Deborah Hyland wrote:
> The next question I had was whether the circles got progressively bigger or whether it was always circles of 4. Thanks so much!
I grew up dancing Swing Like Thunder at the Farm and Wilderness Camps in Vermont (back when the program was all squares, mixers, and couple dances) and also danced it in NYC with Dick Kraus. In both cases the figure was cumulative (circle
4, 6, 8) but there was no docey-doe; we just went from the basket to a circle, which the active gent broke to pick up the next couple.
One could conceivably use a Texas do-si-do (now called do-paso just about everywhere) with circles of six or more. Red Warrick of Kilgore, TX was famous for a version of Grapevine Twist, which he called “Figure Eight”: active couple lead
right and circle four; those four dance a figure eight around and through the next couple; add that couple and circle six; “do-si and a little more do” (= Texas do-si-do); those six dance a figure eight around and through the last couple; add that couple and
circle eight; “on that corner with your left paw, right to your honey, go gee and haw” (= AL, GR&L, of course). One could do something similar with Swing Like Thunder.
Tony Parkes
Billerica, Mass.
New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century
(to be published Summer 2017)