14 Dec
2012
14 Dec
'12
12:04 p.m.
Luke said " Something with a 1st corners/2nd corners wasn't what I had
in mind here (as if you accidentally swapped role post swing, you'd
suddenly have to remember you were a different number)".
Like Linda I always think of them as "right diagonals" and "left
diagonals" - it's not who you are, but where you are. So it should
work, but of course there are bound to be some confused people :-)
Linda asked for the timing of:
"A1/A2: Four Changes of Right & Left with Balances Forward & Back before
each one - Start Right with Partner"
Alan's response was spot on:
Finding Your Balance (by John Sweeney)
Contra; Becket (CW)
A1: Right hand Balance Forward & Back with Partner (4)
Pull by Partner, face Neighbour (4)
Left hand Balance Forward & Back with Neighbour (4)
Pull by Neighbour, face Partner (4)
A2: Repeat A1 from these places, finishing at home
B1: Balance the Ring; Men Cross
Balance the Ring; Ladies Cross
B2: Half Promenade
Yearn on the Left Diagonal to New Neighbours (Single
Progression)
I use this dance with less experienced dancers when I want to do a dance
later in the session which has normal Right & Left Changes. The Balance
in this dance gives them more time to orientate themselves and get used
to going round a four person Grand Chain (Grand Right & Left) without
superfluous turns. I can get people to do a Grand Chain in a big
circle, then a Grand Chain in a three-couple circle, but as soon as I
reduce it to a two-couple circle some of them start turning the wrong
way as they pull by. :-)
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
14 Dec
14 Dec
3:37 p.m.
New subject: Yearning (was Re: Questioning a sacred cow of contra dancing)
I posted a dance description once with "Yearn" in it for a single
sideways Becket progression, and I
was told that was incorrect, that "Yearn" meant forward on the diagonal
to next couple and then back
on the diagonal to finish opposite the *next* couple, progressing two
places. (I'm not saying "double
progression" because that's, in my view, a feature of the whole dance
choreography, and if you had
choreography that backed you up one place and then you progressed
forward two, you might have a single
progression dance with this progress two places move in it.)
I've seen a couple of people post recently with Yearn for what looks to
me like progressing one place.
What do you folks think Yearn means? What do your dancers think?
-- Alan
5:59 p.m.
New subject: Yearning (was Re: Questioning a sacred cow of contra dancing)
My understanding is that the yearn progresses to the second couple. The original George
Walker version did just that. His description is that as you pass the first couple you
"yearn" to dance with them, but you don't. Hence the term.
On Dec 14, 2012, at 1:37 PM, Alan Winston <winston(a)slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
I posted a dance description once with "Yearn" in it for a single sideways
Becket progression, and I
was told that was incorrect, that "Yearn" meant forward on the diagonal to
next couple and then back
on the diagonal to finish opposite the *next* couple, progressing two places. (I'm
not saying "double
progression" because that's, in my view, a feature of the whole dance
choreography, and if you had
choreography that backed you up one place and then you progressed forward two, you might
have a single
progression dance with this progress two places move in it.)
I've seen a couple of people post recently with Yearn for what looks to me like
progressing one place.
What do you folks think Yearn means? What do your dancers think?
-- Alan
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6:44 p.m.
New subject: Yearning (was Re: Questioning a sacred cow of contra dancing)
I think we have to simply admit that the folk process has done its work in this case. For
years I have danced contras with yearns which went only one couple. So pervasive was it
that when I wrote a dance with a variation on the move, I called it 'yearn to a
gypsy'. Note, I dance in the SE now, and danced in NE before. So, when I called this
dance in the PNW, many were confused by the appellation because to them, a yearn is two
couples on. I don't know that we will ever 'fix' the misunderstanding on this
coast. It's pretty entrenched. There is an alternate, I believe proposed by Bob
Isaacs. When going just one couple, he calls it a slice. Slice sounds a little sharp to
me, and I wish we could simply yearn one place or two. I changed the name of the move in
my dance to Swirl to a Gypsy, so my PNW friends will not be confused.
Cheers,
Andrea
Sent from my iPhone
On Dec 14, 2012, at 6:59 PM, Rich Goss <richgoss(a)comcast.net> wrote:
My understanding is that the yearn progresses to the
second couple. The original George Walker version did just that. His description is
that as you pass the first couple you "yearn" to dance with them, but you
don't. Hence the term.
On Dec 14, 2012, at 1:37 PM, Alan Winston <winston(a)slac.stanford.edu> wrote:
I posted a dance description once with "Yearn" in it for a single sideways
Becket progression, and I
was told that was incorrect, that "Yearn" meant forward on the diagonal to
next couple and then back
on the diagonal to finish opposite the *next* couple, progressing two places. (I'm
not saying "double
progression" because that's, in my view, a feature of the whole dance
choreography, and if you had
choreography that backed you up one place and then you progressed forward two, you might
have a single
progression dance with this progress two places move in it.)
I've seen a couple of people post recently with Yearn for what looks to me like
progressing one place.
What do you folks think Yearn means? What do your dancers think?
-- Alan
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3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Alan Winston -
Andrea Nettleton -
John Sweeney -
Rich Goss