Hi Rich,
The concept of “Turn your partner, turn someone else, turn your
partner, turn the next person” goes way back. This is from Trenchmore
(pre-1650):
“Having soundly turned both ways, every man, with his woeman, the first man
shall turne the 2nd man, his owne woeman standing by, he shall turne her, and
then the next man, and then his owne woeman, and then the 3rd, and then his
owne, soe all round like before, as soone as having turned any of them, he
shall turne his owne woeman, and soe followe each other, and then all men and
woemen turne round as before as fast as they can, then the woemen doe first
like the man, and turne all againe soundly;”
http://contrafusion.co.uk/lovelace.htm#Trenchmore
If you do that in a circle then you get La Boulangere (the only
dance Jane Austen mentions by name in her books). The same dance figure was
done in the Appalachians (Big Set/Running Set) where it was known as the
Shoo-Fly Swing.
If you do it in a longways set and have both couples active then
you get Strip the Willow. If you restrict it to three couples at a time then
you get Contra Corners. As Colin mentions in his article it has been around
for a few centuries with various names. Fandango from 1774 is very popular:
“turn corners & turn your Part: - the same at the other corners”
Thomas Wilson published “The Complete System of English Country
Dancing” around 1816. He has three relevant figures:
“Set Contrary Corners”: Pass right shoulder; set to first corner; pass right
shoulder, set to second corner
“Turn Corners”: As above, but two-hand turn instead of set
“Swing Corners”: Partner right, first corner left, partner right, second corner
left
As Colin says, Swing means different things depending on the genre, the country
and the century: http://contrafusion.co.uk/SwingTwoHandTurn.html
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England [email protected] 01233 625 362 & 07802 940
574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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