20230501 Seeley Fiddle Fest

If you finish dancing before the music is done, let each couple in turn just sashay down until the music is ready to end.


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Barn dance dancers have not been quick enough to star right then left, so we've just gone "one direction." See Barn Dance Variation for simpler version.

Patter:
(1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8)
ladles to the center and back to the bar, gentlespoons to the center for a right hand star
(1 2 3 4) back by the left don't go too far
(1 2) pass your partner pick up the next for a star promenade
(1 2 3 4) now gentlespoons back out & ladles go in
once and a half &you're gone again (5 6 7 8)
(1 2 3 4) now ladles back out, ladles go in
turn & a half & you're gone again (5 6 7 8)
(1 2 3 4) now break that star, everyone swing
(1 2 3 4) promenade til you get back home

from Wade Pearson, who notes "when you have dancers who are sharp, you can call this 1ce with gentlespoons as the first star, then a 2nd time with ladles as the first star for the opposite star promenade

Via Alan Winston, as I wanted a dance featuring rollaways, but without choreography inaccessible to a room full of first-time dancers.

Alan notes: you might get to your goal with this dance which barely has choreography (La Guaracha, from "Companion to the Ballroom" 1827, here from the Community Dances Manuals):

That A1 is balance and roll away (with gentlespoon not half-sashaying); four times gets everybody home.

For a barn dance where you can't rely on everybody being able to do a traveling waltz, you can easily adapt this in multiple ways;

first off, sub a promenade for the waltz, or sub a circle left and promenade home.

second, you can just make it duple meter if you prefer, and then make it balance and swing and promenade.

Third, you can change it to be roll away with a half sashay, and it's more important to reach your partner than to get home on the rollaways; the promenade takes care of that.

Fourth, change the figure to
1st time: all balance, ladles roll left to right in front of gentlespoons (start crossing neighbor) 4x
2nd time: all balance, gentlespoons roll left to right in front of ladles
(start partner)
(For ONS you might be fine just repeating those two times, but if you're a little ambitious ... 3rd time: all balance, roll left to right 2x, / all balance, gentlespoons roll left to right 2x, meet partner on other side ...

Anyway, it's barely choreography but it gives you roll away practice in square formation without having to do heads or sides.

If not progressing, ladle twirl back to "outside".

Linda Leslie notes: Although I don't have the exact time that I wrote this dance, it must predate the first date I called it: 10/22/93 for the Appalachian Mountain Club, Joy Street, Boston. Especially useful for one night stands! Any combination of three. All dancers CAN do this dance, and it really mixes up the dancers. Great for weddings, etc. For these type evenings, I don't talk about #1 or #2 lines of three, or progression: rather I describe "home position". Once we have walked through the dance once, I then point out the couples who have come out at the top and/or bottom, asking them to wait out one time through the dance, turn around, and that this is when "home" changes. Works like a charm.....and the dancers are very happy finding new opposites for each cycle.

Original at http://www.lindalesliecaller.website/very-easy-dances.html

1 Advance & Retire
2 Sides
3 Hands Across--centers star right then left. Outsides star right then left
4 Advance, Retire, & pass through

Sides: The ladle and gentlespoon in the middle of each line drop hands and the couples now sidestep as a pair with the other couple in their line. The couple to the left sevens behind the couple to the right and ends with a rise and grind. The couples sidestep again (couples going right go behind) and rise and grind again.

from https://danceminder.com/dance/show/siegen

A variation on the traditional Jefferson And Liberty. Coreographer's notes here: http://www.childgrove.org/index.php/about-dances/dance-writers/bob-green-dances

"peel the banana" could be helpful language

Sashay til you're out of music

Original at MAXICRIB, Scottish country dancing instructions compiled by Reuben Freemantle: https://www.scottish-country-dancing-dictionary.com/dance-crib/virginia-reel.html

original at: http://www.lindalesliecaller.website/very-easy-dances.html

Linda Leslie notes: timing here is not essential!
2022 03 27 called "Dip" as "under the arch" and "Dive" as "around the outsides so the 1s split and ring the 2s. Twos are alternately arches and posts.

Start teaching dance at the "slide left along the set". Most of you are facing a new partner, but at the top and the bottom are 'lonesome ones'. Lonesome ones will 'ride the ferry (weave your own line to the top or bottom)

notice which side you're on.

5-7 couples, 6 ideal
learned from Lynn at Breaking Up Thanksgiving 2022, an ideal dance for letting barn dancers practice swings ending on correct side, because there is lots of practice but no harm if it goes wrong.

In this case there are 8 places in the circle, so going 4 places is equivalent to half way.

The Circassian Circle
Formation: Large circle round the room, ladles on the right of their partner.

Music: 32 bar Reels.

Bars: Description
1-4: Hands joined in a circle, all advance for four steps, retire for four steps.
5-8: Repeat.
9-12: Drop hands, ladles advance and retire.
13-16: Gentlespoons advance, turn round and walk out to the next ladle CW (the one who was on their left; the one who is now to the right of their partner as they view).
17-24: All spin with new partners
25-32: Hands crossed in front (right to right and left to left), ladles on the outside, promenade ACW around the room.

from: http://www.scottishdance.net/ceilidh/dances.html#CircassianCircle

alternate B2 is sashay down & back as long lines holding hands (requires more space)