russell Frank
Monterey, CA
These are my table top contra dancers.
I move them around, and they help me visualize tricky end effects, etc. Is there an app for this purpose? Thanks,
Stacy Rose
541.808.1002
rosecontra(a)gmail.com
www.stacyrosedance.com
Hi all,
I frequently hear people talking about "Giving Weight" when they want
dancers to make a good connection. Unfortunately, since the term is not
well-defined, a common reaction is for people to interpret it as "Pull" or
"Lean". I really don't want you to pull me or lean away from me or give me
your weight!
Please have a look at this article and see if I can persuade you to talk
about "Connection" instead.
https://contrafusion.co.uk/Connection.html
Thanks.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
I was studying my dance collection yesterday, prepping to call a 60th Wedding Anniversary dance, when I (re)discovered “Downtown Stroll” by Linda Leslie. What a great dance! You barely have to teach anything. Role doesn’t matter.
Downtown Stroll #2 by Linda Leslie
Circle Mixer/Beginner
Begin with a partner
1. Promenade, turn alone
2. Promenade back
3. (Face Partner) Poussette in & out
4. Repeat
5. Partner do si do
(Face on the left diagonal)
6. New partner do si do
7&8. This Partner Balance & Swing (or 2-hand turn)
Greeting callers!
I'm putting together a program of challenging contras for an upcoming gig.
This is an area where I'm still developing - hooray for new horizons!
Would anyone be willing to share a favorite challenging dance or two from
their repertoire?
Many thanks,
Hannah Chamberlain
Westbrook, ME
"I don't have enough Balance, Neighbor Box rhe Gnat, Larks Allemande Left
dances" led me to a few dances, and I've got one that I wanted to check in
with folks.
It's similar to Jan Larsen's "Xi'an Warriors", but a R+L through instead of
promenade, and a balance, box the gnat instead of the N Alle R, balance and
swing instead of right shoulder round.
Anyway....
Duple Imp.
A1. N Bal, Box Gnat
Larks Alle L 1.5x
A2. P Bal, Swing
B1. R+L Thru
Robins Chain
B2. Hey for 4 (Robins R, PL, Larks R, NL, etc)
In dance,
Julian Blechner
Hi all,
I’m doing a wedding anniversary dance in a week and I think The Fan Dance would be good. But I can’t remember the details of how it goes.
I’m thinking of the dance where there are three chairs in a row and two lines of people. One person sits in the middle chair, and one from either line sits next to them. The middle person holds a fan or other chotke. The middle person chooses one person to give the fan to and then dances with the other person.
But what’s the timing and what kind of music? I used to do this a lot when I lived in Idaho but haven’t called it in eons.
Thank you!
Lisa
Nelson, NH
Lisa Sieverts
603-762-0235
lisa(a)lisasieverts.com
Hey fellow contra callers
Sharing this message on behalf of the POTD3 organizing team
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa
======================================
Just a quick message to say that the archive of materials and photos from
POTD3 (May 2-4 in Belfast Maine) has just gone live:
https://www.puttinonthedance.org/potd3archive/
A big shout out to the archive team, facilitators and POTD3 participants
for contributing to make the archive possible.
Enjoy 🤗
Emily, Chrissy, Patty, & Lisa
PS: Reminder that there are great archives from POTD1 and POTD2 as well!
Whoops!
I confess I didn't know how the numbers were assigned in Beckett, or how to designate the couple who are progressing upwards...
Can you help me?
Do we just call them the upward bound and downward bound couple?
I did indeed mean the Lark who is progressing upwards.
And thank you for the dance below!
It's perfect as a first Hey dance and in fact i have something similar to that in my program (apologies I made a mistake when I sent my first email)
Now looking for a second Hey dance with no chains, where they go down the hall....
I appreciate everyone's feedback and suggested dances and will make good use of it all!
Kat k
May 28, 2025 10:09:31 PM Alexandra Deis-Lauby <alex(a)villagewestdesign.com>:
> First question is who is "lark 1"? Most choreographers call the number 1 couple the couple that progresses down the hall in a normal clockwise-progressing becket dance. It seems like in this case, you mean the opposite. If that is the case though, I don't think the dance progresses. Lark #1 would end up on the non-home side to start and end the hey.
>
> If you mean lark 1 as the normal lark 1 (the one the progress down the hall), then the circle would be once and a half+. Which is hard to do in 8 counts.
>
>
> If you need a dead simple dance to teach a hey, I would suggest something like:
>
> Becket, CW
>
> A1 Slice left, LLFB
>
> A2 Larks allemand left once, Robins Allemand right once *** For teaching purposes, have robins stand back to back in the middle after the allemand.**
>
> B1 Hey! Pass partner left on the ends, right in the middle
>
> B2 At home, partner balance and swing.
