I have a couple of answers that are not exactly on-topic, because the answer is contextual:
Inflation Reel by Don Armstrong when attempted at a MWSD convention in Tucson. (I was dancing.)
Anything called to the Eastern-European-style band that played in Bend, Oregon circa November of 2003. (I was calling, it was their first time playing for a dance.)
A contra written for the caller’s son’s wedding and pre-tested at the Folk Fellowship dance camp, circa 2002; it was the first time most (any?) of us had encountered an Orbit. In the camp yearbook notes it said that John Bradford had deemed the dance, “the greatest mixer ever written…although there was some question whether it was supposed to be one.” (This was a closed group and an expert caller with 50+ years experience. In my entire life, I have never seen another dance devolve like it. Couples peeled from the end and individuals were staggering out of the middle of the line because they were so disoriented, yet somehow it continued to grind on. The dance went off phrase, out of rhythm, the caller himself got lost and couldn’t maintain the sequence…in the end he didn’t even cut the music off for us; the line just fatally disintegrated all at once. )
Neal
I should have added that the Robert Cromartie dance I mentioned was based on a Kathy Anderson dance.
"Would You Do It for Twenty?" by Robert Cromartie. We have discussions about "glossary" dances, this one is a "kitchen sink" dance, as in "everything you can think of but the kitchen sink." Contra corners, petronella, diagonal hey, alternates between proper and improper.
Maybe in a workshop, on a bet, hence the title.
Jerome
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net