** Evening Community Dance **
Friday – 9:00 – 10:15 pm
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Grand March In NEDM’s Sashay the Donut collection.
Music: Use “Old Timey Medley” from the “Sashay” CD, or any reel medley.
Chorus:
A1: Forward and back twice
A2: Circle left, circle right
B1: Right hand turn around partner
Left hand turn around corner
Dosido partner
Seesaw corner (left shoulder dosido)
B2: Promenade partner
Verses: (In no particular order – alternating with the chorus. Here are the two we did):
Spiral – A leader, probably you, starts the spiral out of the circle left, by CONTINUING to circle left as you let go of your left hand and move towards the inside as you continue walking left; all dancers follow. Eventually you have a spiral. You get out of the spiral by turning back over your left shoulder and winding your way out.
Promenading in ones, twos, fours, eights: Promenade up middle of hall, cast off away from partner, meet partner at bottom.
Promenade up middle of hall, at top of hall each couple alternate going to the left and to the right.
At the bottom of the hall, couple meets couple and come up the middle of the hall in lines of four. Each line of four alternate goint to the left and to the right.
Lines of four meet at the bottom and come up the middle of the hall in lines of eight.
There are a number of things you can do at this point. One of them is to have the front group of eight move the the left, curve around, and pick up the 2nd line of eight. Continue this until you have one big circle again.
TEACHING NOTES: Start by having dancers promenade partner and determining inside (Gent, Peanut Butter) and outside (Lady, Jelly) partners. Have dancers face the center, then: “Bow to your partner, now turn your back on your partner and say hello to your neighbor”. Continuing your teaching: “Allemande right your partner WHILE looking for your neighbor: “Neighbor, Neighbor, oh there you are”. Allemande left your neighbor while looking for your partner”. You can, at first, call the partner dosido a “partner allemand right NO!” and pull your right hand away before touching. Similar for the Neighbor “See saw” which is a left shoulder dosido.
Larry’s Mixer in NEDM’s “Listen to the Mockingbird”
Formation: Circle of couples, gents facing out ladies facing in.
Music: We like using “Cheris” from our Other Side of the Tracks CD but you can also use any jig or reel
A1 (16) Do-si-do partner. (8)
Allemande left the dancer on your partner’s right (Look at your partner, move your eyes to the left; that person!) (8)
A2 (16) ‘See saw’ partner (left shoulder dosido clockwise around) (8)
Allemande right the dancer on your partner’s left (Look at your partner, move your eyes to the right; that person!). (8)
B1 (16) Right elbow turn partner. (8)
Promenade partner
B2 (16) Continue promenading partner.. (8)
Gents move up to the next lady and promenade this new partner. (8)
TEACHING NOTES: Start with partner dosido. Then say, “Point your hands towards your partner’s belly button. Now spread your hands until each hand is pointing to the dancers on each side of your partner. Identify your Left Hand Person. Say to your left hand, “Hello left hand”. Now allemand left with your Left Hand Person.” Then I demonstrate how to do an allemande left on the left into a Partner see saw (left shoulder dosido). Do the dance keeping your original partner a few times through (or for a couple of weeks). Note that that makes for a long promenade. Eventually you can add in the progression (at B2 all keep walking, drop hands, inside dancers – “Peanut butter” or “Gents”) walk faster and catch up to the “Jelly” or “Lady” in front of you and promenade them).
GOING INTO THE OPENING DOSIDO FROM THE PROMENADE. While promenading: hold on to Partner right hand, let go of left hand, on the last two beats of B2 lean back (facing partner) and pull into the opening dosido of A1.
Swing Party by Peter Amidon
Use any jig or reel for music.
A1: Everyone walk around randomly
A2: Grab somebody’s muscles (upper arms) and buzz-step swing (clockwise)
B1: Everyone walk around randomly
B2: Grab someone elses’s muscles and buzz step swing
Buzz step swing: facing partner, right foot in front, left foot a little back, swing around clockwise pivoting on right foot and pushing with the left, to the beat of the music. Keep it smooth rather than up and down. Give weight to partner (each partner supports the other partner’s weight). Look at partner, not at feet.
NOTES: Here is a Youtube video with some great buzz step swinging.
Carol Copp Mixer – by Carol Copp
FORMATION: Circle mixer
MUSIC: Any jig or reel
A1: Forward and back
Forward and (ladies turn to face out) Back (Now all gents are facing in, all ladies are facing out, All take hands in allemand grip.
A2: Balance (lean or step towards & away from partner),
slide R (passing partner belly to belly and trading sides with partner.)
