John, do you know when the Clarks wrote or published this? I learned it from Ted Sannella under the name of Triple Promenade, probably in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The sequence is identical, except that I’m pretty sure Ted had the ladies “trap” the gents when the music stopped (maybe assumed but not specified in the notation below). I can still hear Ted’s voice chanting “And the ladies arch and the gentlemen march” in time with French-Canadian reels. I’d always thought it was Ted’s version of a dance that must have been traditional somewhere; now I’m wondering whether the Clarks made it up out of whole cloth or adapted some older routine.

Tony Parkes

Billerica, Mass.

www.hands4.com

New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century

(available now)

From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2023 4:36 AM
To: 'Caller's discussion list' <callers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Re: Mousetrap?

<<Resent to everyone>>

Hi Luke,

              Here is one:

https://squaredancehistory.org/exhibits/show/dare-to-be-square-weekend-2011/item/730

              Here is my notation:

Silly Threesome (by Kenneth & Sibyl Clark)

Trios (LML) plus spare men

A1:        Promenade (16) – Spare Men in the Middle

A2:        On the Right: Arm Right Twice; On the Left: Arm Left Twice

B1:         Promenade (16)

B2:         Ladies make a Tunnel; All Men go through Tunnel until the music stops – Form new Trios

Alt A2s: Hey, Basket, Right Hand High Left Hand Low, etc.

Larry Edelman (the one in the video):

A1:        Promenade (16) – Spares in the Middle

A2:        On the Right: Allemande Right; On the Left: Allemande Left

              On the Right: Dosido

B1:         Ladies make a Tunnel; All REVERSE and go through Tunnel until the music stops – Form new Trios

B2:         Basket Swing – open to a line with someone new in the middle

            Happy dancing,

                   John                      

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574

http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

From: Luke Donforth via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: 09 February 2023 22:33
To: Caller's discussion list <callers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Mousetrap?

Hello all, 

I've been asked back to a family dance I did at a camp last summer. When I was there last year, one of the kids said "are we going to do Mousetrap?!", a dance they remembered from a previous year with the prior caller.

I've tried to find it, but am having no luck. The previous caller said:
Oh, it's been years...  Its a singing game, but I can't resurrect the words/melody at the moment - don't have it written down or recorded. Kind of like Ninepin square dance, where the band needs to stop playing on cue.  Everyone's in a circle single file walking under arches - 2 to start, then doubled each time, those who are caught (i.e. the 'mousetrap') when the music stops make the arches, and the music resumes, until there's more arches than people on the line.  

But that's all they've got. Anyone know this one, possibly under another name?

Thanks!

Luke