I’ve also written a dance with this down the hall figure in it. I like to call it early in the evening since it’s very connected and has “rest” time for each couple. I haven’t run it through the Shared Weight gauntlet to see if anyone else has written it. Please let me know if it’s already out there.

Pivot the Line
by Jacqui Grennan, 5/1/2016
Contra/Improper/Easy

A1 -----------
Four steps down the hall, turn alone, rejoin hands in lines of 4
Four more steps down the hall, walking backwards
Four steps up the hall, turn alone, rejoin hands in lines of 4
Four more steps up the hall, walking backwards. Bend the line
A2 -----------
(16) 2’s gypsy RIGHT/swing, face up to same N’s
B1 -----------
(16) Same N B&Sw
B2 -----------
(8) 1’s DSD across set
(8) 1’s P Sw (2’s get ready for DTH, 1’s end the swing facing down between new neighbors).



On Jan 17, 2017, at 3:48 PM, Tavi Merrill via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Thanks to Linda, Mac, and Jonathan for their responses. So far for dances featuring "Dublin Bay" variants, i have: 

contra variants of the figure, in best-guess chronological order: 
Leaving Home - Al Olson
Jim's Reel - Steve Schnur 
Handsome Young Maids - Sue Rosen
Please Don't Call Me Surely - Lynn Ackerson (Lynn says this is very similar to Olson's dance)
Crossing the Streams - Nicholas Rockstroh 

figure exactly as it appears in Dublin Bay:
Doublin' Back - Erna-Lynne Bogue

The reason for my question around the move's history is that i've written a new dance featuring it, and was curious who first imported it from ECD to contra. So far i've gotten works-on-paper nods from a couple fellow choreographers, and a previous version of this dance was successfully tested. Might as well put it out there, as i'm pretty sure it hasn't been written before. 

Here 'tis:

Belfast Bay (becket R) 

from improper: circle left three and swing partner to end facing UP the hall: 

A1. in lines of four, reverse "Dublin Bay" variant: 


       take four steps backwards, turn toward partner to face down, take four steps forward; 

       repeat, returning up the hall, and bend the line to a ring

A2. Ring balance, ladies draw gents over to 

       N1 neighbor swing

B1. Long lines forward & back 

       N2 neighbor swing

B2. Ring balance, ladies draw gents over to 

       Partner swing

Here, the "Dublin Bay" figure (as it’s more commonly seen in contra, a modified “down the hall”) has been inverted to make the starting formation a line of four facing up - intended for those times a caller wants all dancers facing the stage. The sequence’s overall design was driven by the intention to facilitate band introductions before a break or goodbyes before a final waltz, with dancers beside their partner. As a last dance before the break, the A1 figure can be walked without “bend to a ring,” and voila! Dancers are in lines of four facing up ready for announcements; the rest is simple enough to run no-walk-through. 

Compact variation! Start instead with dancers facing DOWN the hall and make A1 the original “Dublin Bay” figure: lines of four facing down take four steps backwards (toward the stage), four steps forwards; turn alone to face up, and repeat. Voila! Lines of four facing up. 

Dancers waiting out at the ends should join in the long lines. 

In honor of Chrissy Fowler and the Belfast Flying Shoes dance in Belfast, Maine. 

On Mon, Jan 16, 2017 at 3:46 PM, Linda Leslie <laleslierjg@comcast.net> wrote:
Al Olson used the move in his dance “Leaving Home”. It was published in Give & Take by Larry Jennings in 2004. Larry spent a number of years putting this book together, so the dance was written well before this. I did not find the dance in Zesty Contras, Larry’s fist book, published in 1988; but this might mean that Larry did not have space to include it, rather than it had not been written yet.  If I were of a betting nature…..I would bet that the dance was from the 1980’s, maybe 1990’s. 
Linda

On Jan 16, 2017, at 5:20 PM, Tavi Merrill via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:


Dance genealogy question: The figure first appearing in "Dublin Bay" (aka "We'll Wed and We'll Bed," its title in Playford) morphed in contra into a modified "lines of four down the hall."

I know a version of it from Sue Rosen's dance "Handsome Young Maids," where dancers facing down take four steps forwards, turn alone, and continue down the hall with four backward steps, then repeat the figure to return up the hall. 

I'm curious how many other contras this figure, or a version of it, appears in. Does anyone know of other dances? And any astute dance historians out there know what the first contra to use this figure is?  

Tavi
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