Hello all, 

With the prompts from this list as a spur to memory, the original caller was able to remember more of what they did. The dance is definitely similar to tunnel mania, but the song in question was "Venus Flytrap" (not mousetrap). He even sang the song for me (he apologizes for his recovering from covid voice, but it's fine.)

Venus Flytrap
Formation: single file circle facing in same direction counter clockwise
Tunes: song of the same name
Set up: 2 couples with arches on opposite sides of circle, everyone going under the aches

verse 1
I’m flying south, so south
Down to the Carolinas
On vacation to see what I can see

verse 2
The sky is blue, so blue
There’s a sweet smell in the air
Oh nectar, sweet like a honey bee

chorus
But it's a Venus Fly Trap
Don’t be tempted, stay on track
A Venus Fly Trap
Watch out, or it goes snap!

All stand in a circle.  Choose two people to make an arch with both hands and turn so one is outside the circle and the other is inside the circle.  When the song starts, sing along, turn to the left, and move in a ring under the arch. The arch is the Venus Fly Trap, so watch out......  On the word SNAP the arch comes down and whoever is caught goes to the center of the circle. Whenever there are two people in the center they can join to make another arch and become a new Venus Fly Trap.  The more you play the more Venus Fly Traps you’ll get, until everyone gets caught.

On Fri, Feb 10, 2023 at 10:06 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi Tony,

              In my notation I assumed the trapping.  The original version doesn’t specify it.

 

              It is from Community Dances Manual 5, copyright 1957, so it precedes the American versions.  But… it says, “taking a hint from the American “Eternal Triangle””,  Any idea what that dance was?

 

              Here is the text from CDM 5 (1957):

 

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

21. TRIPLE PROMENADE OR SILLY THREESOME

Devised by Kenneth and Sybil Clark, taking a hint from the American “Eternal Triangle”.

Music: Any Reel or Jig

Form: 3 behind 3, each man with 2 partners, ballroom direction around the room. Spare men may hover in the centre until B.2. when they join in the tunnelling and compete for partners.

A.1. Forward in threes.

A.2. Arm right twice with right partner and left with left.

B.1. As A.1.

B.2. Girls form stationary arches for the men to tunnel under till, the music unexpectedly stopping, all form new lines of three.

Repeat after minimum break.

In A.2. the M.C. may decide to call any other figure – reel of 3, basket, double arching, etc. – or, if the men have sufficient initiative, he may leave it to them to indicate their choice to the partners of the moment.

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =

 

              Note: this is not the language that we would use today.  Remember this was 1957!

 

              Note: It was an M.C., not a caller!

 

              If I am calling it in a gender-free environment then I tell them that they can put a different person in the middle after the Basket.  For beginners I use an Inside Basket.

 

            Happy dancing,

                   John                      

                                   

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574

http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent                                         

 

From: Tony Parkes <tony@hands4.com>
Sent: 10 February 2023 14:34
To: John Sweeney <john@modernjive.com>; 'Caller's discussion list' <callers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: RE: [Callers] Re: Mousetrap?

 

John, do you know when the Clarks wrote or published this? I learned it from Ted Sannella under the name of Triple Promenade, probably in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The sequence is identical, except that I’m pretty sure Ted had the ladies “trap” the gents when the music stopped (maybe assumed but not specified in the notation below). I can still hear Ted’s voice chanting “And the ladies arch and the gentlemen march” in time with French-Canadian reels. I’d always thought it was Ted’s version of a dance that must have been traditional somewhere; now I’m wondering whether the Clarks made it up out of whole cloth or adapted some older routine.

 

Tony Parkes

Billerica, Mass.

www.hands4.com

New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century

(available now)

 

 

From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Friday, February 10, 2023 4:36 AM
To: 'Caller's discussion list' <callers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Re: Mousetrap?

 

<<Resent to everyone>>

 

Hi Luke,

              Here is one:

https://squaredancehistory.org/exhibits/show/dare-to-be-square-weekend-2011/item/730

 

              Here is my notation:

Silly Threesome (by Kenneth & Sibyl Clark)

Trios (LML) plus spare men

 

A1:        Promenade (16) – Spare Men in the Middle

A2:        On the Right: Arm Right Twice; On the Left: Arm Left Twice

B1:         Promenade (16)

B2:         Ladies make a Tunnel; All Men go through Tunnel until the music stops – Form new Trios

Alt A2s: Hey, Basket, Right Hand High Left Hand Low, etc.

 

Larry Edelman (the one in the video):

A1:        Promenade (16) – Spares in the Middle

A2:        On the Right: Allemande Right; On the Left: Allemande Left

              On the Right: Dosido

B1:         Ladies make a Tunnel; All REVERSE and go through Tunnel until the music stops – Form new Trios

B2:         Basket Swing – open to a line with someone new in the middle

 

 

            Happy dancing,

                   John                      

                                   

John Sweeney, Dancer, England   john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574

http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent                                         

 

From: Luke Donforth via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: 09 February 2023 22:33
To: Caller's discussion list <callers@sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Mousetrap?

 

Hello all, 

 

I've been asked back to a family dance I did at a camp last summer. When I was there last year, one of the kids said "are we going to do Mousetrap?!", a dance they remembered from a previous year with the prior caller.

 

I've tried to find it, but am having no luck. The previous caller said:
Oh, it's been years...  Its a singing game, but I can't resurrect the words/melody at the moment - don't have it written down or recorded. Kind of like Ninepin square dance, where the band needs to stop playing on cue.  Everyone's in a circle single file walking under arches - 2 to start, then doubled each time, those who are caught (i.e. the 'mousetrap') when the music stops make the arches, and the music resumes, until there's more arches than people on the line.  


But that's all they've got. Anyone know this one, possibly under another name?

 

Thanks!

Luke

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Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth@gmail.com