>
> Prompt them to end the swing early and /point /across so the lark is on the left and robin is on the right.
>
> This dance has lots of “recovery” time:
> * The slice and long lines each take 8 counts and the dancers don't have to travel far.
> * The allemandes are only once around so if folks are slow to move, that’s ok.
> * If they have ended the previous swing on the wrong side they can fix it with the one-role move in the middle
> * The partner swing is long and has lots of time for them to end early and get ready.
> * They spend a lot of time both on, and returning to their “home side."
>
>
>
> Alexandra Deis-lauby
> *VILLAGE**WEST**DESIGN*
> 646 283 3108
> villagewestdesign.com[http://villagewestdesign.com/]
> Instagram[https://www.instagram.com/villagewestdesign/] | Facebook[https://www.facebook.com/VillageWestDesign] | Houzz[https://www.houzz.com/pro/villagewestdesign/village-west-design]
>
>
>> On May 28, 2025, at 3:40 PM, Don Veino via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> It's fun and can be helpful to craft dances for specific purposes - you're getting some good input on your composition here.
>>
>> Back to your original purpose featuring the hey with only simple figures around it and little fuss, a classic dance is The Carousel by Tom Hinds. If you want to only do Becket, rotate it to start with the B2. (Note that *new* Robins allemande in the A1.)
>>
>> https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=10324
>>
>> Tom's dance starts the hey in the same way as yours, with the first pass being on the side with your partner. For your training consideration, there's also the other hey start with the first pass being in the center, e.g. following from a chain. FWIW, here's an easier becket dance which features that start. It's at least the third generation of evolution on this sequence:
>>
>> Purple Haze - Becket LT/CW - Don Veino
>> Riff off Purple Hays Variant (David Kaynor), riffing off Purple Heys (Peter Stix)
>>
>> A1 Slice Left, Cir LT 1x
>> A2 LDY\RBN RH Chain, over and back
>> B1 Full Hey, LDY\RBN Pass RT Ctr
>> B2 PNR Bal Swing
>>
>> The similarity of the chain and hey feel seems to help build understanding/success with newer dancers.
>>
>> -Don
>> Near Concord MA, family formerly from Lunenburg, NS
>>
>>
>> On Wed, May 28, 2025, 11:57 AM Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>>> Hi from Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada!
>>>
>>> As some of you know, I write a lot of my own dances because of the
>>> specific needs of our crowd- I'm always working on contra dances that
>>> are simpler than what most of you folks consider a "simple" dance :)
>>>
>>> For my upcoming dance I am doing a Hey as a "feature figure" - meaning
>>> it is the one more complex figure we will focus on that night.
>>> Am trying to write a dance that introduces the Hey, builds on other
>>> simple things we've done that night, without introducing anything else
>>> new or confusing.
>>>
>>> Other notes:
>>> - we are dancing only in Becket
>>> - swings are not necessary in each dance
>>>
>>> I like the flow of what I've written - which ends with a full Hey--
>>> But my issue is that the Lark will be following the Robin and I need the
>>> Lark to get ahead at the end -- so everyone can progress in the correct
>>> order.
>>>
>>> I've experimentally written that at the end of the hey, the Robin should
>>> look behind them and see their partner following them - and reach a hand
>>> to give them a little tug, to pull them ahead of them, back to home
>>> place and then seamlessly progress onwards to the next couple.
>>> But it's hard to predict if this will work ok or be too confusing.
>>>
>>> Would welcome your thoughts on this and any other aspect of the dance.
>>> I think I borrowed the Larks left hand turn 1.5 into a Hey from another
>>> dance on Contra DB, though my memory is foggy now...anyhow happy to give
>>> credit to that, if any is due :)
>>>
>>> Simple (maybe?) Hey Dance
>>> Becket, CW (progressing by sliding left)
>>>
>>> Star right
>>> Circle right - the #1 Lark leads out the line - at some point dropping
>>> hands with their partner who will end up at the opposite end of the line
>>> (This figure I've done before without any issues)
>>> Lines of 4 down the hall,
>>> Turn *alone*, come back up, bend line
>>>
>>> LLFB (you will be facing your partner for this figure, if I am not
>>> mistaken!)
>>> Larks: Allemande left 1.5x to face partner
>>> All start fuly Hey - partners pass right on the ends, then Robins pass
>>> left in the middle...
>>> Once Robins get back to their home side, turn over their right shoulder
>>> to see their partner right behind them - Robins reach with their right
>>> hand, to their partner's left hand (i.e. partners briefly take inside
>>> hands) - and Robins give a tug on the hand, to guide their Lark ahead of
>>> them, to progress to the next group - Robins follow the Larks in single
>>> file.
>>>
>>> Thank you for your thoughts, if any!
>>> Kat Kitching
>>> Halifax Contra Dances
>>>
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