Core Dances 2017

This year we are again using a core repertoire of dances. The intention is to repeat all the dances many times over the course of the year so that we become familiar with them and are able to dance them confidently, and (hopefully) to concentrate a little more on technique and dancing them well not just getting through them. We noticed a marked improvement in the dancing of several of the previous years dances so we hope that you are finding it helpful.

Below is a list of the dances in the current core. If you would like a copy of the notation, please ask Malcolm or one of the other committee members. Please talk to Malcolm if anything is not clear in the instructions; he has taken them from the original source where he can.

As last year, we have a chart living with the club microphone. Each week the caller will mark all the core dances that he / she has done. We will try to repeat dances - it helps to consolidate the learning - but also try to make sure all the dances get reasonably equal coverage.

The dances have been chosen to allow the callers to teach particular figures, styles and formations. Some of the dances are a bit of a challenge, so we won't get them right until we've done some practising. Others have been chosen because they are often dances at public dances, and some more practice will help us to enjoy them more.

We are still experimenting with the best way to approach core dances so please keep passing on feedback to any member of the committee.

Where possible, links to the notation for the dance have been included. No guarantees as to the content of other sites can be given! Note that we may be teaching a slight variant of what is published on the external web site. See also our links page for web sites which provide hints on dance (and calling) technique.

Happy dancing!

Dance Name	Formation	Source	Music
Fandango	3 Couple Longways	Apted 1774	Own Tune
Kelsterne Gardens	Longways Triple Minor	Playford 1728, 3rd Edition	Own Tune - 28bars
Winter Dreams YouTube Video	Longways duple minor,improper, single progression	Gary Roodman - Sum Further Calculated Figures	Winter Dreams Waltz - Jonathan Jensen
Michael and All Angels YouTube Video Has a slight variation in the final figures for display purposes	Longways duple minor, proper, single progression	Fried de Metz Herman, 1991	The Masque in Dioclesian, Air "Let Monarchs Fight" (1690)
Andes Anomaly Our very own YouTube video! Click here for additional notes on calling & dancing	Longways, becket formation, even number of couples	Cary Ravitz	32bar American Reel
Mr. Beveridge's Maggot	Longways	Dancing Master 1695, interpreted by Pat Shaw	16b own tune - triple time
Mary K YouTube Video	Longways duple minor, improper, single progression	Gary Roodman, A Finite Set of Calculated Figures, 2003	Own Tune by Dave Wiesler

Core dance pages from previous years

Hints and Tips on Notation

Unless otherwise marked, each phrase (e.g. A1, B2) is 8 bars long.
In a reel or jig there are 2 steps to a bar; in a waltz or triple time tune there are 3 steps to a bar.
A semi-colon marks the end of a 2-bar phrase; a full stop marks the end of 4 bars. If a described movement takes the full phrase of music there is (probably) no full stop at the end of it. If a movement takes an unexpected or unusual length of music it will tell you in brackets.
Hints for individual dances are in italic with that dance.
M stands for men or man (e.g. M1 is 1st man); W stands for women or woman (e.g. W1 is 1st woman).
R stands for right; L for left.
sh stands for shoulder.
Turn single is R-shoulder back unless it says otherwise.
At the end of a R-hand turn you are facing that person; at the end of an allemande R you are facing the person who was behind you.

R & L through is R with opposite; L courtesy turn with partner beside you.
A courtesy turn means you both give L hands and face in the same direction as you wheel around anti-clockwise (M does not have his arm around W's waist except in a ladies chain).
A double is 3 steps and close your feet together.
A single is 1 step and close your feet together.
A double step or skip-change step is a travelling danced step. Hop on L to step forward on R, catch-up with L, step forward on R, hop on R and bring L through to repeat starting L. The hop is before the beat and the rhythm should be hop-long-short-long; hop-long-short-long.
A single skip is as you learnt in the playground! Step and hop in one move (as opposed to a hornpipe where the step and hop come on consecutive beats).
Gates means both of you face the same direction and hold inside hands; rotate a full turn (usually) with your joined hands as the pivot point. If mixed couple, M reverses and W forward unless otherwise marked. If same sex couple instructions will say (e.g. 1s gate up means 1s move up and then out in mirror gates).
Hole-in-the-Wall crossing (in triple time) is facing partner, starting with right foot, move towards him / her until face-to-face and close; on 3rd step (R foot) rotate half way (c/w) with each other staying close; from 4th step (L foot) fall back into partner's place. There should be a feeling of rising up to the middle of the move, pausing or hovering and then sinking as you fall away.

Our Hints & Tips for Andes Anomaly:

Our very own YouTube video!

Rory O'More: a move from the dance of the same name. Balance towards and away from the designated person then slide or spin across in front of them, to end facing in the same direction with the opposite hands joined with the same person. Lots of people try to spin the wrong way - you can push off with the person you balanced to if you spin the right way (your arm wraps across your body as you let go of the other person). If you are holding left hands with the person you are changing with, spin to the left. If holding right hands, spin to the right.
The spin is an embellishment because American contra dancers put spins in everywhere - the move is a slide past face to face.
Teach it like this then adds the spins later when people are confident of where they are going.
Rory O'More to the right: join R-hands, balance R then L then slide 2 steps R passing face-to-face to finish with L-hands joined. To spin put R-sh back and do a full spin - make sure you finish facing in the same direction as you started the move.
Rory O'More to the left: join L-hands, balance L then R then slide 2 steps L passing face-toface to finish with R-hands joined. To spin, put L-sh back to do full spin - make sure you finish facing in the same direction as you started the move.
It is crucial that people don't drift in the stars. They must be either St George (e.g. start of A2) or St Andrew (e.g. A1, bar 5). If one minor set goes wrong the rest of the major set is likely to collapse too.
At the end of a St George star each person is facing up, down or across - not into the centre of the star. This helps orientate for the next move.
In the first and third stars you are in the same star as your P; in the middle star you are in a different star to your P.
Everybody is moving all the time.
The dance feels very different as a 1 and a 2. It helps to walk the dance through once or twice, return to original places and dance it a couple of times. Then stop, return to original places and swap sides of the set; walk it again - everyone is now the other number. Then return to original places once more and dance it.

End effects:

At the ends of the set you get 3 men or 3 ladies starring together - this is NOT wrong - just keep dancing and it'll work like magic!
When reaching the end of the set you have 4b of pause - but don't even think about relaxing!
When there is no-one to Rory O'More with at the top or bottom of the set stand still and just turn to face the opposite direction.