Millstone or "windmill" - term I've seen used in print for older Canadian dances.

Bob Livingston

From: Angela DeCarlis via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To: Jacob or Nancy Bloom <jandnbloom@gmail.com>
Cc: callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, October 10, 2016 12:45 PM
Subject: Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars

I've never heard "millstone" or "mill" before, but it sounds like it has precedence. My guess is that it was (is?) a useful term at dances where hands-across stars are default. Since that isn't generally the case in many places any longer, it makes sense that "hands-across" has become the more useful modifier.

On Oct 10, 2016 11:37 AM, "Jacob or Nancy Bloom via Callers" <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

When I attended the Berea Christmas Dance School forty years ago, and put my hand on the wrist in front of me during a walk through, someone complained, saying, "He said a star, not a mill!"

Is the term "mill", or the term "millstone", commonly used to refer to wrist stars in areas where hands-across is the default way of doing a star?

Jacob Bloom

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 10:29 AM, Jerome Grisanti via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight. net> wrote:

I agree with Chet that Louisville's default star is hands-across, although weekend festivals in nearby cities tend toward the millstone star. I avoid the terms wrist-lock or even wrist-grip star, as I prefer the fingers to lay atop the adjoining wrist without using the thumb to "grip" in any way.

The Midwest where I dance/call now is pretty solidly wrist-star territory (St. Louis, Columbia MO, Kansas City, Lawrence). When I call one-night events (parties, weddings), I dictate hands-across stars, but when calling for an established contra community I ask for the default.

--Jerome

Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 3:31 AM, John Sweeney via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.ne t> wrote:

Hi all,
I have been to contra dances and festivals all over America and
everywhere I have danced everyone automatically uses a wrist-lock star
(unless the caller has specified hands-across because of the subsequent
choreography).

But I am constantly challenged in England by people claiming that
wrist-lock stars are not the standard in America.

When I go to somewhere like The Flurry and see 600 people from all
over the country all doing wrist-locks it seems to me that it must be the
standard way of doing things.

And obviously it has been common in America for a long time; this
video is from 1964 in Northern Vermont and shows wrist-lock stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch? v=pZubTju7g_s

So, are there still significant communities that don't use
wrist-locks?

Is the wrist-lock the de facto standard?

Thanks.

            Happy dancing,
                   John

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
940 574
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events & DVDs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

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