Wednesday, March 5, 2008

Hatchling Dance - which dances shall we do?

Here's the list I wrote down tonight:
Wade - a contra and a square
Kay - Dancing at the Rest Stop
David - 1 or 2 contras
Bob - XYZ, or Roll in the Hey, or Jefferson and Liberty or Essex
Martha - some beginning of the evening dance, and something medium
Joe - Al's Heyday and a Cary Ravitz dance
Chrystal - Concertina Chair (?) and Blue Persuasion

As you figure out which dance(s) you'd like to call, post them here with their descriptions, so we can discuss where everything might fit in a good program.

M
E

10 comments:

Chrystal said...

OK so here are the moves in my dance in no particular order....

CONCERTINA CHAIR(I found this in one of the books at Martha's--maybe Zesty Contras?):
Neighbor Balance and swing, Hey, Gent's alemande, Wavy line & balance, Partner swing, Circle, circle balance, california twirl

BLUE PERSUASION: Ladies RH balance & pull by, gypsy shadow, partner balance and swing, long lines, circle, Fenterlarick move.

mac said...

chrystal - interesting choices:
my comments:

concertina chair - I assume:
Gents start hey - or the allemand will not work.
Allemand is olny 1/2 to wavy line
Circle is 3/4
That is the only way I can get this to work.

Blue Persuasion - interesting dance - but has a couple things are are not common - very careful and specific teaching is a must!

Good Luck

Chrystal said...

This was just a list of moves--not complete instructions.

Chrystal said...

BLUE PERSUASION:

A1 (8) Ladies RH Balance & pull by
(8) gypsy shadow (the next man down the line from your partner)

A2 (16) Partners Balance and Swing

B1 (8) Lines Forward and Back
(8) Circle L 3/4

B2 (4) Partners take left hand and turn 3/4, ending in single line along set
(men in middle, ladies on the outside.)
(8) Men turn by the right hand 1 1/2; the 2 ladies on the outside continue
(4) Partners turn by the left 3/4 into progressed place.

I've been practicing this at the calling parties. I know that the partner allemande across the set will take a lot of room (refering to Mac's post AND 2 weeks ago when we seemed to be doing lots of things across the set and there was that ladies chain up and down.) This will have to go towards the end of the evening when the crowd has thinned out a little.

CONCERTINA CHAIR:
A1 Neighbor Balance & Swing

A2 Hey (Men start R shoulder)

B1 (4)Men allemand R 1/2 to a wave (L hand to partner)
(4)Balance the Wave
(8)Partner swing

B2 (8)Circle L 3/4
(8)Balance & California Twirl

The thing we noticed at the calling party on this dance is that the mens hey is a little awkward.

Joe said...

Hey, this is Joe. As mentioned, I propose calling "Al's Heyday". I would also like to call a Kary Ravits (sp) dance. Both dances should be at a moderate level. I will check on the resourse site to be sure.

Chrystal said...

If we need easier dances for the begining of the evening I can call Al's Safeway Produce.

A1 (8) Left-hand star
(8) Neighbors allemande left 1 1/2
A2 (8) Ladies allemande right 1 1/2
(8) Partners swing
B1 (6) Circle left 3/4
(10) Neighbors swing
B2 (8) Long lines go forward and back
(8) Right-hand star

It's going to be my back-up-just-in-case dance for sure but I can replace Concertina Chair with this one if need be.

mac said...

Some of the dances so far are relatively complex and high piece count - Keep in mind who your band is. They get together to have fun playing - so the tempos might be brisk - Try practicing to something like Face the Creek or similar tempo.

Just because you can call that fast doesn't mean the dancers can keep up - espeically dances with unfamiliar sequences - the dancers might not negotiate them efficiently.

Mac

contrawade said...

Chrystal,

Before I realized that you had posted the whole description of Concertina Chair, I looked it up on the internet (Ted Crane's Dance DB). It looks to me like the B1 is supposed to be a rapid gents allemande right 1X to form a long wavy line in the center, not a short wavy line across (it specifies facing your partner).

Wade

Chrystal said...

I've seen Concertina Chair written about 3 different way's now. I got it from a book @ Martha's. I'll have to double check it when we have our next calling party. It's highly possible I wrote something down wrong. I actually didnt change anything on purpose this time! :)

Interestingly I almost always practice to Face the Creek. I just go thru the CD and practice to each song to get used to different tempos and such.

Joe said...

I somehow managed to print off about 130 Cary Ravitz dances. For those of you who are perhaps more familiar with his work(s) than I am, please help me to pick one of his more lively/advanced ones for the Hatchling Callers Night in April.
Thanks
Joe