[Callers] Re: Need help fitting to a tune

Balance the Star qualifies as a chestnut and works well. The stars encourage a little hand jive action that is a lot of fun. Here's my go-to dance for raggy tune sets which stole a good bit from Balance the Star -- and Beaumont would work just fine with it. (And per what I think others said, tembo matters. It's no fun -- not even very raggy at -- warp speed.) Ragtime Sammy Contra, Duple, Improper Ridge Kennedy         20 A-1  Right Hands Across Star                    (8)      Left Hands Across Star                          (8) A-2  Gents Turn Back over right shoulder (peel off) make eye contact and and swing Neighbor (a short gypsy)                                    (4-6)    Long Swing                                       (12-10) B-1  Circle Left Three Quarters                (8)      Partner Swing                                          (8) B-2  Ladies Allemande Right 1 1/2        (8)      Neighbor Allemande Left 1 1/2            (8) Notes: The first version of this dance was made up in about 2013 for a dance with Big Phat American K-Lee Band in Glen Echo. Early in the program – maybe first dance, the band was going to do a set of rags.  So we wanted a dance that would work well with rags and that was pretty easy – a starter upper. The only tricky bit here is moving from the allemande left with neighbors to the next star. Just keep dancers mindful of which way they will be going to progress, and it will work out fine. The idea behind using the hands across stars was to encourage dancers to use their free hands to do a little hand jive if the music so inspired them.  And so it did.  The final ending sequence for the dance was finally locked in place during 2015, I think.  For all the time the dance was evolving it was my “raggy, starry hand jive dance.”  Recently though, noting that bands frequently included Ragtime Annie in their raggy sets and since (little known secret here) my first name is Samuel – well Ragtime Sammy seems like a fitting title. Yeah, it’s a silly little dance, but when the music is right, dancers really do feel encouraged to get into the hand jive and more. Ridge Kennedy [Exit 145] Hey -- I wrote a book! *Murder & Miss Austen's Ball. * It's a novel with musical accompaniment. Now that's different. Read all about it here! <https://www.hedgehoghousebooks.com> On Thu, Apr 28, 2022 at 3:17 AM Colin Hume via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: