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(a)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?
>
> _______________________________________________
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>
Luke I think you've come up with something original. The only dances I know of that have a series of half stars were written by Rod Linnel. He came up with a figure (i believe) he called grand star and used in a double square.
Sent from my iPad
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?
Switchback Stars
Improper, single progression
A1
With #1 Neighbors, Left Hand star 1/2x
With #2 Neighbors, Right Hand star 1/2
With #3 Neighbor, left shoulder gyre 1x
A2
With #2 Neighbor, right shoulder gyre and swing (now current neighbors)
B1
Circle Left 3/4
Partner Swing
B2
Ladies chain across to neighbor
Long Lines forward and back
If so, how do they handle the timing?
And for that dance (assuming it doesn't already exist), would you prefer it
as written above, or shifted to put the progression in B2?
Switchback Stars + 16B
Improper, single progression
A1
With Neighbor, right shoulder gyre and swing
A2
Circle Left 3/4
Partner Swing
B1
Ladies chain across to neighbor
Long Lines forward and back
B2
With #1 Neighbors, Left Hand star 1/2x
With #2 Neighbors, Right Hand star 1/2
With #3 Neighbor, left shoulder gyre 1x
come back to Neighbor #2, now current neighbor
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
With such a simple dance, one would think so.
Along the way I developed a shorthand,
which I used to both not put dances too similar into the same program,
and build a program with dances which had a definite progression of moves.
So I took your dance and quickly found that:
There are at least 4 dances which have the same A part.
"Daddy's Little Girl" by Chart Guthrie
"Black Mountain Rag" by Henry Garfath
"Monday" by Jim Hemphill
"Salmonella Evening" by Steve Zakon-Anderson
But only "Daddy's Little Girl" has a similar B part.
A1
Neighbor Allemande Right 1 1/2
Gents Allemande Left 1 1/2
A2
Partner Balance and Swing
B1
Ladies chain
Right & Left Thru
B2
Circle Left
Left hand star 1x
Anr6;Aml6;Spb;-;Cw;T;Ol;*l
Yours has a nice Cw;*l combination.
Anr6;Aml6;Spb;-;Lfk;M;Cw;*l
The problem is that the descriptions of many of the older dances aren't
available on-line.
And I don't happen to have access to them.
"Heritage Reel" by Tony Parkes is a permutation of your dance,
but it starts off with Neighbor Balance and Swing,
doesn't have a Left hand star or Neighbor Allemande Right.
Bill In HI
Luke Donforth via Callers wrote:
> A1
> Neighbor Allemande Right 1 1/2
> Gents Allemande Left 1 1/2
> A2
> Partner Balance and Swing
> B1
> Long Lines forward and back
> Promenade across set with partner
> B2
> Ladies chain back to neighbor
> Left hand star 1x
---
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>Yoyo Zhou
<https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=callers@lists.sharedweight.net&q=from…>
Tue, 12 Mar 2013 16:19:18 -0400 (EDT)
<https://www.mail-archive.com/search?l=callers@lists.sharedweight.net&q=date…>
>Thanks, all. I've found that the first dance (? 1), as I noted it, isn't in
>any of your collections, because it doesn't work:
This is an old thread, but I was searching for an easy introduction to an
alle/orbit figure and landed on it.
I have made a fix to Yoyo's original transcription that, as he described,
resulted in couples swapping sides and, my guess, cycling back and forth
within one place of the starting point forever!
The fixed dance is as follows and has a CCW progression. I swapped a LL for
the R/L and juggled a figure here or there in A. the only hiccup is the
slight grinding of gears (i.e. reverse of momentum) for the ladies
transitioning from a swing to a chain (but not a biggie and it occurs often
in the repertoire).
*A1*
*(8)*
*LL F & B*
*(8)*
*Gents alle L 1.5*
*A2*
*(8)*
*N Swing*
*(8)*
*Ladies Chain*
*B1*
*(8)*
*Cir L 3/4; pass thru*
*(8)*
*New ladies alle L 1.0*
*Gents orbit CW*
*B2*
*(16)*
*P Bal & Sw*
I've discovered this is very similar to Cary Ravitz's "Amy's Harmonium"
leading me to think that Yoyo might have had that dance in mind.
https://danceminder.com/dance/show/amysha
*A1* LLFB (partners roll away w/half sashay on the way back)
Gents allemande right 1 3/4 8
*A2* Neighbor balance and swing 8
*B1* Ladies chain across
Circle left 3/4, Pass thru (up/down) to new couple 8
*B2* Ladies alle lt 1x while Gents orbit 1/2 CW(left)
Partner swing
I like Cary's better for flow (his balance/no balance swings are a better
fit) BUT the roll-away is an extra thing to throw off novices. On the other
hand, there's no reason that, in the first version, partners couldn't flow
right into a 16 beat swing (or dancers' choice), foregoing the balance.
Hi Luke:
There is a resemblance to this one which can be found in a 2016 posting:
Dick and Mary's Departure (for Dick and Mary Ashbrook)
Jan Larsen
Duple, improper
A1 Neighbor allemande right 1 ½,
Men allemande left 1 ½
A2 *Partner balance and swing ( *alt: gypsy and swing)
B1 Ladies allemande right 1 ½
Swing your neighbor
B2 Half promenade,
Left hand star
Regards
Ken Panton
Not having heard from anyone as already having it in their box, I'll add it
to my box as "Calliope's Promenade".
Hope it's useful for others out there as well.
Thanks all,
On Wed, Apr 18, 2018 at 7:35 AM, Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> This is a pretty simple dance without a neighbor swing. Anyone recognize
> it as already existing?
>
> A1
> Neighbor Allemande Right 1 1/2
> Gents Allemande Left 1 1/2
> A2
> Partner Balance and Swing
> B1
> Long Lines forward and back
> Promenade across set with partner
> B2
> Ladies chain back to neighbor
> Left hand star 1x
>
> Thanks
>
> --
> Luke Donforth
> Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
>
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
Hi folks,
This is a pretty simple dance without a neighbor swing. Anyone recognize it
as already existing?
A1
Neighbor Allemande Right 1 1/2
Gents Allemande Left 1 1/2
A2
Partner Balance and Swing
B1
Long Lines forward and back
Promenade across set with partner
B2
Ladies chain back to neighbor
Left hand star 1x
Thanks
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
>
>
> Butterfly DRAFT 20180410.2 - DI - Don Veino
> A1 N Balance & Swing
> A2 Gents Allemande Left 1+1/2x (Ladies left arm over P’s right as picked
> up),
> P Star Promenade 1/2x, Butterfly Whirl CCW along set to next Ns*, stay
> connected with P
> B1 Ladies Catch RH, Star Promenade P 1/2x CW, Butterfly Whirl CW into P
> Swing [on L’s home side]
> B2 Ladies Chain, Half Hey (back to THIS N...)
>
> End effects: re-enter in Butterfly hold with P (where/how depends upon
> answer below)
>
> *Question: I believe the butterfly shift could progress this dance forward
> (whirl shift to right as face out) or reverse (shift left). I believe
> reverse progression would flow/feel slightly better but forward progression
> could be less confusing to dancers - which would be best?
>
>
I think if you were going to do a butterfly shift, the counter-clockwise
shift would feel a smidge better.
A concern I have though, is that you're asking couples to butterfly whirl
close enough to each other to re-hook for another star promenade. When I
think about the butterfly whirl after a star promenade, there's a moment of
release where the two couples move away from each other. Bringing that
close enough together so that the ladies can catch rights seems to me akin
to swinging in the middle of the set.
It's worth a house-party test; but I'd make sure to do it with at least 12
dancers to get a feel for spacing (which can be hard to get in a house
party).
Good luck.
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
