[Callers] Re: Contra Corners?

Hi Rich, The concept of “Turn your partner, turn someone else, turn your partner, turn the next person” goes way back. This is from Trenchmore (pre-1650): “Having soundly turned both ways, every man, with his woeman, the first man shall turne the 2nd man, his owne woeman standing by, he shall turne her, and then the next man, and then his owne woeman, and then the 3rd, and then his owne, soe all round like before, as soone as having turned any of them, he shall turne his owne woeman, and soe followe each other, and then all men and woemen turne round as before as fast as they can, then the woemen doe first like the man, and turne all againe soundly;” http://contrafusion.co.uk/lovelace.htm#Trenchmore If you do that in a circle then you get La Boulangere (the only dance Jane Austen mentions by name in her books). The same dance figure was done in the Appalachians (Big Set/Running Set) where it was known as the Shoo-Fly Swing. If you do it in a longways set and have both couples active then you get Strip the Willow. If you restrict it to three couples at a time then you get Contra Corners. As Colin mentions in his article it has been around for a few centuries with various names. Fandango from 1774 is very popular: “turn corners & turn your Part: - the same at the other corners” Thomas Wilson published “The Complete System of English Country Dancing” around 1816. He has three relevant figures: “Set Contrary Corners”: Pass right shoulder; set to first corner; pass right shoulder, set to second corner “Turn Corners”: As above, but two-hand turn instead of set “Swing Corners”: Partner right, first corner left, partner right, second corner left As Colin says, Swing means different things depending on the genre, the country and the century: http://contrafusion.co.uk/SwingTwoHandTurn.html Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent