Jeff, I recommend Joys of Port McNeill by Marian Rose, especially when danced to the tune
Joys of Quebec as it was intended by the author. I won't reprint it here without
Marian's permission, but it's in her Step Lively 2 book. It fulfills much the same
objectives as Haste to the Wedding, has the same kind of alignment between the music and
choreography, and has the bonus of an easy zigzag figure. I've used this early in an
evening to preview the zigzag figure in a contra later on in the program. Works as
Sicilian circle (as written) or as improper contra.
Jeremy
Yesterday I called Haste to the Wedding [1] after an
influx of new
dancers and as a recovery from a dance that was a little too hard for
the group. I expected it to go well, but I was surprised by how well,
actually. With the clapping in time with the music in the B parts and
the extra time for the pass through, a lot of people who'd been
confused by progression and how this whole thing worked seemed to get
it in a way that helped for following dances as well.
Does anyone have suggestions for other dances that work similarly,
teaching progression?