3 Apr
2015
3 Apr
'15
5:13 a.m.
Hi SharedWeight callers & friends
I'm a caller from RI and am fairly new to this site. I have been enjoying the
informational posts on the many different issues that involve present day and past contra
dancing.
In April I have been asked to call at what is being billed as an "Irish Contra
Dance". Contra dancing as I know has its roots in New England and before that in
English Country Dancing and French Court Dances. Unfortunately I only know one Irish
contra Dance that is used at some beginner contra dances - "The Sweets of May".
Are there others that have been tailored to the set style of contra dancing? Your
suggestions will be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Don
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3 Apr
3 Apr
6:16 a.m.
New subject: Irish Contra Dances
Don --
I think you should ask the organizers what they have in mind. Have they
booked an Irish band? They might be perfectly happy with a regular
contra program to Irish tunes, which is what I'd hope it would be. What
audience are they aiming for? (If it's at the Irish Cultural Center for
people who do Irish set or ceili dancing, that's kind of a different
story than if it's intended for contra dancers or the general public.)
There are longways duple Irish dances (they call'em "long dances"), but
in my limited experience they don't have ballroom swings and might be
disappointing to any contra dancers who show up.
If you really want Irish dances in contra-ish formations:
http://www.bernards.cz/gallery/file/Ar-Rinci-Foirne.pdf
There are several Long Dances described in here.
Walls of Limerick (duple improper)
Siege of Ennis (4x4)
Harvest-Time Jig (3x3)
Rince Fada (duple proper)
Bridge of Athlone (same)
Haste to the Wedding
Siege of Carrick
Antrim Reel
Waves of Tory (whole set dance with 1s and 2s)
Rakes of Mallow (3x3)
-- Alan
On 4/3/15 5:13 AM, Don Heinold via Callers wrote:
Hi SharedWeight callers & friends
I'm a caller from RI and am fairly new to this site. I have been
enjoying the informational posts on the many different issues that
involve present day and past contra dancing.
In April I have been asked to call at what is being billed as an
"Irish Contra Dance". Contra dancing as I know has its roots in New
England and before that in English Country Dancing and French Court
Dances. Unfortunately I only know one Irish contra Dance that is used
at some beginner contra dances - "The Sweets of May". Are there others
that have been tailored to the set style of contra dancing? Your
suggestions will be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Don
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Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net
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Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
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8:03 a.m.
New subject: Irish Contra Dances
On Fri, Apr 3, 2015 at 5:13 AM, Don Heinold via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi SharedWeight callers & friends
I'm a caller from RI and am fairly new to this site. I have been enjoying
the informational posts on the many different issues that involve present
day and past contra dancing.
In April I have been asked to call at what is being billed as an "Irish
Contra Dance". Contra dancing as I know has its roots in New England and
before that in English Country Dancing and French Court Dances.
Unfortunately I only know one Irish contra Dance that is used at some
beginner contra dances - "The Sweets of May". Are there others that have
been tailored to the set style of contra dancing? Your suggestions will be
gratefully received.
And the Sweets of May is done in a square formation, if I recall. You
should definitely find out what the organizers are expecting, and
given what you've been told already, it sounds like they don't have a
fully formed idea, so you may need to have some back-and-forth about
what they want and what you can offer.
If by some strange circumstance you are expected to present ceili
dances in contra formation, you probably want to find a local group
that does such dances first, but you can also take a look at Terry
O'Neal's _Syllabus of Irish Dances_ here, which has an index by
formation, among other things:
http://ceili.stanford.edu/ourDances.html
If on the other hand, they just want contra dancing to Irish music, as
Alan says, that is something more understandable. If the band hasn't
played for contras before then you'll want to talk with them about
expectations.
Yoyo Zhou
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2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
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Alan Winston via Callers -
Don Heinold via Callers
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Yoyo Zhou via Callers