Dances I've Written
Here's
a selection of my favorites from the dances I
have
written. My gratitude goes to
the dancers of Santa Barbara and neighboring communities who have been
the 'guinea pigs' for these dances -- as well as for a number of others
that
don't appear here because they did not make the grade! Please
mail
me any comments or questions on these dances.
Small
print stuff: Permission is
granted to call or dance these dances anywhere and any time you want;
that's what they are for. Rather than reproducing them in
print elsewhere, may
I suggest linking back to this page; that's what the Web is for.
I believe that all the routines here are
original, but if you have information to the contrary,
please mail
me. Where a specific earlier routine served as
inspiration, I have acknowledged it.
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THE
FIDDLER OF
DOONEY
Duple improper, triple progression
A1.
Swing neighbor
(1st
progression)
A2.
Ladies chain,
end facing diagonally left (toward new couple)
On left diagonal, new
ladies pass right shoulders, half hey (2nd
progression)
B1.
Balance and
swing partner
End facing
across (may need to swing a little to right), facing another new couple
B2.
These (new)
ladies, chain
Same four,
pass through to ocean wave (4), balance (4)
Step forward
to next neighbor (3rd
progression)
April 2007 (final version). My own favorite of all
my
dances. Went
through many iterations over several
years before reaching this final form.
Inspired by the W. B. Yeats poem by the same title, about
a fiddler for
whom people “dance like a wave of the
sea.”
This of course accounts for the ocean wave move in
B2. The poem also
has a line about “I pass my
brother and cousin…”, and you certainly do pass a
lot of people in this dance.
Perpetual
Gypsy
Becket, travels left
A1.
(New) Gents allemande left x1, swing partner
A2.
Half promenade
Ladies
chain
B1.
Half hey
(ladies pass right shoulders)
Swing
neighbor
B2.
Circle ¾
Gypsy 1 ½ with partner WHILE sliding left to new couple
(travelling gypsy)
A dance that is a little harder than
it looks, but a real treat once dancers get it together.
Dancers need to be careful of timing so that gents are entering the set
at
start of
A1 and ladies are already out of it. The first few rounds
the ladies may get 'caught in the middle' and have to scramble.
Not to worry; they will soon figure it out. When
teaching, I
note
that backing up is what makes the travelling move possible: the dancer
whose back is to the line of travel needs to back up a little, else the
couple is going nowhere. Some dancers prefer to put arms around
one another during the gypsy, making it somewhere between a travelling
gypsy and a travelling swing.
October 2008. Title
and
inspiration came from a friend who happened to use the phrase
"perpetual gypsy" in conversation.
NIGHTFALL
Duple improper
A1.
Right hand to
neighbor, balance (4)
Do si do
neighbor (6)
Allemande
right neighbor 1 ¼ to line of four
(6)
A2.
Balance line
of four (4)
Ladies
allemande left x1 (4)
Swing
neighbor (8)
B1.
Gents
allemande left 1 1/2, swing partner
B2. Circle
¾
Balance
ring, California
twirl
September 2008.
The A1 owes a debt to Michael McKernan's Daybreak
Reel, Penn Fixx's Jed's
Reel, and their descendants. The title gives a
nod to the first-mentioned.
On the Pacific Coast, nightfall -- with the sunset -- is
often a
spectacular time; and it is a propitious time
for contra dancers.
INDEPENDENCE
FOREVER
Becket, travels left
A1.
Circle left x
3/4
Swing
neighbor
A2.
Gents
allemande left 1 ½
Pass
partner right shoulder, ½ hey (left shoulder in center)
B1. Balance
and
swing partner on gent’s side
B2. Long
lines
Right hand
star
Slide left with partner, to circle with next couple
April 2007.
Debuted July 1, 2007,
hence the title (attributed to John Adams as the last public Fourth of
July toast he ever offered -- which makes it a doubly fitting title for
a New England dance). The B2 move
was inspired by the classic 50s square, Star Line.
