As I have danced them, the basic path is the same for square through and
cross trail, but the feel is different.
The square through starts with a right hand balance, then a pull
through, followed by turning toward the appropriate person next to whom
you have crossed the set, joining left hands with that person, pulling
by, and turning toward the center of the set. This is usually repeated
to put you back where you started.
I am used to doing a pass through and cross trail without touching
hands, and I don't expect to repeat it to get back to where I started.
The Wikipedia article
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dance_choreography has a good start
at a catalog, but it's not comprehensive. Yet.
Dave
On 12/29/2013 6:43 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote:
Square-through vs Cross-trail
Can anyone tell me what the difference is between these two figures,
if any? They show up in various different dances in my collection but
they both seem to be the figure that in English country dance we'd
call "2 changes of rights and lefts" which is to say right hands to
the person across from you (either neighbor or partner, depending on
where the dance has taken you so far) and then left hands to the
person in your minor set who's next to you in line (again, either N or
P). And in ECD those 2 changes can sometimes start along the line
instead of across, which I assume can happen in contras as well though
I haven't yet encountered it.
And can anyone point to a really thorough online glossary of contra
terminology?
Kalia
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