Balance (lean or step towards & away from partner), slide L
(belly to belly) right past current partner to new partner
B1: Balance & swing new partner
B2: Promenade new partner
TEACHING NOTES: The A2 figure is called the “Rory O’More” figure because it first appeared in an old New England contra dance called “Rory O’More”: The figure appears in seconds 10 – 17 in this Youtube clip of that “Rory O’More” dance (these dancers are spinning when they slide to the right and to the left, but I taught it without the spin): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jPqECMr9Y8
Grumpy March by Peter Amidon, In NEDM’s Sashay the Donut collection.
Music: Wizard’s Walk/Red Crow, as recorded on Sashay the Donut, or any reel.
Formation: Longways set for 7-10 couples.
A1 (16) ‘Grump across’ the set (see note below), trading places with partner. (4)
Clap on each beat:
Own hands, right with partner, own hands, left with partner (4)
Grump back across the set to original places. (4)
Repeat above clapping pattern with partner. (4)
A2 (16) All turn right to face CCW around the entire set and circle to the right
single file (no hands). (8)
All turn and start skipping in opposite direction (still single file, no hands)
circling (CW) back to the left, looking for partner. (8)
B1 (16) Without losing momentum, skip in an elliptical CW circle around partner,
getting closer and closer. (8)
Two hand swing with partner. (8)
B2 (16) Top couple sashay or swing to bottom. (16)
Notes: ‘Grump across’: Put on a grumpy frown and march to other side, passing right shoulders with partner, fists clenched, forearms parallel to floor. Turn to face partner on fourth beat in time for the clapping.
‘Swing to bottom’: The Active swing around each other while doing a sashay to the bottom.
Sicilian Vowel Dance In NEDM’s Sashay the Donut collection.
Music: Any reel or march; we prefer a relaxed tempo. We did it to “Golden Keyboard” on the NEDM “Any Jig or Reel” CD.
Formation: Sicilian circle, couple facing couple around the circle.
A1 (16) Take hands in your groups of four and circle left. (8)
Circle right. (8)
A2 (16) Right hand star. (8)
Left hand star. (8)
B1 (16) Dosido opposite. (8)
Two hand turn (or swing) partner.
Open ‘like a book’ and face opposite, keeping one hand (‘handy hand’) with partner. (8)
B2 (16) Weave as couples (like a big grand right and left with no hands):
CW facing couples begin by moving outward (to their own left).
CCW couples begin by moving inward (to their own left).
Each couple weaves past four couples
eventually meeting and circling left with the fifth couple
at the beginning of A1.
Saying the vowels whenever dancers pass by: A, E, I, O, YOU!
TEACHING NOTES: It helps if the dancers have already done “Lucky Seven” (Chimes of Dunkirk) or some other grand right & left dance. I teach the A, E, I, O, YOU progression first. Have everyone point to their own left and say “I go left first.” Then I demonstrate how, starting with the couple you are facing, you say a vowel every time you pass a couple, and how you weave around the circle alternating passing couples on the inside and on the outside. I tell the dancers that it never works the first time and that when it doesn’t work we’ll go back to where we started. Tell them they will stop at “YOU”. I do the Vowel figure alone two or three times in a row before teaching the beginning part of the dance.
Accretion Reel (David Millstone’s and Peter Amidon’s variation of dance by Chris Page)
Scatter mixer.
Music: Any jig or reel
A1 Balance forward (“Hello!”) and back (“Goodbye!”) in your ring (see note)
Turn away individually
Scatter promenade individually
A2 Swing someone (long right elbow swing)
B1 Scatter promenade (probably handy-hand promenade is best) as couples
B2 Find another of couple, circle four, left and right. Hang onto hands for A1 opening balances.
TEACHING NOTE: First time through the dance, just start with the scatter promenade – everyone walking randomly around by themselves. It is a good exercise to have the dancers just listen to the music and clap on the first beat of A1, A2, B1 and B2, and then do the dance with just their hands. For this dance to succeed each dancer needs to be able to discern the changes from A1 to A2 to B1 to B2 to A1. The opening verbal “Hello! Goodbye!” helps keep the dancers together.
Circle Waltz Mixer In NEDM’s Sashay the Donut collection.
Teaching the Circle Waltz Mixer
Dancing the Circle Waltz Mixer
We used ‘In Continental’ Waltz from the ‘Sashay’ CD for the music. This is a wonderful dance for a wedding where you can do it the original way we learned it, doing a short waltz instead of the two hand turn. In the original dance gents are the “posts” and women are the “twirlers”, but it works perfectly fine in a non-gender community dance with a two hand turn. Here are some tips to for teaching this dance:
Start by having everyone promenade. Tell all the inside (left hand) partners they are “posts” and all the outside (right hand) partners they are “twirlers”.
All look at partner and say “goodbye”.
Posts stay in place and keep their feet planted during the “twirl” figure.
Carefully teach the first “twirl” each “Post” does with their left hand neighbor, from left to right.
Once the dancers get that twirl, the rest of the dance can go pretty smoothly.