user: Nicholas Rockstroh
by: Sherry Nevins
introduces moves: balance, circle, do si do
formation: improper or proper
Begin joined hands four
| A1 | 4 | balance the ring
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| 4 | balance the ring
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| 8 | circle left 4 places
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| A2 | 4 | balance the ring
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| 4 | balance the ring
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| 8 | circle right 4 places
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| B1 | 8 | neighbors do si do once
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| 8 | partners do si do once (across the set)
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| B2 | 16 | neighbors do si do 1½ as couples (holding partner's hand) ⁋
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introduces moves: star, swing, long lines
formation: improper
| A1 | 8 | circle left 4 places
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| 8 | circle right 4 places
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| A2 | 8 | star right 4 places
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| 8 | star left 4 places
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| B1 | 16 | neighbors balance & swing
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| B2 | 8 | long lines forward & back
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| 8 | ones swing and face next neighbors ⁋
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by: David Kaynor
introduces moves: chain
formation: improper
| A1 | 16 | neighbors balance & swing
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| A2 | 8 | circle left 3 places
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| 8 | partners do si do once
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| B1 | 16 | partners balance & swing
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| B2 | 8 | ladles chain
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| 8 | star left 4 places to new neighbors ⁋
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introduces moves: right left through, allemande
formation: improper
Note the hand in which the next neighbor's hand will be held in the long lines
| A1 | 8 | long lines forward & back
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| 8 | neighbors swing
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| A2 | 8 | right left through
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| 8 | ladles allemande right 1½
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| B1 | 16 | partners balance & swing
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| B2 | 8 | gentlespoons allemande left 1½
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| 8 | neighbors swing and take hands with next neighbors in long lines ⁋
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I was taking a course on gender and sexuality at the time I wrote this. The title is a double pun; "Contra is essential" is one meaning, "against cultural/biological essentialism" is another.
waltz
by: Chris Page
introduces moves: turn alone, custom, gyre, promenade
formation: scatter mixer
| A1 | 4 | balance ring [1]
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| 4 | turn alone [2]
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| 4 | individual scatter promenade ⁋
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| 4 | find a new partner
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| A2 | 8 | partners gyre once [3] [4]
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| 8 | partners swing
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| B1 | 8 | partners promenade scatter [5]
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| 8 | join in rings of any number of couples [6]
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| B2 | 8 | circle left 4 places
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| 8 | circle right 4 places
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http://chrispagecontra.awardspace.us/dances/index.htm#accretion-reel
[1] What ring? The circle at the end of B2. The first time through the dance, skip this part, and begin straight with the individual scatter promenade. (John Sweeney came up with a cool alternate beginning, with everyone in one big circle, before breaking it up into individual pieces. If so, you definitely also want the big circle for the final time through.)
David Millstone writes about a nice modification of this for ONS groups: "Chris's dance calls for folks to balance in and out, and even though I demonstrated that to a group, their inclination was to go into the center in four counts with a whoop! and their arms rising up. Who am I to fight the natural tendency of the dancers? I suspect that this feels more satisfying, and it still gives them 12 beats to say goodbye to their circle and to walk alone to find a new partner."
[2] When I'm calling for ONS (one-night-stand) groups, I'll use "say goodbye" here. Then when they gyre later on, it's "say hello, and go around them, looking at them."
[3] Those allergic to gyres may wish to substitute a do-si-do, or skip it altogether and go straight to the swing. For an ONS group, substitute the swing with a two-allemande, elbow swing, or "whatever you think a swing should be."
[4] For more advanced groups, thegypsycan be with more than one other person. And the swing can be a basket swing.
[5] Last time through the dance, I like to have everyone promenade in one giant circle. Ditto for the final circles.
[6] Here each couple needs to find a few other couples to circle with. Lone couples could always two-allemande each other. James Hutson came up with a nice term for these variable-sized circles -- blobs.The dance I consider my best. Usable both for non-dancing crowds, and with regular contra groups.
I wrote it after attending a contra dance with a number of beginners that kept breaking down over and over and over. On the way back, I thought what would have worked (a dance that intentionally broke down each time), and came up with a dance that I kept refining and simplifying down to this. It was partly also inspired by Ted Sannella's "Ted's Solo Mixer" and the scatter mixer "Set a' Crochet."
The dance's name came from ideas of planetary system formation, where larger and larger chunks of matter spiral inwards from gravity, accreting to form planetisemals, and then planets. The analogy goes bad where everybody separates every thirty seconds, but you could just consider that a periodic supernova event.
After having danced this, the A1/A2 feels sort of like the rush of looking for a partner, though here the commitment's only for 20 seconds. Kind of reminiscent of the cabeceo of tango.
by: Rick Mohr
introduces moves: pass by, custom
formation: triplet
ones improper, twos and threes proper
| A1 | 2 | ones pass by right shoulders
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| 4 | ones go down the outside into the twos' place, twos move up
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| 2 | ones pass by right shoulders
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| 8 | ones loop to *individual* right and go around the ends of the set to end proper in twos' place
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| A2 | 12 | circle left 6 places
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| 4 | partners allemande right ¾
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| B1 | 4 | form a long wave - partners keeping right hands and neighbors taking left hands - and balance
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| 12 | half hey for six - neighbors pass left shoulders to begin, ends face in for a right shoulder pass - until partners meet
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| B2 | 16 | partners balance & swing, end with the new twos and threes facing up proper and the new ones improper
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Rick's notes:
"The figures of this dance fit the music phrases exactly, so it can be quite satisfying if dancers are on the ball but somewhat unforgiving if they get confused.
The active couple moves continuously in A1. First they cross around the 2's to the middle position, and then without stopping they cross again and both turn right—the gentlespoon loops around the bottom couple while the ladle loops around the top couple. As the active dancers return to the middle position (proper) all join hands and match their motion smoothly into a circle left.
The circle left in A2 takes 12 steps, so be aware to call the allemande right in time for its four steps to end the phrase in time to balance the wave at the start of B1. Then 12 weaving hey steps invert the set in time for the partner balance and swing at the start of B2.
In terms of the original numbering, once through the dance leaves the couples in a 3, 1, 2 sequence."
My own notes:
Rick isn't kidding about the precision of the timing! While this is one of my favorite triplets to call thanks to the unique hey for six, it's much more unforgiving than a quick glance at the figures might indicate. The best way to teach the hey that I've found is to note that it inverts the set and that you're leaving your partner to start with. It's very important to make sure that all sets have considerable space between them. While the movement within the triplet needs to be kept tight, it's easy for dancers to lose track of which set they're in if the ends of the distinct triplets aren't adequately separated. If this isn't possible, I would suggest finding clear markers to put between the sets to delineate between them (or don't call this in that scenario in the first place!).