When teaching a Dolphin Hey to people who are not familiar with the concept
I get the leading person to put their hands behind them and the trailing
person to hold those hands, then I get them to dance the hey for three
without the active couple trading places with each other. Once they
understand the main track that they have to follow then I explain the
trading of places at each end of the hey. One of the keys to success with
that is to persuade the leading person to go wide at the end of the line, so
that the trailer can turn in front of them.
Just Skylarking by Rhodri Davies has a Dolphin Hey
Since you can see the dance in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_iKdR6B7hnw I assume he won't mind me
posting it here:
First Couples Improper
A1: (Balance the Circle; Petronella Turn) x 2
A2: Neighbour Balance & Swing - end facing down
B1: Lines of Four Down The Hall (4); Dixie Twirl
Lines of Four Up the Hall - finish facing #2 Lady
B2: Dolphin Hey - finish with #1s looking down the hall for a new
couple, #2s looking up the hall
Dixie Twirl: #1s (in middle) Arch, #2 Lady leads the line through the arch
while #2 Man leads to the other end - no letting go
Dolphin Hey: #1 couple (in the middle) act as a single unit, but switch
leader at each end of the Hey
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
Hi all,
I'm still recovering from the red eye I took back from my most recent PNW trip. Below find my first crack at a Dolphin Hey contra, referred to by Lindsey, written about 6 months ago.
Porpoiseful Play
Imp
A1 LL F&B [In the original, which is a tad more challenging, this is a Mad Robin CW around New N's.] ****
1's gypsy 1+ until M1 can face M2, with W2 falling in right behind.
A2 Dolphin Hey for three across, 1's acting as a unit. M1 passes M2 Rsh to begin.
At the end of the hey, the ones keep curving over the M2's original place, passing M2 again as M 2 heads across the set to his P.
B1 P Gypsy and Sw
B2 M Alle L 1 1/2
N Sw
****I called an even smoother version in Portland, with a leave 'em then love 'em Mad Robin, in which the ones go in and to the R while the 2's go out and to the L to begin. This is still a CW MR, but you gaze at your partner on the long diagonal as you separate, then return. The crowd contained more ECD dancers than the usual contra crowd, but everyone seemed to get it equally well, and enjoyed the whole confection.
Andrea
Sent from my external brain
> On Jun 13, 2016, at 1:04 PM, Lindsey Dono <lynzimd(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> Luke,
>
> Andrea Nettleton (cc'ed here) also has a dance with a dolphin hey!
>
> Lindsey
>
>
Hi all
I just got home late last night from the event (the Greenwood Fest), and
can now report back. I hugely appreciate all the tune suggestions.
They were really helpful for both me and the band. I sent them a list
of tune names, along with video links, and they settled on Turkey in the
Straw and St. Anne's Reel, which worked just fine for Margate Hoy and Le
Brandy, respectively. The 3rd dance was a big wind-up/spiral dance, to
the Crawdad Song. Traditional dance accompaniment is definitely not
what this band usually does but they dove into it with great energy and
attitude and we had a good time together. The one thing that I didn't
anticipate, though if I had given it some thought I should have, is that
this crowd was about 90% male. There were just a few who were willing
to partner with other men, and I chose dances where partner interaction
could be no more intimate than an elbow swing. The folks who joined in
had a good time and were asking for more (maybe we can do more at the
next event). The bulk of the crowd only joined in for the windup. All
in all, it went about as I'd expected for the dance part of it, and
better than I feared for the musical part.
Thanks, all of you, for your help!
Kalia
Hello all,
I was trying to write a nice end-of-evening dance that had a balance at the
top of B1, and ended with a partner swing (that wasn't Old Time Elixir #2
or Tica Tica timing...) and came up with this. I think it's new, and it
worked well in Montreal recently; but I'd like to know if it already
existed:
Becket
A1
Circle left 3/4
Neighbor swing
A2
Gents start hey for 4 by left
B1
Right to neighbor (women back to back in middle), balance and box gnat
Pull by right, women allemande left 1 1/2
B2
Partner balance and swing
Slide left
Happy dancing
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
Have you all encountered or written dances for a "reverse R/L through"? To
my mind, this move might be any of the following:
a. cross the set with the lady on the left and gent on the right, lady
courtesy turns gent (with the traditional CCW courtesy turn
b. cross the set with the lady on the right and gent on the left (as
usual), lady courtesy turns gent (with a REVERSE courtesy turn, ie CW, as
would happen on a gent's chain)
c. ??!?!?
