Re: [Callers] Dances for 3-6 couples - 2 More

Hi, Sorry to be so late with this response. Here are two suggestions, both set dances: Double Dot - for 5 people, and Pride of the Dingle for 9 people. I do not have authors. I think "Pride" is traditional. (Dingle is a peninsula in Ireland.) Rickey Holt, Fremont, NH DOUBLE DOT Formation: 4 people on the ends of a plus sign with the fifth person in the middle facing up (or if it easier to picture, 4 people on the sides of a square as if each was missing a partner, plus that fifth in the middle). Left and Right are from the perspective of the middle person - who is facing up A1 Middle person, top and right hand person - Star Right Into a Star Left for middle, bottom and left hand person A2 Hey for 3 up and down the middle - for middle, top and bottom; middle and top, right shoulders to start B1,2 Middle and RIGHT hand person balance together and away and change places (i.e. allemande right 1/2 way) Repeat for NEW middle and bottom Repeat for new middle and next Repeat for new middle and current top. Do not let go of this last change and form the star to start the dance again. I like to use waltzes, Marianne used Reels PRIDE OF THE DINGLE Formation: Four couples in longways formation, proper, men on caller's right, women across from them, AND an extra person at the bottom, between and below the lines, facing up. A1 All dance down the hall single file while the Dingle dances up between the lines Turn and dance back A2 "Climb the Ladder": On the sides, all Allemande Left 1/2, then Right 1/2. Dingle joins each allemande to make a 3 person star in succession moving up with each successive star. This is repeated (for a total of twice) until the dingle is at the top. B1 Dingle joins line of their own gender (if this can be determined). Lines go forward and back, with the dingle going forward to an empty spot. All go forward and back again but adjust so that the all are opposite a new partner. This means that the dingle's line moves down one place as it moves forward and a new dingle is popped out at the bottom. B2 All swing new partners. Optionally, Dingle can join the bottom couple to form a basket of three (although I normally do this dance for beginners and they are too busy getting straight to do the basket). -----Original Message----- From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Will Loving Sent: Tuesday, October 14, 2008 9:56 AM To: Callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Dances for 3-6 couples As a new caller, I¹m looking for advise and/or suggestions for events with a very small number of dancers, 3-6 couples. At a dance I called in August (granted a slow month) we had at most five couples and that was if I and a couple of people who came to play music danced. I threw away my carefully planned program and wound up doing a number of triplets (thank you David Smukler) and a four-on-four that I modified so that it stayed together as a set and resulted in a change of partners each time through. It was a little clunky but it mostly worked and gave us some variety. I am of course trying to avoid the scenario of people spending half the dance as neutrals when there only four couples in a set, and I¹m not really ready to take on learning some squares in the next few days which would be the obvious choice. I am hopeful that there will be more people this time, but in case I¹m in the same situation again, I¹m studying more triplets, a couple of dbl-progression dances for 4+ couple sets (so that no one waits out at the end for long) and looking for other ideas. Levi Jackson Rag is a possibility, but I¹d still like to have some other options in my pocket. It did occur to me to suggest an extra couples dance or two just to break things up if we¹re doing lots of short dances with 3-5 couples. Thanks, Will Loving _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers