At the risk of stating the obvious, I haven't seen my go-to basic contra corners dance in this thread yet, so I'll mention Kathy Anderson's "Labor of Love", an alternating CC dance that's about as simple as you can get. Replace the box the gnat with a half figure eight, and it becomes Jim Kitch's "Alternating Corners", which holds a similar spot in my repertoire.
And, if you wanna get wild and do all four corners (and can handle a trickier dance and have a band willing to play AABBCC tunes), check out Jeremy Korr's "Utah Reel".
Cheers,Maia (Brooklyn, NY)
--Maia McCormick (she/her)917.279.8194
On Fri, Sep 13, 2024 at 2:17 PM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
_______________________________________________Hi Abbie,
Microchasmic is great.
My latest Contra Corners dance is:
Knightrider Contra Corners (by John Sweeney)
Sicilian Circle (or Longways – depends on how many dancers and the shape of the room); Three Facing Three (no gender)
A1: Lines of Three Go Forward & Back; All: Opposite Dosido
A2: First Long Corners Dosido; Second Long Corners Dosido
B1: Middles Turn Contra Corners – as they finish go forwards to form circles of three with their original partners
B2: Polka Swing: Circle Left while moving CCW around the other trio to face a new line – open out with someone else in the middle
You can see the Polka Swing in the dance at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e1xdpJOdp58 – one way of doing it is: as each dancer reaches the outside they stand still momentarily and swing the other dancers around; the end result is that you feel like you are on the Waltzers at the fun-fair!
A2 gives the non-Contra Corners dancers something to do!
It has been going down well when I have called it recently.
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: Abbie Sorg via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: 12 September 2024 23:42
To: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Contra corners recommendations needed
Any suggestions on contra corners dances? None have been called at our local dance for years now, and I want to try and re-introduce the move. I've been calling for a few years and think it's a good time to try, but I haven't collected any contra corners dances yet so I'd like to start with something as straightforward as possible.
Chorus Jig seems like the natural choice, but I noticed that basically every video I could find of it uses the same tune. How rigid is this tradition? What if the band doesn't have this in their repertoire? Will the contra police raid the dance hall if I call this choreography to a different tune?
Abbie Sorg
Tucson, AZ
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