Cheers,
Maia
Hello all,
I'm sharing a link to a pod of dances I recently wrote:
http://www.madrobincallers.org/2016/06/13/dolphinheys/
rather than putting all 5 and the descriptions up here. I'll put one at the
bottom.
I was at the English Country Dance in Brattleboro before the Dawn Dance,
and Nikki Herbst called a dance with a dolphin hey; and it was such fun I
decided to write contra dances with it.
For those of you (like recently me) not familiar with a dolphin hey, it's 4
people doing a hey for 3; with the 1s acting as a unit and trading leads
(like a school of fish) when the reach either end and loop back in. For
instance, at 1:32 in this lovely video of Sapphire Sea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-8LyExynvA
I don't have video of the contra dances (although I have called a couple
of them at contras and they've worked).
Also, if you just search Dolphin Hey on google, you find:
Which, given how much time I've spent navel gazing about the move, I admit
to thinking is hilarious.
My favorite
(so far) of the 5 I've written is below. I'm curious if anyone else has
already ported this move from ECD into contra.
Enjoy:
Kinematic Dolphin Vorticity
Luke Donforth
Type: Contra
Formation: Duple-Improper
A1 -----------
(8) Long lines, forward and back
(8) 2s hand cast the 1s down through the middle to a line of 4
1s turn to face lady 2
A2 -----------
(16) Dolphin hey for 3, 1s (gent starting in lead) pass lady 2 by left
7 changes, until at gents home side with partner second time
B1 -----------
(16) Partner gypsy and swing
B2 -----------
(6) Circle Left 3/4
(10) Swing neighbor
Notes: The dancers will probably get to the partner gypsy a little early.
They can get a little more gypsy, or swoop wideley on the hey.
Other Notes: The title comes from Carol Ormand’s Kinematic Vorticity, which
has the same A1 and B2.
--
Luke Donforth
calling.luke(a)gmail.com
<Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
In 2015 I wrote (and called) a dance that may already exist; if it's unique
I'm sure it's only slightly so. Wondering if anyone knows of this sequence
(or very similar one) under a different title.
Thanks!
Jerome Grisanti
Another Equal Turn
By Jerome Grisanti (?)
Improper Contra June 2015
A1
(New) Ladies Allemande Left 1X
Neighbor Swing.
A2
Long Lines,
Men allemande Left 1 1/2
B1
Partner Balance & Swing
B2
Pass the Ocean,
Balance the wave,
Women allemande Left halfway,
Balance the wave, walk forward to next neighbor
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power
and magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Hi All,
Remember that I posted a dance I wrote, which I finished at the WA
State caucus (called "Feelin' the Bern")? I called it at Northwest
Folklife Festival and it went well. There's a 16-count swing at the
end. I got several comments here that that was too long and I should
shorten it and add something else. I left it long. That swing was the
thing I got the most positive feedback about on that dance. There is
video of it on Facebook, courtesy of Matt Fisher, though if you are
not his friend you may not be able to see it.
-Amy
Hello. I saw a video recently from Raindance with Deb Comly calling. Anyone know the name and author of this dance? Thanks!
A1 with current neighbors star L; with former neighbors star R
A2 with current N b&sB1 men alle L 1.5; P swing
B2 circle L 1.25 (till the ones are looking down, twos looking up); with P zig left past current neighbors, zag right to greet new neighbors
Vicki MorrisonTallahassee, FL
The gig itself is not on Wednesday, thankfully. That's just when I fly,
and thus my deadline for getting things sorted with the band. The gig
is on Saturday night. The structure is that we're tacking a half hour
of community dances onto the front of a full evening that this band was
already going to be playing. So they'll get plenty of time to shine
doing their own thing, and we'll only to work together for a short set.
There have been some excellent and very helpful tune suggestions. Thank
you all! I've sent the band a list of tunes and links, and will try to
connect by phone later today. They claim to have some "folk and
country" in their repertoire, and perhaps some of these tunes will be
familiar to them. The band's instrumentation is promising -- accordion,
banjo, bass, drums, fiddle, washboard, harmonica and guitar.
Once again, I want to say how much I appreciate these email discussion
lists. It's wonderful to be able to connect with the larger community
of callers, musicians and organizers. I'll keep you all posted as
things progress.
Thank you!
Kalia Kliban
