18 May
2019
18 May
'19
4:14 p.m.
Hi all,
I’m going to add a controversial note. I also loathe the many poor allemandes I get,
unweighted, awkward handed, arm pulled in like a chicken wing, what have you. As a MWSD,
I have come to love the forearm allemande for arm turns. Callerlab made the switch some
years ago, and at first I was like, wut??? But it’s a position which save everyone’s
hands and wrists, and even shoulders, is intrinsically very stable, and makes the chicken
wing almost impossible. I started using it for dances with revolving doors, as a dancer,
because those turns are so brief and necessarily tight and need a quick strong connection.
I was so pleased I began using them elsewhere. People generally go along with it. I
have been wishing Contra could just switch to this for all allemandes. I know it would be
an uphill struggle to get everyone on board. But I had to put it out there.
Currently I still teach an old fashioned allemande. I demonstrate and emphasize meaty
parts of the thumb together, fingers curled around the base of the opposite’s thumb, flat
wrist. And I always add that the thumb itself is an injurious device which lands at a
tender spot if depressed, so leave it loose. Then I demonstrate how to produce enough
connection to make a 2 person unit that turns on a post. I’m sure everyone on this list
has similar teaches.
If teaching this allemande was ever going to work, it would have by now. I suspect it’s
failure as a hold is why callerlab opted for the forearm hold instead.
My 2c,
Andrea N
Arlington VA
Sent from my iPhone
On May 17, 2019, at 6:01 PM, Erik Hoffman via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
John Sweeny below hoped we callers would teach more about hand turns and the like.
I’ve been thinking on this for quite a while. Years ago I had a discussion with Brad
Foster. We both lamented the loss of the allemande with mildly interlocking thumbs to the
modern overprotective thumb against the side of the palm allemande. At that time I think I
was still in Santa Barbara, thus it must have been pre 1994. I wrote an article for our
dance rag called, “If Allemande Left, Where’d Allemande Go?”
I talked about what I do when someone grips my hand—and I think all of us should remove
that word, “grip” from our caller’s vocabulary…
But the most important thing I discussed is:
Our Wrist is Strongest When It’s Straight
Our Fingers are Strongest When Curved
Thus, however one does an allemande, it should be a hook, with curved fingers and a
straight wrist.
Lately I’ve seen teachers promote the straight fingers, bent wrist, and flat palm method.
The almost always makes one person’s wrist uncomfortable. Not as bad as when someone draws
the others hand into that almost-Aikido-put-them-on-the-ground position, but usually quite
uncomfortable.
Thus I hope most of us learn the curved fingers, straight wrist, no grip, and, no thumb
clamping allemande, ECD hand turn, two hand turn type hand connections.
~Erik Hoffman,
Oakland, CA
From: Callers <callers-bounces(a)lists.sharedweight.net> On Behalf Of John Sweeney
via Callers
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 2:09 PM
To: 'Caller's discussion list' <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Name that Dance
Hi Rich,
I would just call it a “Big Set Mixer”. It is a slight variation of the
one in the Community Dances Manual. Callers just make up a 32 bar sequence that works for
their dancers.
While it is a good example of all ages having fun together, I really wish
callers would teach the dancers just a tiny bit about how to do better hand/arm turns and
swings :-)
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs
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