[Callers] Star 1/2 -> Star 1/2?

[Read Weaver]

Yes, several English country dances have this; the move is sometimes called “falling stars” (when there are 3 or 4 in a row). I think the difficulty comes from people not expecting to move on to a new couple after just 4 counts—we’re used to doing things that only take 4 counts, but moving to a new couple in the middle of a phrase is rare. I see teaching that says “look where you are at the beginning and think where you’ll be half-way ‘round” but it doesn’t seem to help much; focusing on “you’ll be with new people in just 4 steps” may work better.

Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA
http://lcfd.org

> On Apr 22, 2018, at 9:48 AM, Chris Page via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> Just a heads-up.
> 
> There's a number of ECD dances, especially 4-couple set dances, that have a
> sequence of progressive 1/2 stars.
> 
> When teaching them, I find them to be the hardest part of the dance for dancers,
> and where it's most likely to break down.
> 
> So the difficulty level may be more than you expect.
> 
> -Chris Page
> San Diego
> 
> On Sat, Apr 21, 2018 at 7:05 PM, Luke Donforth via Callers
> <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>> I was recently thinking about star to star transitions. There are lots of
>> great dances that go star 1x to opposite hand star 1x (such as Lisa
>> Greenleaf's "Poetry in Motion", Robert Cromartie's "Al's Safeway Produce",
>> Linda Leslie's "Burlington Spirit"...); and then there are the star -> same
>> hand star dances (Mike Richardson's "Star Trek", my "Voyager", Dugan
>> Murphey's "The Next Generation"...)
>> 
>> Are there dances that use star just half way -> with next, opposite hand
>> star 1/2 way? I'm envisioning something with a bit of a zig-zag feel, but
>> that could be done in crowded dance halls where you don't want folks
>> swooping out laterally (like John Coffman's "Boys of Urbana"), but more
>> connected than a single file promenade snake like Cary Ravitz's "March of
>> the Coffee Zombies".
>> 
>> Are there already dances out there like this?