Re: [Callers] Analysis of Stars (was American with Style)

John Sweeney wrote: I'm sure this varies, but that's not the way I've learned it. Dancing in the Boston area I've always put the thumb under. It's a very lose 'grip', http://www.cdss.org/elibrary/dart/images/star_plummer.jpg It's blurry, but I think three of the dancers have their thumbs under and only the top dancer has their thumb on top. People disagree on this: The thumbless allemande is one of my pet peeves, particularly that rigid palm-only grip with the fingers flexed back and pointing straight up. And the first time a dancer tried that hideous wrist-to-wrist thing on me, I was so suprised I, rather undiplomatically, laughed and blurted "What the hell was that?" Bless his heart, he never tried it again. I heard Lisa Greenleaf do a nice description of a good grip in her Safe Contras workshop at NEFFA a few years ago. She put the emphasis on hooking together the meaty parts at base of the thumbs so that you're making the connection with nice strong muscle instead of vulnerable fingers. The fingers can then curl gently around your partner's hand without squeezing. What you get is a firm grip that can take all the weight of an allemande, but can be easily disengaged so that you take all of your digits with you into the next move. -- Sarah Gowan https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=388018017325&id=34955… What I think of as a good aleman grip: http://i.imgur.com/9ZZr0.jpg Jeff