BLUE
BAYOU
Duple improper
A1. Do si do neighbor (8)
End with gents
facing out, ladies in, take hands in long waves at sides and around the
ends
Balance (4)
Allemande right the right hand person (4)
A2. Allemande left the left hand person (4)
Swing the one you do si did (12)
B1. Circle 3 places, swing partner
B2. Ladies chain
Left hand star
Summer 2009. Based on a wonderful dance
by Penn Fixx, Settlement Swing. The latter ends with the 1's
balancing and swinging while the 2's stand and watch, which
is not much to modern taste. This dance is an adaptation to get
everybody involved all the time. The name has nothing to do with
a song title or a Disneyland restaurant; it is baseball slang for a fastball which,
well, just blew by you.
The
Sprung Floor
Duple Improper
A1.
Four in line,
down the hall (ones in center)
Turn alone,
come back, bend line
A2.
Circle left
x/1
Balance the
circle (4), Petronella spin one place (4), face partner on side of set
B1.
Balance and
swing partner
B2.
Ladies chain
Ones gypsy once around, take partner and
move on to next couple
May 2007.
Composed quite by chance while preparing for the Sprung
Floor Dance festival. Based on the late Ted Sanella's Scout
House Reel, which honors a world-famous dance hall;
this
dance honors a famous West Coast
dance floor.
Airplane
Mixer
(Shawn Southard)
Circle Mixer
A1.
Forward and
back, twice (“long lines”)
A2.
Individually
“just fly” counterclockwise (arm action is
encouraged)
B1.
Gents turn
back, take lady behind, loop-the-loop (into the center and back in a
large loop)
B2.
Swing partner
(“turn fast!”)
If you care, swap places with partner at start so
lady starts out on left.
NON-MIXER VERSION ("AIRPLANE DANCE")
For groups with many young children and their parents, where
'gents' and
'ladies' are
dubious roles and changing partners is iffy, I present the dance as
follows:
A1.
Forward and
back, twice
A2.
Individually face to the right. The person now in front is
the
(new) "pilot." Fly around the circle. The 'pilot'
leads
the flying (arm action), etc.; the other dancer ("co-pilot", or
"Guy/Gal in Back") must follow whatever the pilot does.
B1. Pilot
reaches back take co-pilot and leads loop-the-loop into center and
back.
B2.
Swing partner, end facing center with pilot on left (as in a real
plane). For the next round of the dance, the co-pilot, now
on
the right, becomes the pilot.
December
2005. Written mainly by my older son, then not quite three,
who one day spontaneously began doing the key moves around his
playroom. Dad just helped a little with the timing and
instructions.
Dance debuted on the composer's third
birthday and was called by him (with just a little help) to an
enthusiastic group at the Santa
Barbara Sunday night dance. His preferred words appear in
quotes. I've never since used it for an
adult group, but
have used it with great success at school events and even at pre-school.
Indian
Creek Breakdown
Becket, travels left
A1.
(Slide left to new couple), circle left 3/4
Do si do neighbor
A2.
Allemande right neighbor 1 1/2 (8)
Gents in center, allemande left 1 1/2
to line of four(8)
B1.
Balance (4)
Swing partner (12)
B2.
Half promenade
Circle left x1, then slide left to new couple
Composed mid-1990s on a solo hike
through the Indian Creek
region of the Santa Barbara
backcountry.
Forgotten
Swing
Proper
A1.
Long lines forward and back
Ones do si
do
A2.
Ones pull by,
cross set, down outside pass 2 couples
Come up the center, cast off
(with opposite sex)
B1.
Circle left 3
places, swing partner
B2.
Ladies chain
Ones half
figure eight above (back to proper formation)
Written about 1995.
An attempt to capture some of the spirit of
‘chestnut’ dances in a
figure more suited to modern tastes.
When first teaching it I omitted the B1, hence the title.
Fermat's
Farewell
Becket
Start in line of four facing down
hall, side by side with
partner.
A1. Down hall, turn as
couples, return
A2. Circle left
3/4 (6)
Step
forward into line of 4, holding right hds with neighbor, ladies in
center (2)
Balance
4
in line, two times (4,4)
B1. Do si do next
neighbor [progression]
These
two
ladies in center, almd left 1 ½ (8)
B2. Balance and
swing partner
Written
July '98,
substantially rewritten October '00. This
dance was written to fit Michael
Mendelson's march
of
the same name. The
timing of the
balances is unusual, but it fits well with the title tune.
Michael
plays the march in
32-bar format for dances. I first saw
the
circle-left-into-line-of-four move in Becky Hill's fine
dance,
First English Jig.
BALANCING
STARS
Square
A1. Four people, into the center and
back (See notes)
Same four, left hand star, give right hand to partner
(this makes
something like two crossed lines of four across the set)
A2. Balance "four in line" (4), star
left halfway to original opposite
person(4)
Balance "four in line" (4), star left halfway to partner(4)
B1. Balance and swing partner
B2. Promenade
On the first round,the ladies go into the center; on the
second round,
the gents; then head
gents and side ladies, finally side gents and head ladies.
New
England
squares traditionally give variety by having a partner change at each
round. That can be
a disappointment if
you had a really special partner picked out.
In this dance you keep your partner; the variety comes
from having a
different four people in the center each time.
Based on Jenny's
Star by Roger Whynot and Parisian
Star by Tony Parkes; this dance puts the key move (the A2 sequence) in
a simpler setting, and lets you keep your partner (see About Those Squares
for my reasons why). My thanks to Donnalyn Karpeles for
giving
this dance a very fitting title.
GYPSY
FEVER
Duple improper
A1. Allemande right neighbor 1
1/2
Men
allemande left 1 1/2
A2. Gypsy partner
Swing
partner
B1. Half promenade
Women chain
B2. Long lines forward and back
Left
hand star
July 1993. Written for use at Santa
Barbara's
Oak Park
dance platform, which featured romantic
dancing under the stars
(hence the gypsy) and a floor optimized for drainage rather than
dancing, tending to spill
the dancers off to all sides (hence the long lines forward and
back). Regrettably, the deteriorating condition of the outdoor dance
platform
compelled the Santa Barbara group to discontinue its events at this
location. The dance is derived from Hey Fever, Spring Fever,
et al. by
Tony Parkes.
TWO
HAPPY
FIDDLERS
Becket,
moves left; double progression
A1. On the
left
diagonal, right and left through
Right
and
left through across (new group of four)
A2. Circle left
3/4,
Swing
neighbor
B1. Long
lines forward/back
Ladies do
si do 1 1/2
B2. Balance
and
swing partner, end facing
diagonally to left
For my favorite pair of happy fiddlers, Jim
Mueller and Amber
Roullard-Mueller of the Growling Old Geezers, on their wedding day, September 10,
1994.
For some reason
it seems to have been the best travelled of any of my dances; I have
seen it on
web sites as far away as England
and Denmark.
Trip
To Monterey
A1. Down the hall four in line, turn
alone and return
A2. Circle left x1
Do si do
neighbor
B1. Take hands in a rin, balance the
ring, swing neighbor
B2. Long lines fwd/back
Ones
swing
in center
The B1 can also be danced as simply, "Balance and swing
neighbor." The original B1 is distinctive but a little
awkward because the gent enters the swing from the lady's left.
September 1995. My contribution to the extensive genre of
"dances written in callers' heads while driving somewhere to call a
dance," in this case, Monterey, CA. The
dance is based on the late
Ted Sannella’s Scout House Reel.
DANCING
AGAIN
Duple improper
A1. Do si do
neighbor 1 1/4 to wavy line
Balance four in line, allemande right halfway
A2. Gents
allemande left x1, swing
neighbor
B1. Circle 3/4, swing
partner (10)
B2. Long lines
forward and back
Ladies
chain
January 1994. Written to celebrate my return to the
dance floor after a
six-month absence because of injuries. I had the temerity to
show this to the great Tony Parkes (whose classic Shadrack's Delight
was the inspiration). He gave me a very gracious
response complimenting my effort but suggesting I try a balance --
which the dance did not then have -- in the middle of A1. He
was right, of course.
Contents of this page Copyright 2009 by Jonathan
Southard