25 Apr
2023
25 Apr
'23
11:37 a.m.
Square to Contra or effective Contra is, as Seth said, incredibly easy. All
it technically takes is
“Sides lead right,” but there are infinite solutions. There is inter-square
choreography in Lloyd Shaw’s book, so the basic idea goes back to at least
the 1930s, and it has been done as a gimmick periodically by my club to
transition to a contra since the 50s. I believe there is mention of it in
the notes of the Shaw Fellowship.
The challenge with creating squares from a contra is propagating the eight
hands down the line. If you don’t mind “breaking” the contra flow by
taking a moment for that, then it isn’t too hard—get into becket and count.
Making it organic is harder. You can use some of these tricks:
1. With two parallel contra lines: down hall In lines of four, merge to
lines of 8. Face the center, centers Star through, chain, and proceed.
2. Scatter promenade, merge to groups of 4, circle, merge to sets of 8
3. Start with Tempest formation and go.
4. My favorite for a natural propagation: create lines of four, down and
return. Have lead 4 wheel and start a dip and dive. You now have upward and
downward facing lines of four that will self-propagate. Once complete
through all lines, call as you will.
5. Same idea as above, except grand March style with progressively
conjoined alternating peel offs until you have lines of 8.
6. ChainsAw promenade in lines of 4
If you are really leaning into it as a square, or have actual square
dancers, there are other options. You could have them simply come up as 4s,
1st set wheel and call “if you can trade by and everyone repeat.”
Neal
On Tue, Apr 25, 2023 at 6:33 AM Tepfer, Seth via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Ron Buchanan was the first person I saw medley a
square into a contra. I
don't remember him doing the reverse, but he may have.
Going from square into contra is actually pretty easy. Sides chain, get
the heads in between the sides (say, heads DSD opposite, current corner
DSD), then go down the hall four in line. Turn alone, come back up, CL 3
places, partner swing. poof.
I haven't found a method for smoothly going from contra to a square on the
fly. The best I've done is Circle left, now pause, and change into hands
eight. Then circle left, open up. Then identify the square - and have sides
chain across.
Seth Tepfer, MBA, CSM, PMP (he, him, his)
Senior IT Manager, Emory Primate Center
------------------------------
*From:* Jeff Kaufman via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
*Sent:* Tuesday, April 25, 2023 8:12 AM
*To:* Contra Callers <contracallers(a)sharedweight.net>
*Subject:* [External] [Callers] Putting a square in a contra medley
*"if we had more time we'd throw in a square"*
The contra dance medley at NEFFA
<https://www.neffa.org/folk-festival/new-england-folk-festival-2023/> is
normally six dances, each six times through (well, the last one is five or
seven). I was thinking about what you'd need to do if you actually wanted
to include a square...
The main problem is that you need to switch the dancers from groups of
four to groups of eight, and there isn't really a great way to do this. In
computer science speak the issue is that it takes time linear in the number
of dancers. But maybe you could have the top couple sashay down from the
top, and everyone takes hands eight as they pass, which is fast enough even
in a long hall that it's ok (~16 beats, and you adjust the time by figuring
out how much intro to do on the square)? And then tell anyone left out at
the bottom to square up?
(Going back into contra lines from aligned squares should be easier: side
couples circle left three quarters and twirl to swap, lines at the sides,
etc)
Would this work?
Jeff
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Neal Schlein
Librarian, MSLIS