17 May
2019
17 May
'19
5:55 p.m.
Hear, hear! My sentiments exactly! How on earth are you supposed to “give weight” (in the
proper way, just a tiny bit so you are both part of a unit) and get around each other with
a flat, palm to palm contact? The only way that works is that people bend their wrists so
that they have some purchase on the other person. Which hurts my now no longer flat wrist!
So wrong, painfully wrong. Please, please, please, stop teaching a flat hand allemande. It
doesn’t work. Curved fingers, straight wrist, the thumb is just sort of loose and not
doing much. Thank you for bringing that up, Erik!
Martha
On May 17, 2019, at 3:01 PM, Erik Hoffman via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
John Sweeny below hoped we callers would teach more about hand turns and the like.
I’ve been thinking on this for quite a while. Years ago I had a discussion with Brad
Foster. We both lamented the loss of the allemande with mildly interlocking thumbs to the
modern overprotective thumb against the side of the palm allemande. At that time I think I
was still in Santa Barbara, thus it must have been pre 1994. I wrote an article for our
dance rag called, “If Allemande Left, Where’d Allemande Go?”
I talked about what I do when someone grips my hand—and I think all of us should remove
that word, “grip” from our caller’s vocabulary…
But the most important thing I discussed is:
Our Wrist is Strongest When It’s Straight
Our Fingers are Strongest When Curved
Thus, however one does an allemande, it should be a hook, with curved fingers and a
straight wrist.
Lately I’ve seen teachers promote the straight fingers, bent wrist, and flat palm method.
The almost always makes one person’s wrist uncomfortable. Not as bad as when someone draws
the others hand into that almost-Aikido-put-them-on-the-ground position, but usually quite
uncomfortable.
Thus I hope most of us learn the curved fingers, straight wrist, no grip, and, no thumb
clamping allemande, ECD hand turn, two hand turn type hand connections.
~Erik Hoffman,
Oakland, CA
From: Callers <callers-bounces(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:callers-bounces@lists.sharedweight.net>> On Behalf Of John Sweeney via
Callers
Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 2:09 PM
To: 'Caller's discussion list' <callers(a)sharedweight.net
<mailto:callers@sharedweight.net>>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Name that Dance
Hi Rich,
I would just call it a “Big Set Mixer”. It is a slight variation of the
one in the Community Dances Manual. Callers just make up a 32 bar sequence that works for
their dancers.
While it is a good example of all ages having fun together, I really wish
callers would teach the dancers just a tiny bit about how to do better hand/arm turns and
swings :-)
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com <mailto:john@modernjive.com>
01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html
<http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html> for Live Music Ceilidhs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk <http://www.contrafusion.co.uk/> for Dancing in Kent
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