Re: [Callers] Fwd: List of contra dance figures

Sam Whited asked for "any move that's ever been used in a contra dance (even if only once)" and that isn't listed in the Wikipedia article at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dance_choreography or in Sam's lists at https://github.com/SamWhited/contra-card/issues/2 https://github.com/SamWhited/contra-card/issues/17 I think that the number of such moves will turn out to be quite large, and also that there will be many cases in which it no clear whether to count things as distinct moves or as variants of the same move. The pages listed above are all moving targets, but here are some moves I didn't see listed when I looked a little while ago. * "Up the Hall Four in Line" -- The Wikipedia article (as of when I looked at it just a little while ago) lists "Down the Hall Four in Line" but doesn't explicitly list "Up the Hall Four in Line". As we know from a recent thread here on the SharedWeight callers' forum, there are lots of things you can do in between going down the hall and coming back up. And is it a different move if you're going backwards instead of forwards (as, for example, in those sequences inspired, but not exactly copied, from "Dublin Bay")? * Down/Up the Hall as Couples -- Active couples only going down the center was one of the most common figures in traditional contras (Petronella, Hull's Victory, Lady of the Lake, ...). Dan Pearl's "Brimmer And May Reel" has dancers going down the hall four in line and later coming back up two-by-two. Dillon Bustin's "Anne's a Bride Tonight" has actives go up the center then come back down. * Down/Up the Outside -- as if Chorus Jig, And then there's "Devil's Dream", where some dancers go down/up the outside while others go up/down the center. * Cast off -- This could be an assisted cast with adjacent dancers putting arms around each others' backs (common in traditional contras after atives come up the center), a hand cast (after up the center four in line) or an unassisted cast. * Cross the set -- as in the opening sequences of "Rory O'More", "French Four", and Ted Sannella's "Fiddleheads". And then there's the diagonal version in "Road to Californy" and "Lamplighter's Hornpipe": Actives cross diagonally down between the two's to form long waves with actives facing out holding current neighbor in one hand and next neighbor in the other hand. Is that a separate move or a mere variant? (From the standpoint of what it's like to teach it to dancers unfamiliar with it, I'd say it's a different move.) Speaking of "Rory O' More", is the second half of A1 a variant of half figure eight, a combination of crossing the set and casting off, or a unique move unto itself. And what about the thing the actives do just after they cross the set in "Fiddleheads" (turn individually left to dance around one person--M1 going down outside and W1 going up outside--and step into the center of the set to form "diamonds")? * Arch and duck to progress -- One of Sam's lists includes "Duck and Dive". I'm not sure whether that's meant to include a simple "2's arch; 1's dive to meet new neighbors" or whether he intends something more complex. (I think of "Duck and Dive" as involving a sequence of at least two arch-and-duck moves where the who make the first arch duck under the second. The action could be entirely forward or could include backing up as in Kirston Koths's "Nantucket Sleigh Ride".) From a line of four, center can arch and ends duck as in (at least some versions of) "Jefferson's Reel"/"Jefferson And Liberty". Yet another arching and ducking move (not necessarily to progress) occurs in, for example, "Pop Goes the Weasel", where one couple circles with a member of the other couple, then "pops" that person through an arch. * Does circling (or "ovaling") around the entire set count as a mere variant of "Circle" (usually meaning circle four) or a separate figure? * What about promenading around the entire set vs. across the set? And when women turn back from the oval promenade in Paul Balliet's "Fairport Harbor" to swing a new neighbor, is that a mere variant of "turn alone"? * Are the gypsy in pairs in Ted Sannella's "Yours for the Asking" and the action in Devin Nordberg's "Fantasy Contra" where both ladies gypsy with the same gent at once mere variants of "Gypsy" or separate figures? By the way, "Fantasy Contra" also includes "Ladies choice swing (partner or neighbor)" and then some has some conditional moves in the B parts to achieve correct progression regardless of the choice. * And how about that "hey for three" in Tom Hinds's "Bale the Hay" and "Bale the Hay II" where actives dance as one person and inactives dance separately? * What about concentric single-file "promenades" as in Tony Saletan's "Amicable Settlement"? * Circle to a line * Circle to a wave * What would you call that move (kind of a mix of give-and-take and shift right) that achieves the progression in the B2 of Rick Mohr's "Sunset Limited"? * How about the move that achieves the progression in the B2 of Luke Donforth's "Leave Them Hanging"? * None of the pages Sam cites include any hand-clapping moves (except the common embellishment on Petronella turns). I'm sure I've only scratched the surface. --Jim On Sep 9, 2013, at 12:58 PM, Sam Whited wrote: