Thanks to all those who contributed. Here is a summary of the key points
that were made. It is clear that the wrist lock star is indeed the standard
across the USA, with only a few areas using hands across.
Summary
Names: Wrist Star, Box Star, Wrist-Grip Star, Wrist-Lock Star, Pack-saddle
Star, Wagon-Wheel (Star), Basket Handhold
Also, but these can mean Hands Across: Millstone Star, Mill, Windmill,
Moulinet, Old Mill
Alternative Star Holds:
Hands Across (that term goes back to at least 1650!)
Palm Star (MWSD only)
Lump (Bunch of Bananas, Limp Lettuce) - to be avoided at all costs
Etymology of Mill references:
Alan Winston: Go back far enough (1700s) and you get "moulinet" in French
sources, "mill" in some English sources, for what I'm pretty sure are
hands-across stars.
Colin Hume: In the Netherlands it's called "molen" which means "windmill".
John Sweeney: The early 19th century Quadrilles and dances like The Lancers
used the term Moulinet for Star. As far as we know it was always a Hands
Across Star. Moulinet means turnstile, crank or propeller. Whether it
independently became known as a Windmill/Mill or whether it was badly
translated as Moulin = Windmill is unclear.
Wagon-Wheel: in the Appalachians it was a shoulder star - see 2 minutes in
at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht9kjeKcOsg .
There is a general view that the term Wrist-Grip should be avoided, and that
it should be emphasised that you don't grip (keep your thumb up top with
your fingers!).
I like the term "Wrist Lock" since it makes it clear that we are using
wrists, and since the shape you make looks like the Lock that sword and
rapper dancers make when they interlink them all and raise them high. I
also love that wrist-locks work perfectly for three or five dancers in a
star (I call lots of different styles). But I am sure that although the
move may become even more ubiquitous, the terminology will retains its local
flavour.
Any ideas on when it started?
Dan Pearl: Sylvia Miskoe, in rec.folk-dancing on March 4, 1999 said: "Wrist
grip stars became popular after the appearance at New England Folk Festival
(NEFFA) of the Lithuanian Dance Group doing their dances and they all used
wrist grips. The square dancers thought it was a neat idea and adopted it."
Any idea when that festival was?
1964 in Northern Vermont shows wrist-lock stars:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZubTju7g_s
1981 Ted Sanella's "Balance & Swing" defines a star in New England as "grasp
the wrist of the dancer ahead".
1983 Larry Jennings' "Zesty Contras" refers you to Ted's book.
Exceptions:
When choreography dictates, e.g. "men drop out, ladies chain" works
better with hands across
One night stands
Dave Casserley:
https://www.swarthmore.edu/sites/default/files/assets/ documents/linguistics/
2007_kaufman_jeff.pdf
This shows that ten years ago wrist-stars were common everywhere in the US
except in some parts of the South.
Amy Wimmer (Seattle):
The wrist lock is the common star formation in the Northwest, with a hands
across being the exception.
Tim Klein (TN):
I call for dances in Knoxville, TN and occasionally in the surrounding area
(Jonesboro, Chattanooga). I've been dancing here for 30 years. I recall
hands across stars in Knoxville, Atlanta, Brasstown, Asheville and points
between, but wrist grip stars in Lexington, Louisville and Nashville.
Chet Gray (KY):
I tend to consider my home dance, Louisville, KY, and nearby Lexington, as
two of the last bastions of hands-across-by-default. Wrist-grip seems to be
the default even in relatively nearby cities: Indianapolis, Bloomington, IN,
Nashville, Cincinnati. Not sure about Berea and Somerset, KY, also nearby.
Jerome Grisanti (Midwest):
I agree with Chet that Louisville's default star is hands-across, although
weekend festivals in nearby cities tend toward the millstone star. The
Midwest where I dance/call now is pretty solidly wrist-star territory (St.
Louis, Columbia MO, Kansas City, Lawrence).
BUT...
Susan McElroy-Marcus:
Just a bit of Louisville dance community history on this subject-when my
husband started dancing there in the late '70s and I came in 1982, the
Monday night dance was a mix of English and contra. The default contra
dance star grip was the "wrist lock" not hands across as in English. We
called it a basket handhold or wrist grip. Our influence came from New
England because our friend, Norb Spencer, who started the group along with
Marie and Frank (Cassidy?) and who called much of the time-learned in New
England. We then taught it that way when we moved to Cincinnati and started
that group. Louisville only became a "bastion of hands-across-by-default"
sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s during my calling hiatus. When I
re-entered the calling scene 6-7 years ago, I was surprised and bemused upon
calling in Louisville to learn of the high regard held for their
'traditional' hands-across star style.
Andrea Nettleton:
Somewhere south of Asheville and leading west possibly into the lower
Midwest, is the land of hands across stars. They are standard in Atlanta,
the heart of hands-across-land.
George Mercer:
The wrist lock dominates everywhere I've danced over the years
Meg Dedolph (Chicago):
Checking in from Chicago, where wrist-grip stars are the norm and
hands-across stars need to be specified. When I started dancing, 14 or 15
years ago, in Michigan, many dancers reached for a hands-across star first,
though I don't see that so much anymore.
Jane Thickstun (Michigan)
When I was dancing in Michigan, I found it to be a mess, with maybe half
doing wrist grip and half hands-across, and everyone just throwing their
hands in the middle without doing either. I wish callers would specify for
each dance which kind of star they recommend, to avoid this kind of thing.
Angela DeCarlis (Florida):
Where I've called recently, in the Northeast and in New England, wrist-grip
is definitely the default, and I wasn't aware that parts of the south
default to hands-across. Neat!
Here to comment that Florida, where I'm from originally, holds true to its
role as the Exception to the Rule: despite being in the South, they
definitely default to wrist-grip there, as well.
Jacob Bloom:
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!"
Don Veino:
"lay it on the wrist of the person in front of you, like a pack saddle on a
horse" [Thanks! I could never work out why it was called a pack saddle! JS]
And yes, very much the default star form from my experience.
Louise Siddons (Stillwater, OK):
Here in Oklahoma I call it a wagon-wheel grip, but I think I picked up that
term in either Michigan or California when I was starting to dance contra
circa 2008. Wagon-wheel stars are the default in OK/TX/KS/MO local dances,
and also seem standard in the SF Bay Area.
Neal Schlein:
Whatever you call it, today a wrist star is the US standard for most of the
country.
Joy Greenwolfe (Durham, NC):
Central North Carolina here. In this region, wrist-grip or wagon-wheel stars
are the default. Some dances specify hands-across if the choreography asks
for it.
John Sweeney (itinerant):
I have danced in Florida, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Asheville,
Phoenix and festivals such as Berea Christmas Dance School, LEAF, Flurry and
don't remember ever seeing anyone do Hands Across in a regular contra dance.
Chet questioned the relevance of dance weekends, but my point was that when
people from different area get together, in my experience, they tend to use
wrist-lock stars, which, to me, does seem to be an indicator that it is
accepted as the default. Of course, as Chet says, some of those dancers may
well use their regional style at their home dances.
Rich Sbardella referenced MWSD: In MWSD, hands are often just put into the
center, sometimes raised as in a contra allemande, sometimes just straight
forward from the shoulder.
>From CallerLab: "Palm Star: Place all hands together with fingers pointing
up and thumbs closed gently over the back of the adjacent dancer's hand to
provide a degree of stabilization. Arms should be bent slightly so that the
height of the handgrip will be at an average eye level.. Men's outside arms
in natural dance position, women's outside hands work skirt. Some areas
dance any stars containing men with a Box Star/Pack-saddle Star: Four men
with palms down take the wrist of the man ahead and link up to form a box."
Neal Schlein:
The Palm Star was the standard style around Colorado in the 1930s when Lloyd
Shaw got started, and for many years after. Pretty much, you'll only find
it among square dancers, people who danced with Calico and Boots in Boulder,
Colorado, or folks with an exaggerated respect for history. Guess I qualify
as all three.
John Sweeney:
I have heard that ladies don't join in wrist-stars in MWSD because of the
hairy, sweaty men's wrists in the south!
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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