[Callers] Wrist Lock Stars - Summary

[Rich Sbardella via Callers]

In refereence to John's comment about hairy, sweaty wrists in MWSD, it has
been an unwritten rule, or at least a courtesy, that men wear long sleeve
shirts to avoid such hairy, sweaty, contact.  Long sleeves are still the
norm in MWSD.
Rich Sbardella

On Wed, Oct 19, 2016 at 5:40 AM, John Sweeney via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> Thanks to all those who contributed.  Here is a summary of the key points
> that were made.  It is clear that the wrist lock star is indeed the
> standard
> across the USA, with only a few areas using hands across.
>
> Summary
>
> Names: Wrist Star, Box Star, Wrist-Grip Star, Wrist-Lock Star, Pack-saddle
> Star, Wagon-Wheel (Star), Basket Handhold
> Also, but these can mean Hands Across: Millstone Star, Mill, Windmill,
> Moulinet, Old Mill
> Alternative Star Holds:
>         Hands Across (that term goes back to at least 1650!)
>         Palm Star (MWSD only)
>         Lump (Bunch of Bananas, Limp Lettuce) - to be avoided at all costs
>
> Etymology of Mill references:
> Alan Winston: Go back far enough (1700s) and you get "moulinet" in French
> sources, "mill" in some English sources, for what I'm pretty sure are
> hands-across stars.
> Colin Hume: In the Netherlands it's called "molen" which means "windmill".
> John Sweeney: The early 19th century Quadrilles and dances like The Lancers
> used the term Moulinet for Star. As far as we know it was always a Hands
> Across Star.  Moulinet means turnstile, crank or propeller.  Whether it
> independently became known as a Windmill/Mill or whether it was badly
> translated as Moulin = Windmill is unclear.
>
> Wagon-Wheel: in the Appalachians it was a shoulder star - see 2 minutes in
> at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ht9kjeKcOsg.
>
> There is a general view that the term Wrist-Grip should be avoided, and
> that
> it should be emphasised that you don't grip (keep your thumb up top with
> your fingers!).
>
> I like the term "Wrist Lock" since it makes it clear that we are using
> wrists, and since the shape you make looks like the Lock that sword and
> rapper dancers make when they interlink them all and raise them high.  I
> also love that wrist-locks work perfectly for three or five dancers in a
> star (I call lots of different styles).  But I am sure that although the
> move may become even more ubiquitous, the terminology will retains its
> local
> flavour.
>
> Any ideas on when it started?
>
> Dan Pearl: Sylvia Miskoe, in rec.folk-dancing on March 4, 1999 said: "Wrist
> grip stars became popular after the appearance at New England Folk Festival
> (NEFFA) of the Lithuanian Dance Group doing their dances and they all used
> wrist grips.  The square dancers thought it was a neat idea and adopted
> it."
> Any idea when that festival was?
>
> 1964 in Northern Vermont shows wrist-lock stars:
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZubTju7g_s
> 1981 Ted Sanella's "Balance & Swing" defines a star in New England as
> "grasp
> the wrist of the dancer ahead".
> 1983 Larry Jennings' "Zesty Contras" refers you to Ted's book.
>
> Exceptions:
>         When choreography dictates, e.g. "men drop out, ladies chain" works
> better with hands across
>         One night stands
>
> Dave Casserley:
> https://www.swarthmore.edu/sites/default/files/assets/
> documents/linguistics/
> 2007_kaufman_jeff.pdf
> This shows that ten years ago wrist-stars were common everywhere in the US
> except in some parts of the South.
>
> Amy Wimmer (Seattle):
> The wrist lock is the common star formation in the Northwest, with a hands
> across being the exception.
>
> Tim Klein (TN):
> I call for dances in Knoxville, TN and occasionally in the surrounding area
> (Jonesboro, Chattanooga). I've been dancing here for 30 years. I recall
> hands across stars in Knoxville, Atlanta, Brasstown, Asheville and points
> between, but wrist grip stars in Lexington, Louisville and Nashville.
>
> Chet Gray (KY):
> I tend to consider my home dance, Louisville, KY, and nearby Lexington, as
> two of the last bastions of hands-across-by-default. Wrist-grip seems to be
> the default even in relatively nearby cities: Indianapolis, Bloomington,
> IN,
> Nashville, Cincinnati. Not sure about Berea and Somerset, KY, also nearby.
>
> Jerome Grisanti (Midwest):
> I agree with Chet that Louisville's default star is hands-across, although
> weekend festivals in nearby cities tend toward the millstone star. The
> Midwest where I dance/call now is pretty solidly wrist-star territory (St.
> Louis, Columbia MO, Kansas City, Lawrence).
>
> BUT...
> Susan McElroy-Marcus:
> Just a bit of Louisville dance community history on this subject-when my
> husband started dancing there in the late '70s and I came in 1982, the
> Monday night dance was a mix of English and contra.  The default contra
> dance star grip was the "wrist lock" not hands across as in English.  We
> called it a basket handhold or wrist grip.  Our influence came from New
