Here's my program for last night:
Big Circle hash (teaches folks to listen <G>)
Sanita Hill (sicilian circle)
Heads and Sides
Ladies Chain
-break-
Lucky Seven Promenade mixer
Heads Arch
Kitchen Lancers
-break-
Virginia Reel into big circle/ball of yarn, etc.
Since private party dances are first and foremost a party, the breaks are longer than at
other dances, and the dancing shorter. As I said, they were very happy folks. Note that
the only swing I used was an arm swing, though I say "you can swing any way you want
to." Here are the four squares:
Heads and Sides
Heads forward & Back
Heads Do-si-do opposite
Sides forward and back
Sides do-si-do opposite
Allemande left corner
Do-si-do partner
Promenade
Ladies Chain
(This is unusual, I would usually do Duck for the Oyster at this point in my ONS program,
but last night was a great group of adults.) This is done as a quasi-singing call to
Grumbling Old Man Growling Old Woman. The music is really, really important for these
super simple dances.
Head ladies chain over and back
Side ladies chain over and back
Do-si-do corner
Swing corner
Promenade to gent's home place
Heads Arch - done to hot southern tune with Midwestern patter calling
Head couples forward and back
Heads forward make an arch
Side ladies tunnel through, swing opposite gent
Side ladies tunnel back, all swing partner
Promenade
(repeat with sides starting, then both again with gents tunneling)
Kitchen Lancers - well phrased New Englandy tunes
First couple promenade inside the square, face out
Sides jump in behind the ones into lines.
Forward & Back
Slide right & left
Lady one lead the line of ladies around the line of gents
Gent one lead the line of gents around the line of ladies
Face partner, lines go BACK and forward
Swing partner home to place in square
All forward & back twice
And of course, half the fun is that the breaks are ad-libbed and no one knows what's
coming (including me <G>.) That's why the figures are so simple. In Heads Arch,
for instance, I actually used grand right and left because they had learned it in Lucky
Seven Promenade. Of course it falls apart the first time I throw it at them in the square,
but by that point in the evening they trust me (or I wouldn't be using it) and they
know how to get home when they should. The second time I throw it at them, they get it and
the "Hey, we did it!" factor is huge!
Beth
-----Original Message-----
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf
Of Delia Clark
Which squares did you do? I find that some of my squares fall apart as easily as duple
minors with new dancers, but it may just be my calling :-) My stand-bys for less
experienced dancers are: Simple Square, Cumberland Square 8 and Redwing. Can you
recommend others?!