Thanks for the link. We usually finish our club nights with a circle mixer and that will make a change.

I’ve got rather stuck on Artful Dodger recently. Anyone know who wrote it. I wrote that down at a dance ages ago when I was less fussy about details.

 

A1 Forward and back twice

A2 do-ce-do neighbour, do-ce-do partner

B1 Men slip in, Ladies slip in to face their partner. Men slip out to partners place, ladies slip out to stand with back to partner.

B2 Balance and swing the one you are facing (new partner)

 

From: Angela DeCarlis via Contra Callers
Sent: 20 November 2023 15:36
To: John Sweeney
Cc: Shared Weight Contra Callers
Subject: [Callers] Re: Favorite One Night Stand Dances

 

I think Chris Page got it right, as per usual:

 

"Rings of Spring" by Chris Ricciotti?

Cheers,
-Chris

 

It makes sense that I would have picked this up from Chris Ricciotti since I was dancing in Boston for so long. That said, what I called is a bit of a variant (possibly I folk-processed it myself, or someone else did, intentionally or accidentally) from the original, here. 

 

Some thoughts on my variant:

  • There's a lot of extra time in the A1 in my version because I had the "gents go in" bit written as a "meanwhile" move. The timing of the original would be better for a hall of more seasoned dancers; my dancers really took advantage of the extra 4 beats to get their wave put together! Same for the 16 count promenade — figuring out how to end the swing with everyone in the right place, and ending the promenade in the right place, took up all the extra time (this is compared to the B2 of Bill Olson's A Night at the Opera, which is also very similar)
  • To Mac's point regarding balances, I inadvertently taught/called the balances differently than I usually would, and it was a BIG success! Describing balances as "step to your own individual right, then to your own individual left" wasn't quite working, so I said/demoed that it was more like "[looks/leans right] Hi! [looks/leans left] Hello!" The dancers loved this, so much so that during the dance they all said it out loud with me. The first balance, right and left, became "Hi! Hello!" and next balance, left and right, went "Hello! Hi!" All smiles. Best teaching accident in recent memory! Let me know if any of you try it!

 

 

On Sun, Nov 19, 2023 at 6:58 PM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi Angela,

              It looks like a simplified version of Bill Olsen’s “A Night at the Opera”:

http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=95

 

              Circassian Circle is much simpler.  I wouldn’t consider it to be related.  Did you know that most people only dance Part 2?  Lots more information at:

http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/EFDS4802-CircassianCircle.html

 

            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: Angela DeCarlis via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: 19 November 2023 17:07
To: mjw@mowaddington.plus.com
Cc: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweightnet>
Subject: [Callers] Re: Favorite One Night Stand Dances

 

Hello all,

 

I called an awesome one-off gig on Friday night (honestly the most fun ONS ever for me) and used a lot of the dances mentioned in this thread — thanks everyone! I'll include my program below.

 

I also called a Circle Mixer that I've had in my box for a long time, but I don't remember where I got it and don't know its name or author — maybe one of y'all will recognize it? It goes:

 

A1: Ladies in 3 steps, clap on the fourth beat (4)

      While Ladies back out, Gents in 3 steps, clap on the fourth beat (4)

      Gents face out, return to place to form a wavy line (circle) (8)

A2: Balance wave R, L (4), Allemande R 1x (4)

      Balance wave L, R (4), Allemande L 1x (4)

B1: New Partner (the person you turned by the Right) Balance & Swing

B2: All promenade CCW (Gents in the Center), face in as couples to reform the circle

 

This dance was a little harder to teach than most of the other things I called (it was also the only dance I called with two roles) but was easily danced — the rhythm and timing makes sense, and if you emphasize who promenades on the inside/outside in the B2, then everyone stays in the same role regardless of the way the swing is done or where the dancers end it. The timing overall has a lot of cushion, giving dancers plenty of time to hit the beats in the A1 and (to a lesser extent) A2.

 

Here's the rest of my program:

  1. Lucky Number Seven
  2. Galopede
  3. Do Si Three
  4. Accretion Reel
  5. Waves of the Sea
  6. The Loon Dance
  7. [Circle Mixer above]

This got us through about 2 hours of dancing with some beefier-than-usual breaks in between each set. I walked through all the dances twice.

 

Best,

Angela

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