> England because our friend, Norb Spencer, who started the group along with
> Marie and Frank (Cassidy?) and who called much of the time-learned in New
> England.  We then taught it that way when we moved to Cincinnati and
> started
> that group.  Louisville only became a "bastion of hands-across-by-default"
> sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s during my calling hiatus.  When I
> re-entered the calling scene 6-7 years ago, I was surprised and bemused
> upon
> calling in Louisville to learn of the high regard held for their
> 'traditional' hands-across star style.
>
> Andrea Nettleton:
> Somewhere south of Asheville and leading west possibly into the lower
> Midwest, is the land of hands across stars.  They are standard in Atlanta,
> the heart of hands-across-land.
>
> George Mercer:
> The wrist lock dominates everywhere I've danced over the years
>
> Meg Dedolph (Chicago):
> Checking in from Chicago, where wrist-grip stars are the norm and
> hands-across stars need to be specified. When I started dancing, 14 or 15
> years ago, in Michigan, many dancers reached for a hands-across star first,
> though I don't see that so much anymore.
>
> Jane Thickstun (Michigan)
> When I was dancing in Michigan, I found it to be a mess, with maybe half
> doing wrist grip and half hands-across, and everyone just throwing their
> hands in the middle without doing either.  I wish callers would specify for
> each dance which kind of star they recommend, to avoid this kind of thing.
>
> Angela DeCarlis (Florida):
> Where I've called recently, in the Northeast and in New England, wrist-grip
> is definitely the default, and I wasn't aware that parts of the south
> default to hands-across. Neat!
> Here to comment that Florida, where I'm from originally, holds true to its
> role as the Exception to the Rule: despite being in the South, they
> definitely default to wrist-grip there, as well.
>
> Jacob Bloom:
> When I attended the Berea Christmas Dance School forty years ago, and put
> my
> hand on the wrist in front of me during a walk through, someone complained,
> saying, "He said a star, not a mill!"
>
> Don Veino:
> "lay it on the wrist of the person in front of you, like a pack saddle on a
> horse" [Thanks! I could never work out why it was called a pack saddle! JS]
> And yes, very much the default star form from my experience.
>
> Louise Siddons (Stillwater, OK):
> Here in Oklahoma I call it a wagon-wheel grip, but I think I picked up that
> term in either Michigan or California when I was starting to dance contra
> circa 2008. Wagon-wheel stars are the default in OK/TX/KS/MO local dances,
> and also seem standard in the SF Bay Area.
>
> Neal Schlein:
> Whatever you call it, today a wrist star is the US standard for most of the
> country.
>
> Joy Greenwolfe (Durham, NC):
> Central North Carolina here. In this region, wrist-grip or wagon-wheel
> stars
> are the default. Some dances specify hands-across if the choreography asks
> for it.
>
> John Sweeney (itinerant):
> I have danced in Florida, San Diego, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Asheville,
> Phoenix and festivals such as Berea Christmas Dance School, LEAF, Flurry
> and
> don't remember ever seeing anyone do Hands Across in a regular contra
> dance.
>
> Chet questioned the relevance of dance weekends, but my point was that when
> people from different area get together, in my experience, they tend to use
> wrist-lock stars, which, to me, does seem to be an indicator that it is
> accepted as the default.  Of course, as Chet says, some of those dancers
> may
> well use their regional style at their home dances.
>
> Rich Sbardella referenced MWSD: In MWSD, hands are often just put into the
> center, sometimes raised as in a contra allemande, sometimes just straight
> forward from the shoulder.
> From CallerLab: "Palm Star: Place all hands together with fingers pointing
> up and thumbs closed gently over the back of the adjacent dancer's hand to
> provide a degree of stabilization. Arms should be bent slightly so that the
> height of the handgrip will be at an average eye level.. Men's outside arms
> in natural dance position, women's outside hands work skirt. Some areas
> dance any stars containing men with a Box Star/Pack-saddle Star: Four men
> with palms down take the wrist of the man ahead and link up to form a box."
>
> Neal Schlein:
> The Palm Star was the standard style around Colorado in the 1930s when
> Lloyd
> Shaw got started, and for many years after.  Pretty much, you'll only find
> it among square dancers, people who danced with Calico and Boots in
> Boulder,
> Colorado, or folks with an exaggerated respect for history.  Guess I
> qualify
> as all three.
>
> John Sweeney:
> I have heard that ladies don't join in wrist-stars in MWSD because of the
> hairy, sweaty men's wrists in the south!
>
> Happy dancing,
> John
>
> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john at modernjive.com 01233 625 362
> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
>
>
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