Re: [Callers] question about flow and feel - Contra Callers

29 Aug 2009

Just wanted to add my 2 cents on Luke's (Lisa's?) dance  

I would hesitate to have the last 3 moves in the dance be a partner swing, ladies
half-chain, star left, since it seems that more modern contras end with those moves than
with any other 3-move combination (eg. The Nice Combination, The Baby Rose to name two) 
This makes it tough to fit such a dance into a program, if you would like to have other
callers call your dance from time to time

If I were trying to finish a dance that had a partner swing (on the gent's original
side) in B1, I'd rather  go with the slightly less common long lines, ladies
half-chain in B2

Mark Widmer

ps I seem to be the only one who thinks the  women should do a left allemande in the dance
Luke posted  -- mainly because of the balance that follows it

Bronwyn made the point that the neighbor can better assist leading into a right-hand
allemande, but since the preceeding move is a long-lines-fwd-&-back, I'm not sure
that is as important here

That being said, I just don't get to dance the ladies role very often these days, so
will defer to a woman's opinion about the best flow for this dance

Date: Tue, 25 Aug 2009 17:17:39 -0400
From: Bronwyn Woods &lt;woods.bronwyn(a)googlemail.com&gt;
To: "Caller's discussion list" &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
Subject: Re: [Callers] question about flow and feel
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I would find a left allemande awkward.  For me, the issue comes before the
allemande rather than after.  When the ladies are on the right, their
neighbors can assist them into a right allemande.  The neighbor cannot
assist into a left allemande, so the ladies have to break the connection to
their neighbor before beginning the figure.  This connection is more
important to me than which hand begins a balance.

-Bronwyn

On Tue, Aug 25, 2009 at 4:59 PM, Luke Donev &lt;luke.donev(a)gmail.com&gt; wrote:

...
  Hello all,

 I'm sitting at home writing a contra (they get in my head and won't
 leave me alone till I write them down). I unfortunately don't have a
 closet full of dancers to pull out and test things on, but I've got a
 question about flow.

 When the ladies are standing to the right of their neighbor on the
 side of the set, facing their partner,  and are going to allemande
 over to their partner for a balance and swing, should it be an
 allemande Right or Left? I feel like the R is more traditional for
 ladies, but an allemande L would leave their R hand free for a
 smoother transition to a balance and swing (I feel lead's L, follow's
 R is a better 1 hand balance to go into a swing with than lead's R,
 follow's L).

 To put it in context, consider the following dance:
 Sample dance 1, Improper
 A1: N bal & swg
 A2: long lines, fwd & back
      Ladies Allmnd L 1+ to partner
 B1: ptr bal & swg
 B2: ladies 1/2 chain
      star L 1x, on to next

 I think the ladies should allemande L there, but I'd be curious what
 other people think of the flow.

 If it was something like going to a R hand R hand balance for a box
 the gnat, it would seem to force the issue, but it seems more open
 when it's just going into a swing. Preferences? Thoughts?

 --
 Luke Donev
 http://www.lukedonev.com
 Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com
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