Re: [Callers] What did he say !??? MWSD - Contra Callers

23 Jan 2008

Rickey,

One other thing I might mention about bringing Modern Western Square moves
into Contra crowds: Contra dancers will try to put balances where they are
used to putting balances, even if you don't call them. For example, most
contra dances using square thrus use a balance, pull by, pull by sequence (8
counts). Repeating the balance, pull by, pull by would complete a square
thru four places. (total 16 counts)

A MWSD crowd would just pull by twice in 4 counts (square thru two), three
times in 6 counts (square thru three) or four times in 8 counts (square thru
four). No balances. Many MW dancers don't know what to make of the balances
that contra dancers love so much.

In the same way, contra dancers are habituated to putting balances before a
Box the Gnat, and I've had to remind dancers in certain dances that there is
no balance before the Box the Gnat.

On the other hand, I have had good luck explaining the swing thru. From a
wavy line of four with the ladies in the middle holding left hands, I teach
neighbors allemande right halfway, men allemande left halfway. I explain
that I will prompt those allemandes as "swing thru."

Find a dance (or adjust it) so that you don't have to teach more than one or
two "new" moves.

-- Jerome

Yes, I know "thru" is actually spelled "through."

On Jan 23, 2008 7:41 AM, &lt;callers-request(a)sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

...

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 Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:06:27 -0500
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 Subject: Re: [Callers] [trad-dance-callers] What did he say !??? MWSD
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 One of the cool things about MWSD is that they have singing squares to
 many fun songs of the past 50 years. Beatles, stones, salsa, C&W, you name
 it. The downside is most are using the jargon of MWSD. This is why they have
 40 weeks of lessons.

 You have two choices - replace the given moves with ones that put the
 dancers in basically that place but with moves they already know, or teach
 all those moves in other dances earlier in the evening.

 Square thru dancers know from contra.
 Swing thru appears in some contra dances (see Manga Tak by Ron Buchannan
 or Southern Swing by Steve Zaikon Anderson) (it's basically - from a wavy
 line - all allemande Right ?, centers  allemande left ?).
 Eight chain 4 I've seen in a couple of squares by Colin Hume (check out
 his Squares with a Difference - singing square O Bla Di, Oh Bla Dah)
 Spin the top - um ....  Here you go:

http://www.remus.dti.ne.jp/~jsda/sdtext/sdtextdata/basicpro10-eng.html#57&l…

 From: trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com [mailto:
 trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com] On Behalf Of Rickey
 Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:43 PM
 To: trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com
 Subject: [trad-dance-callers] What did he say !??? MWSD

 Hi,

 Found two incredible singing squares. One is to Everly brothers' "Dream,
 Dream, Dream" and the other to the Beatles' "Money Can't Buy You
Love". We
 might like to try them for our Valentine's Dance, but they use calls from
 Modern Western Square Dancing. So........... What do these terms mean? (I
 tried http://www.ceder.net <http://www.ceder.net/> , but could not find
 them.)

 Square thru

 Square thru go three (three quarter 'round now)

 Square thru (count it four hands 'round)

 8 chain 4

 Swing thru

 Spin the top

 O.K. I have done a square through but before I teach it (and any
 variations
 in this list), I need review.

 Thanks to those who know.

 I don't.

 Singing in New Hampshire

 Rickey Holt

 [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
 __._,_.___

-- 
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
660-528-0714
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com