Hi Tony, In my notation I assumed the trapping. The original version doesn’t specify it. It is from Community Dances Manual 5, copyright 1957, so it precedes the American versions. But… it says, “taking a hint from the American “Eternal Triangle””, Any idea what that dance was? Here is the text from CDM 5 (1957): = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = 21. TRIPLE PROMENADE OR SILLY THREESOME Devised by Kenneth and Sybil Clark, taking a hint from the American “Eternal Triangle”. Music: Any Reel or Jig Form: 3 behind 3, each man with 2 partners, ballroom direction around the room. Spare men may hover in the centre until B.2. when they join in the tunnelling and compete for partners. A.1. Forward in threes. A.2. Arm right twice with right partner and left with left. B.1. As A.1. B.2. Girls form stationary arches for the men to tunnel under till, the music unexpectedly stopping, all form new lines of three. Repeat after minimum break. In A.2. the M.C. may decide to call any other figure – reel of 3, basket, double arching, etc. – or, if the men have sufficient initiative, he may leave it to them to indicate their choice to the partners of the moment. = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: this is not the language that we would use today. Remember this was 1957! Note: It was an M.C., not a caller! If I am calling it in a gender-free environment then I tell them that they can put a different person in the middle after the Basket. For beginners I use an Inside Basket. 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 From: Tony Parkes &lt;tony(a)hands4.com&gt; Sent: 10 February 2023 14:34 To: John Sweeney &lt;john(a)modernjive.com&gt;om>; 'Caller's discussion list' &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: RE: [Callers] Re: Mousetrap? John, do you know when the Clarks wrote or published this? I learned it from Ted Sannella under the name of Triple Promenade, probably in the late 1970s or early 1980s. The sequence is identical, except that I’m pretty sure Ted had the ladies “trap” the gents when the music stopped (maybe assumed but not specified in the notation below). I can still hear Ted’s voice chanting “And the ladies arch and the gentlemen march” in time with French-Canadian reels. I’d always thought it was Ted’s version of a dance that must have been traditional somewhere; now I’m wondering whether the Clarks made it up out of whole cloth or adapted some older routine. Tony Parkes Billerica, Mass. www.hands4.com <http://www.hands4.com/> New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century (available now) From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers &lt;contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net <mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> > Sent: Friday, February 10, 2023 4:36 AM To: 'Caller's discussion list' &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net <mailto:callers@sharedweight.net> > Subject: [Callers] Re: Mousetrap? <<Resent to everyone>> Hi Luke, Here is one: https://squaredancehistory.org/exhibits/show/dare-to-be-square-weekend-2011… Here is my notation: Silly Threesome (by Kenneth & Sibyl Clark) Trios (LML) plus spare men A1: Promenade (16) – Spare Men in the Middle A2: On the Right: Arm Right Twice; On the Left: Arm Left Twice B1: Promenade (16) B2: Ladies make a Tunnel; All Men go through Tunnel until the music stops – Form new Trios Alt A2s: Hey, Basket, Right Hand High Left Hand Low, etc. Larry Edelman (the one in the video): A1: Promenade (16) – Spares in the Middle A2: On the Right: Allemande Right; On the Left: Allemande Left On the Right: Dosido B1: Ladies make a Tunnel; All REVERSE and go through Tunnel until the music stops – Form new Trios B2: Basket Swing – open to a line with someone new in the middle Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com <mailto:john@modernjive.com> 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent From: Luke Donforth via Contra Callers &lt;contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net <mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> > Sent: 09 February 2023 22:33 To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net <mailto:callers@sharedweight.net> > Subject: [Callers] Mousetrap? Hello all, I've been asked back to a family dance I did at a camp last summer. When I was there last year, one of the kids said "are we going to do Mousetrap?!", a dance they remembered from a previous year with the prior caller. I've tried to find it, but am having no luck. The previous caller said: Oh, it's been years... Its a singing game, but I can't resurrect the words/melody at the moment - don't have it written down or recorded. Kind of like Ninepin square dance, where the band needs to stop playing on cue. Everyone's in a circle single file walking under arches - 2 to start, then doubled each time, those who are caught (i.e. the 'mousetrap') when the music stops make the arches, and the music resumes, until there's more arches than people on the line. But that's all they've got. Anyone know this one, possibly under another name? Thanks! Luke

For what it's worth, that "Venus Flyt Trap" dance looks like a variant of an old singing game called "Oranges and Lemons." This description in Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oranges_and_Lemons#As_a_game has children going under the arch(es) in pairs, and thus being caught two at a time, but other descriptions have them going in single file, so that a child who is caught sometimes has to wait for another to be caught before forming a new arch. See also this page and the videos it links to: https://anneyoungau.wordpress.com/2020/04/08/g-is-for-game-childrens-orange… --Jim <earlier messagws snipped>