Note that the Scottish “Gay Gordons” dance, which has been a standard there for I don’t know how long, features a promenade where couples walk forward then turn and continue backward, then come back forward and turn and continue backing up again. Doing four instead of two in line would seem a likely evolution.
Martha

On Jan 16, 2017, at 2:20 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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