Woo hoo! Karen joins the Hatchlings, calling two dances at Reida's last night. Great job, too. Dan caught one of them on pixels and put it up on YouTube. Didn't we just have fun?
Dale called his latest revision of Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss, then called the one just before the last one (he called it n minus 1). We pronounced n-1 a keeper.
Can't tell you how proud I am that we Hatchlings are able to call for house parties, Flash Dances, spontaneous events, beach parties on deserted islands...
9 comments:
Congratulations, Karen! Not only was the dance you called successful, it was also fun! Although I must admit having that archway in the middle added little extra challenge to down the hall, turn alone and come back up the hall.
Version n-1 of "Fly Around..." is just like the version 0.4 I posted in the previous blog entry except the 1/2 allemande at the end of A1 and pull through to start A2 turned into simply, "Allemande the ladies into a hey." With that wording change, I officially dub it version 1.0 -- ready to be danced.
PS: The allemande spans the break between A1 and A2, but no one other than my inner metronome seemed to care.
What pleased me most, however, was that the dance was fun to watch! Now I just need to talk someone else into calling it so I can dance it, too.
Actually, I noticed the crossing of the phrase too in your last posting. I heard Al Olsen's voice muttering and grumbling in my head. Still, the dance is a smooth one, w/o balances, so the crossing of the phrase might not bother most people.
Deserted islands...?
Joe - You would have preferred desserted islands? Full of ice cream and chocolate syrup? Or desert islands, with cactus and tumbleweed?
Deborah and Dale - I'm not sure I see the allemande going across the phrase. If the first star takes 8 counts, why doesn't the second as well? The Allemande then starts at the top of the A2.
The Allemande 1/2 becomes just the first move in the hey - I don't think it needs to be an allemande, though it feels good that way, and helps make sure everyone is oriented. Otherwise, as far as I can see, it's just a hey that starts with the women in the middle, and Al might think it was just fine.
What am I missing?
M
E
Hi Martha.
[warning to the easily bored -- move on, there's nothing for you here [chuckle]]
From an improper hands four, eight beats of star gets the gents back to the starting position and the lady back across the set to her starting position. When the gent does the turn out he tends to come back to meet the lady so really she only has to go half way around the second time before she sees her partner and is ready to start the allemande -> 12 beats total so far.
[also the ladies tended to star faster once they got the gents out of the way -- go figure]
The first version I had a 1/2 allemande to the lady-left-in-the-center hey at that point, but you really only have 3/4ths of a hey left, so you run out of hey before the end of A2. It was somewhat painful to watch even though the gypsy/swing smoothed it out.
I fixed that by making it a full allemande at the end of A1.
The first 1/2 allemande leaves the lady on the outside and uses up the rest of A1. You *could* start the hey from there, but it's smoother (he says as the author) to continue the allemande into the start of the hey (I really like the way that looked Saturday!)
Technically that makes it:
1/2 allemande to use up the rest of A1
Another 1/2 allemande (or a pull thru) to get into the hey, and 3/4 hey. By the end of A2 everything adds up.
[Sidelight] When I tried to fix this by starting beckett thereby making the ladies star farther during A1 all @#$%^& broke out during the progression (my fault, and it could have been fixed but it was gonna be tough to teach.)
The combined 1/2 allemandes (which to avoid pedantry during the walk-thru I'm calling just a single allemande) spans the A1-A2 boundary.
I consider this a minor flaw -- there are others.
Practically, though, I don't care cause it looks good and everyone was smiling so I'm gonna leave it the way it is. I'll do better next time.
Boy, I bet that clears it up {chortle}.
Dale
PS: Want another flaw? There's very little interaction with your neighbor -- this is a really partner-centric dance.
When do we go these "desserted" islands?!?
Dale, I really like your dance (and its fiddle tune namesake). Let's keep on dancing it untill all the changes in direction and progression completely evolve.
Joe
Question for Deborah - What would Al Olsen say about Joy Ride? If you have a chance, look at the three videos on the posting from the Flash Dance and see if you think the moves should or should not go across the phrase changes.
M
E
I don't have access to YouTube or any online videos at the moment, but Al Olsen has *always* disapproved of moves that cross the phrase. And generally, given the declining ability of dancers to dance to the phrase (either by slowing down moves like ladies chain over & back or keeping it tight on moves like P Sw/N Sw), I'm inclined to agree :S
That said, Dale's dance seems very smooth and the phrase crossing was something I had decided to note only to myself until he raised the issue himself.
I'd be curious to try the dance out sometime.
I might be missing something - but I don't see any cross phrase problems with this dance:
Full Star - 8 beats
Ladies half star/allemand - 4 beats
Allemand partner - about 3/4 until ladies are facing in- 4 beats (If you have to - you can do a full allemand in 4 beats - this one is not a full turn)
Full Hey - 16 beats
What do I have it wrong?
Mac
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