31 Oct
2023
31 Oct
'23
5:34 p.m.
Sometimes a dance looks good on paper, and it's difficult to know dance's
issues until you dance it.
I wonder if anyone has variations to Bob Isaacs' "Hinge Binge"?
I really like the hinging part of the dance, but ... in lark/gent/lefthand
role, I find my right arm is strained from having it up so much.
Here's the original:
Becket
A1: Larks Give and Take, Neighbor Swing
A2: Circle L 3/4, Partner Dosido to short wavy line, P in RH, larks in ctr
with LH
B1: Bal Wave, Hinge + Circulate (Partner Alle R 1/4, then box circulate
with Robins crossing set to new wave, larks, looping right to face back in
and join wave on the same side)
Bal Wave, Hinge + Advance (N1 Alle R 1/4, then walk forward to new
neighbors, make another wave)
B2: Bal Wave, Hinge + Circulate (N2 Alle R 1/4, Robins cross, larks loop
right)
Partner Swing
So the Lark role is holding their arm up and providing weight:
A1: 8 beats for swing
A2: 6 beats during circle, continued from the swing
B1a: 4 beats for the balance, 2-3 beats for the allemande, and you don't
really have any time to move your arms down and let them rest before you
have to take hands in the next wave
B1b: 4 beats for the balance , another 2-3 beats for the allemande, again,
no real time to put your arms down.
B2a: 4 beats for the balance , another 2-3 beats for the allemande, and,
again, no real time to put your arms down before the swing.
B2b: 8 beats for swing
So the dance for the larks/gents is an 8 beat break, 14-16 beats of swing
-> circle, a 8 beat dosido where the last beat or two to raise your arms
for the wave, and then 32 beats continuously keeping right arms up.
Could give a longer rest in the A:
A1: Robins G+T, NS
A2: Robins Chain, Pass Thru to an Ocean wave w/P in right, robins in ctr.
This keeps the dance nearly intact, a bit harder since Pass-the-Ocean isn't
a glossary move, but affords 6-8 more beats of rest. Roles are swapped in
the waves, but it doesn't matter since you progress the same and wind up
with your partner.
We could lose the neighbor swing in the A1 and make it something like:
A1. LLFB
Larks Alle L 1.5x
A2. 3/4 Hey (NR, Robins L, PR, Larks L, NR, Robins L)
Partner Alle R 1/4 to short waves
... which preserves the B1-B2 of Hinge Binge more closely without the role
swap.
There's probably a way to move the partner swing to the A1 and remove the
neighbor swing.
Anyway. Curious if there's already dances out there.
In dance,
Julian Blechner
31 Oct
31 Oct
5:48 p.m.
Hi Julian,
I suspect that the challenge is more to do with bad Allemandes than from
keeping your arm up. Your reference to “providing weight” reinforces my suspicion.
Many dancers are very bad at Allemandes and think, just because they are in
an arm-wrestling hold, that they have to fight their partner instead of just providing a
gentle counter-balance against centrifugal force. The movement should all come from the
feet, not from pulling other people around.
See http://contrafusion.co.uk/Allemande.html for an article I wrote based on
discussions on this forum. This is the combined wisdom of many great callers.
I wish more callers would pass some of the hints from this article on to the
dancers whenever they call a dance with multiple Allemandes.
I love to do a good Allemande 1.5 times and Swing the one you meet, with a
spin out of the Allemande into the Swing. But so many of the dancers are so focussed on
fighting me that they don’t bother to travel around the circle, so it always too late to
throw in the spin. :-(
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
6:39 p.m.
Hi John,
Thanks for the link to the tutorial on allemandes. I find that allemandes are one of
most problematic moves and are not taught much. Many people use the palm to palm unhold
which does nothing to help one another around. Ted Sannella also advocated the grip the
back of the other person’s thumb that the tutorial recommends.
Bob
On Oct 31, 2023, at 13:48, John Sweeney via Contra
Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi Julian,
I suspect that the challenge is more to do with bad Allemandes than from
keeping your arm up. Your reference to “providing weight” reinforces my suspicion.
Many dancers are very bad at Allemandes and think, just because they are
in an arm-wrestling hold, that they have to fight their partner instead of just providing
a gentle counter-balance against centrifugal force. The movement should all come from the
feet, not from pulling other people around.
See http://contrafusion.co.uk/Allemande.html for an article I wrote based
on discussions on this forum. This is the combined wisdom of many great callers.
I wish more callers would pass some of the hints from this article on to
the dancers whenever they call a dance with multiple Allemandes.
I love to do a good Allemande 1.5 times and Swing the one you meet, with a
spin out of the Allemande into the Swing. But so many of the dancers are so focussed on
fighting me that they don’t bother to travel around the circle, so it always too late to
throw in the spin. :-(
Happy dancing,
John John
Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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2 comments
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participants (3)
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John Sweeney -
Julian Blechner -
Stein, Robert