28 Jun
2018
28 Jun
'18
5:59 a.m.
An interesting question Colin. Certainly, as you suggest, modern contras,
at least in the U.S., are done with a walking step and often a buzz step
swing, with some occasional improve moves(clogging, clapping, dips, and
other forms of flourishes). In our region, a contra dance evening would
consist primarily longways dances for as many as will, with some
communities including squares, triplets, triads, four facing fours, and the
like, with others having a zero tolerance for anything other than longways
duple minors and four facing fours. At least here, if the call says, "Line
up for a contra." the default would be to line up longways, with the ones
crossed over.In our community, if the caller wanted some other formation,
it would have to be specified as something different than a contra - "Find
a partner for a square" , "Form 3-couple sets", etc. It's all about era
and
location I think...Here is a reconstruction of a contra dance published in
1801....I would not recommend attempting to call this at a modern
contra.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9F8hLaGFdZ4
Bob Green
St. Louis
On Wed, Jun 27, 2018 at 3:47 PM, Colin Hume via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I'm in Germany, and I'm speaking for the next
few days at a Conference run
by the European Callers and Teachers Association.
Several of my sessions are about Contras, and speaking to the Contra
Coordinator as we drove to the hotel I realised we had very
different ideas about what a contra is. I say it is an American (or
American-style) dance, longways duple or triple. He classes
three-couple dances (such as Ted's Triplets), four-couple dances and
circles as contras. He even classes my dance "Sting in the
Tail" as a contra. This is for two three-couple sets side-by-side and
involves siding into line, set and turn single. I would
regard this quite definitely as "Playford"-style, and I think Americans
would categorise it as English. But what is a contra? I
know the hot-shots would say that it's longways duple improper or Becket
with a partner swing and preferably a neighbor swing, but
is that your definition? What about an early American dance such as "The
Young Widow" - is that a contra? Can a dance in waltz
time be a contra? I think of a contra as mainly danced to reels or jigs,
though I know there are a few to slip-jigs. Within
reels I would include marches and American hornpipes, which are smooth,
but not English hornpipes which I would dance to a
step-hop. And not Strathspeys. I would say contras are done to a walking
step, apart from the swing which is often a buzz step.
But do you agree with me?
Answers fairly quickly please!
Colin Hume
Email colin(a)colinhume.com Web site http://colinhume.com
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