Sam Whited asked for "any move that's ever been used in a contra dance
(even if only once)" and that isn't listed in the Wikipedia article at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dance_choreography
or in Sam's lists at
https://github.com/SamWhited/contra-card/issues/2
https://github.com/SamWhited/contra-card/issues/17
I think that the number of such moves will turn out to be quite large,
and also that there will be many cases in which it no clear whether to
count things as distinct moves or as variants of the same move. The
pages listed above are all moving targets, but here are some moves I
didn't see listed when I looked a little while ago.
* "Up the Hall Four in Line" -- The Wikipedia article (as of when I
looked at it just a little while ago) lists "Down the Hall Four in
Line" but doesn't explicitly list "Up the Hall Four in Line". As
we know from a recent thread here on the SharedWeight callers'
forum, there are lots of things you can do in between going down
the hall and coming back up. And is it a different move if you're
going backwards instead of forwards (as, for example, in those
sequences inspired, but not exactly copied, from "Dublin Bay")?
* Down/Up the Hall as Couples -- Active couples only going down
the center was one of the most common figures in traditional
contras (Petronella, Hull's Victory, Lady of the Lake, ...).
Dan Pearl's "Brimmer And May Reel" has dancers going down the
hall four in line and later coming back up two-by-two. Dillon
Bustin's "Anne's a Bride Tonight" has actives go up the center
then come back down.
* Down/Up the Outside -- as if Chorus Jig, And then there's
"Devil's Dream", where some dancers go down/up the outside
while others go up/down the center.
* Cast off -- This could be an assisted cast with adjacent dancers
putting arms around each others' backs (common in traditional
contras after atives come up the center), a hand cast (after
up the center four in line) or an unassisted cast.
* Cross the set -- as in the opening sequences of "Rory O'More",
"French Four", and Ted Sannella's "Fiddleheads". And then
there's the diagonal version in "Road to Californy" and
"Lamplighter's Hornpipe": Actives cross diagonally down between
the two's to form long waves with actives facing out holding
current neighbor in one hand and next neighbor in the other
hand. Is that a separate move or a mere variant? (From the
standpoint of what it's like to teach it to dancers unfamiliar
with it, I'd say it's a different move.) Speaking of "Rory O'
More", is the second half of A1 a variant of half figure eight,
a combination of crossing the set and casting off, or a unique
move unto itself. And what about the thing the actives do just
after they cross the set in "Fiddleheads" (turn individually
left to dance around one person--M1 going down outside and W1
going up outside--and step into the center of the set to form
"diamonds")?
* Arch and duck to progress -- One of Sam's lists includes "Duck
and Dive". I'm not sure whether that's meant to include a
simple "2's arch; 1's dive to meet new neighbors" or whether
he intends something more complex. (I think of "Duck and Dive"
as involving a sequence of at least two arch-and-duck moves
where the who make the first arch duck under the second.
The action could be entirely forward or could include backing
up as in Kirston Koths's "Nantucket Sleigh Ride".) From a
line of four, center can arch and ends duck as in (at least some
versions of) "Jefferson's Reel"/"Jefferson And Liberty". Yet
another arching and ducking move (not necessarily to progress)
occurs in, for example, "Pop Goes the Weasel", where one couple
circles with a member of the other couple, then "pops" that
person through an arch.
* Does circling (or "ovaling") around the entire set count as a
mere variant of "Circle" (usually meaning circle four) or a
separate figure?
* What about promenading around the entire set vs. across the
set? And when women turn back from the oval promenade in Paul
Balliet's "Fairport Harbor" to swing a new neighbor, is that
a mere variant of "turn alone"?
* Are the gypsy in pairs in Ted Sannella's "Yours for the Asking"
and the action in Devin Nordberg's "Fantasy Contra" where both
ladies gypsy with the same gent at once mere variants of "Gypsy"
or separate figures? By the way, "Fantasy Contra" also includes
"Ladies choice swing (partner or neighbor)" and then some has
some conditional moves in the B parts to achieve correct
progression regardless of the choice.
* And how about that "hey for three" in Tom Hinds's "Bale the Hay"
and "Bale the Hay II" where actives dance as one person and
inactives dance separately?
* What about concentric single-file "promenades" as in Tony
Saletan's "Amicable Settlement"?
* Circle to a line
* Circle to a wave
* What would you call that move (kind of a mix of give-and-take
and shift right) that achieves the progression in the B2 of
Rick Mohr's "Sunset Limited"?
* How about the move that achieves the progression in the
B2 of Luke Donforth's "Leave Them Hanging"?
* None of the pages Sam cites include any hand-clapping moves
(except the common embellishment on Petronella turns).
I'm sure I've only scratched the surface.
--Jim
On Sep 9, 2013, at 12:58 PM, Sam Whited wrote:
Hi all;
I'm looking for a complete (or, as complete as this sort of thing can
be) list of Contra Dance moves. Once I exchausted all of the ones I
could think of off the top of my head, I started using Wikipedia's
list [1].
Can anyone think of any less-common moves that are missing from that
list? I know there are lots of square dance moves that are adapted to
contra dances fairly regularly that might be missing from the article
on Contra; I'm basically looking for any move that's ever been used in
a contra dance (even if only once). Contra squares (in which any
square dance move is more or less valid) probably don't count. The
move should work in `normal' contra dance formations and/or
mescolanzas.
Thanks,
Sam
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contra_dance_choreography
--
Sam Whited
pub 4096R/EC2C9934
https://samwhited.com/contact
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