I'm intrigued about this virtual dance! Will share the link with my
organizing committee and we will all try to check it out. thank you for
sharing :
In a possibly related vein, I had been thinking to maybe share this
dance I wrote with you all, and this seems like a good opportunity - I
wrote a dance that me and my partner could dance alone - maximizing
playing with momentum to make up for the lack of other people.
We had a lot of fun with it so I've shared it with some of our other
regular dancers who I know have someone at home they can dance with.
Enjoy! and feel free to share/ modify/ do as you like with. I don't
care about credit...
Kat Kitching, volunteer organizer and caller with Halifax Contra Dances
Halifax NS Canada
*Nic & Kat’s Anniversary Dance (in the time of COVID)*
_Music_:
-Any standard jig or reel.
-To ensure you start on the correct beat, it would be _ideal_ to
start the music and then count a full 64 beats before you start dancing.
(Our contra bands give “16 beats for nothing” but standard music you
find online does not do this, which is why I suggest waiting for
64.Gives you some time to enjoy the tune!
_Formation_:
-Stand facing across to your partner
*THE DANCE *(with detailed explanations for the walk-through)
*Long Lines Fwd and Back *(Actually you are just alone walking forward
to your partner and back, but it’s the same move you’d normally do in
long lines in a group dance.I suggest putting your hands palm-to-palm as
you meet in the middle, then giving a gentle push backwards as you walk
back)
*Do si do*(I suggest briefly taking right hands as you walk towards each
other and tugging off each other into the do-si do)
*Long Lines Fwd and Back*(with palm push)
*2-hand Balance twice*(hold hands and take two steps towards each other
both veering a bit to your respective left, then two steps back, then
two steps towards each other both veering to your respective right, then
back. keep holding hands in anticipation of next figure...)
-------------
*Over right shoulder, take eyes *(keep the hand hold from the balance
for a moment and tug off into the "take eyes") (aka Gypsy)
*Turn away and walk a left-shoulder loop on your*own (Turn away from
your partner and walk as if you were doing “over left shoulder take
eyes” with an invisible person in an invisible line behind you.)
*Come back to your partner, balance and swing*(16 counts).(end facing
across ready to go forward and back).
------------------------------------
*The DANCE QUICK REFERENCE*
Long lines forward and back (with palm pushoff) - 8 counts
Do si do (with right-hand tug) – 8 counts
Long lines forward and back (with palm pushoff) - 8 counts
2 Hand balance twice (veering left then right) – 8 counts
Over right shoulder take eyes- 8 counts
Turn away from your partner and loop left – 8 counts
Balance and swing (end facing across) – 16 counts
Becky Liddle via Contra Callers wrote on 5/22/2020 12:50 PM:
Hello Fellow Callers!
This post has 2 purposes: to invite you all to the dance, and also to
drum up interested callers who might want to donate their calling to
future dances (which will be the 2nd & 4th Saturday of each month at
7:30PM Eastern time in North America).
Our first attempt at a Zoom contra early in May went great, and we’ve
decided to do this twice a month for the duration!
Our first (minimally publicized) dance hit our 100 participant Zoom
limit (and 67 were still dancing at the end, so they must have been
having fun!). This time we have a 500 participant limit and we’re
publicizing it far and wide.
More info and the link to join appears in announcement below. This
week’s callers will be Bev Bernbaum, Drew Delaware, and me (Becky Liddle).
Hope to see you there!
Becky
Dancing in Isolation - A Virtual Contra Dance by Zoom, Saturday
May 23, 2020, at 7:30PM Eastern
Contra dance alone or with other dancers in your household, along
with dancers across the continent! We'll be dancing to recorded
music (due to tech limitations) and live calling. Dancing with
imaginary people ("ghosts") is challenging, so we are assuming
everyone is a reasonably experienced contra dancer. There will be
no beginners’ lesson. But the good news is that when you dance
alone in your living room, the contra line is exactly where you
imagine it, and unexpected moves become glorious new
choreography! Everyone is welcome to join!
https://zoom.us/j/99530765467?pwd=YUEyZms5ZnlZbDlqa0tvREp1QkZyZz09
Meeting ID: 995 3076 5467
Password: 007
Join the Zoom meeting any time between 7:00 and 7:30PM Eastern on
Saturday, but try to join by 7:20 if possible. There will be an
introduction to the dance at 7:25 and dancing will begin promptly
at 7:30 Eastern.
We hope to have these dances every 2nd and 4th Saturday evening
until we can dance in person again. You can keep track of
scheduled dances here or on the Toronto Contra Dance Facebook
page: https://www.facebook.com/TorontoContraDance . At our first
dance we hit our 100 participant limit, but this time we can have
up to 500 participants, so tell your contra dancing friends, and
feel free to repost this announcement to your local contra dance
websites!
Participation is free, but *if you enjoy the dance, we ask that
you make a donation (in an amount you are comfortable with) to
benefit freelance artists in our music & dance community* who are
struggling with the loss of income due to COVID-19 shutting down
all our in-person events.
CDSS has a donation page here:
https://www.cdss.org/community/covid19/send-love-to-freelancers
where you can donate to a freelance musician or caller. You are
welcome to choose an artist of your choice, but the list loads in
random order, so you can also simply donate to whoever is top on
the list when you load the page, knowing that others will be
donating to someone else, and everybody ends up getting a little
help in a difficult time. Or, if you like the specific music we
play at the dance, we encourage you to donate to (or buy music
from) the musicians whose music we use. We will post a list of
those artists to the Toronto Contra Dance Facebook page after
each dance. Please come to the dance, and afterwards decide what
it was worth to you, and give generously to keep the music going
until we can all meet in joy on the other side of this pandemic.
The dance is organized by Becky Liddle, ably assisted by Drew
Delaware, with a great deal of help from other Toronto area
folks. Becky happens to be president of Toronto Contra Dance, but
this dance is only loosely associated with TCD. So if you have
any complaints, please blame Becky or Drew, not TCD! :-)
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