Hi Erik -

I'm thinking you mean the difference between your dance and Tony's is in the B1, not the B2?  Am I right?

Amy Carroll

Seattle

On July 12, 2015 at 1:41 PM Erik Hoffman via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

On Writing Dances that have been Written:

Years ago our we danced Bill Cochran's:
Third Friday
A1  Neighbor Balance & Swing
A2  Down Hall 4 in Line, Turn as Couple, Return, Fold Line
B1  Women Chan -- over & back
B2  Partner Balance, Square Thru Two, Partner Balance, Square Thru Two to next Neighbor

I loved the B2 move, but wanted a partner swing in the dance, so I made the:
Second Third Friday
Improper
Erik Hoffman
A1  Neighbor Balance & Swing
A2  Men Allemande Left 1½;  Partner Swing
B1  Right & Left Thru Across the set; Women chain back
B2  Partner Balance, Square Thru Two, Partner Balance, Square Thru Two to next Neighbor.

And, I published it in my first book, Contra Comments.

Turns out Tony Parkes had the same idea, and he wrote:
Friday Night Fever
with the only difference being the B2, where Tony's dance goes:
B2  Partner Promenade; Women Chain
-- Which I now like better. And, Tony wrote his dance prior to me
Tony published it in one of his books (don't recall which)

Turns out Myrtle Wilhite also wrote and published this dance, the same as my version, and called it Balanced Out #2

In looking at composition dates, Tony's came first, mine second, and Ms. Wilhite's third -- all in the late 80s or early 90s.

I'm pretty sure we all came out with this dance independently. Both Tony and I attribute Bill Cochran for the basic Idea. Myrtle doesn't, so, perhaps she came up with the dance independently.

But the point of this is, we choreographers are all bound to put together some dance that someone else has also come up with. At this point, it's great to have this list to check that a sequence is original. It goes a long way to checking this.

~erik hoffman
    oakland, ca