Rickey, One other thing I might mention about bringing Modern Western Square moves into Contra crowds: Contra dancers will try to put balances where they are used to putting balances, even if you don't call them. For example, most contra dances using square thrus use a balance, pull by, pull by sequence (8 counts). Repeating the balance, pull by, pull by would complete a square thru four places. (total 16 counts)
A MWSD crowd would just pull by twice in 4 counts (square thru two), three times in 6 counts (square thru three) or four times in 8 counts (square thru four). No balances. Many MW dancers don't know what to make of the balances that contra dancers love so much. In the same way, contra dancers are habituated to putting balances before a Box the Gnat, and I've had to remind dancers in certain dances that there is no balance before the Box the Gnat. On the other hand, I have had good luck explaining the swing thru. From a wavy line of four with the ladies in the middle holding left hands, I teach neighbors allemande right halfway, men allemande left halfway. I explain that I will prompt those allemandes as "swing thru." Find a dance (or adjust it) so that you don't have to teach more than one or two "new" moves. -- Jerome Yes, I know "thru" is actually spelled "through." On Jan 23, 2008 7:41 AM, <[email protected]> wrote: > > > Message: 4 > Date: Tue, 22 Jan 2008 13:06:27 -0500 > From: "Tepfer, Seth" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Callers] [trad-dance-callers] What did he say !??? MWSD > To: "[email protected]" > <[email protected]>, "Caller's discussion list" > <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > < > 65633d79d8703f46ad8d95203ba286ee9c00176...@exchange11.enterprise.emory.net > > > > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > One of the cool things about MWSD is that they have singing squares to > many fun songs of the past 50 years. Beatles, stones, salsa, C&W, you name > it. The downside is most are using the jargon of MWSD. This is why they have > 40 weeks of lessons. > > You have two choices - replace the given moves with ones that put the > dancers in basically that place but with moves they already know, or teach > all those moves in other dances earlier in the evening. > > Square thru dancers know from contra. > Swing thru appears in some contra dances (see Manga Tak by Ron Buchannan > or Southern Swing by Steve Zaikon Anderson) (it's basically - from a wavy > line - all allemande Right ?, centers allemande left ?). > Eight chain 4 I've seen in a couple of squares by Colin Hume (check out > his Squares with a Difference - singing square O Bla Di, Oh Bla Dah) > Spin the top - um .... Here you go: > http://www.remus.dti.ne.jp/~jsda/sdtext/sdtextdata/basicpro10-eng.html#57<http://www.remus.dti.ne.jp/%7Ejsda/sdtext/sdtextdata/basicpro10-eng.html#57> > > > From: [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] On Behalf Of Rickey > Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 12:43 PM > To: [email protected] > Subject: [trad-dance-callers] What did he say !??? MWSD > > > Hi, > > Found two incredible singing squares. One is to Everly brothers' "Dream, > Dream, Dream" and the other to the Beatles' "Money Can't Buy You Love". We > might like to try them for our Valentine's Dance, but they use calls from > Modern Western Square Dancing. So........... What do these terms mean? (I > tried http://www.ceder.net <http://www.ceder.net/> , but could not find > them.) > > Square thru > > Square thru go three (three quarter 'round now) > > Square thru (count it four hands 'round) > > 8 chain 4 > > Swing thru > > Spin the top > > O.K. I have done a square through but before I teach it (and any > variations > in this list), I need review. > > Thanks to those who know. > > I don't. > > Singing in New Hampshire > > Rickey Holt > > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed] > __._,_.___ > -- Jerome Grisanti 660-528-0858 660-528-0714 http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
