Hello
all;
This is a BCC email, so no one can see your email
address. If you wish to be taken off this list, please reply stating as
such and I will gladly remove you. We
will be reviewing the attendance and removing folks in a few weeks as a
courtesy os you may just drop off naturally via "process".
Thanks to all who came to the second Rockin' Jester
Square Dance Class.
We did a review of the first night, and introduced the
following calls:
More detail on these calls and others we have introduced can
be found below. We will see these calls
going forward many times.
Now that the class is started I am trying to be available at
6:30 if you want extra practice, have questions, or missed the prior week.
And we have a class level event scheduled below, down about
2-3 inches....?
For those of you with a bit of extra time on your
hands. The following YouTube video link
"might" be interesting. It's
demo dance at a Grand Prix at Neurburgring, Germany. If you watch closely you can see the Dosido, the Square Four, a
BackTrack(boys here), and the Promenade-Half Way that we worked in the
last class session. There is patter
portion, and then a singing call. We
will work swing your partner in the next class session.
_______________________________________________________________________
Upcoming
Events:
- March 21st – New
Dancer (January) Level Hoedown;
Callers: Keith Ferguson and Tork Clark;7:30-9:45pm Sunnyvale Presbyterian
Church, 728 W. Fremont Avenue, Sunnyvale
- March 28
- Castaways New Dancer Hoedown (January Level); Callers: TBD:
________________________________________________________________________
As always, at least most days, I am available starting at 6:30 PM if you missed the prior week, or
just want some help. You will find that square dancing is a mind game,
and also good exercise. It helps to come in early once in awhile.
Things will seem confusing at first. Note that I get lonely if no one shows up early.
regards,
Tork Clark,
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Note that the following descriptions are not
meant to be real definitions. They are discussed here in a colloquial
fashion only to remind you, in a vague way, of what we did. Please ask
questions in class if something needs more explaining. And we
should review most things for 2 weeks afterwards in shorter and shorter
discussions. And of course a lot of these are building blocks on
which we iterate and we will use a number of them in each class session.
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#2-The week of 02/11 we introduced the following new
call(s).
Square Thru (N) - Where the default is Square
Thru-4. By default starts this starts with the right pull-by, turn
in to the center of your 4 dancer unit, then a left pull-by, turn in,
alternating hands. The last count is a pull-by with no turn
in. For Square-Thru three, for
example, 1/right pull-by, turn-in, 2/left-pull-by, turn-in, 3/right pull and go
straight.
California Twirl - Dancers raise their hands to make an
arch, the man's hand is palm up, ladies palm down. They exchange place by the man walking in a large right hand semi
circle, the lady in walking in a tight left hand circle. The dancers pass right shoulders. They end facing the opposite direction from
which they started. They do not hold
hands, their fingers are touching but not holding.
Star
Thru: Starts with a man facing a woman, ends in a normal couple
formation. A man places his right hand
against the lady's left hand, palm to palm, fingers up, to make an arch. The dancers move toward each other, the
woman moves under the arch turning to the left 90 degrees. The man turns 90 degrees to the right moving
past the woman.
Grand
Square: Commonly starts
with Heads Face, or Sides Face. This one
might be worth watching.
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#1-The week of 02/04 we introduced the following new
call(s).
Note that we will never again see this many calls in a night. But these first few calls we introduced are
easier. And we will review all calls in
the following weeks. It seems to take
about 3 nights to absorb a call.
Most of the calls we performed are summarized in the
following three 5 minute videos. Note that
these videos can be a bit dry.
(sorry...?)
The following single "calls" were introduced on
this night.
Circulate -
Couples Circulate - We did this from what we call 2-Faced Lines. Lead couples changes sides. The trailer couple moves into their Leaders
spot, and become leaders.
Bend The
Line (2faced Lines) - Should really be called Break the Line. From lines, each couple, as unit, turns to
face the other couple in their line.
Veer
Left (facing couples) - Each couple moves to the left, the center dancers
join hands
Lead Right
- The designated couple looks right, and moves in an arc, 90 degrees, to the right
to stand in front of the other couple, or face out of the square.
Ladies Chain 3/4 - Ladies
star by the right, count three boys, and your corner who you started the call
with Courtesy-Turns you.
Courtesy Turn:
Starts with normal couples, the man places his left hand, palm up, in
front of the lady. The lady places her
left hand, palm down on the mans left hand.
The lady places her hand optionally on her back, palm out. The man places his right hand on the lady
right hand, or upper lower back, the man backs up, the lady walks forward. They turn 180 degrees in place. If the lady is moving towards the man the
man slides right to give her rooms and extends his left hand to turn her.
Backtrack
(Girls) - Turning away from the center of the circle, go in the opposite
direction from which they started.
Ladies in Men
Sashay and Boys in Ladies Sashay - The designated dancers step in, and the
others sashay behind the dancers to join their "NEW" partner. We have only done this from Circle Left, so
the "sashayers" have sashaying to the left.
Pass Thru -
With the dancer in front of you pass thru with your right shoulder near
their's.
Right
and Left Grand - Facing a Partner, do a left pull-by, right pull by, left
pull-by, then a right pull-by. Meet
your starting person, await the next command.
Star Promenade:
The designated dancers is performing a STAR, and the callers states,
Star Promenade, the dancers in the middle place their arm on the back/waist of
the directed dancers and promenade as a couple as directed until the next call
is given. Nominally the directed
dancers are the partners, but it need not be.
Single File Promenade
Promenade 1/2 - We need this both from pass thru facing out
positions and from the static square starting position.
Promenade -
We introduced Promenade as couples and single file promenade. In addition with "Girls"
backtrack, promenades were done with each gender in opposite directions.
Dancer Naming, Boys, Girls, Heads, Sides, 1, 2, 3, and 4,
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Standard Stuff (should be read once, updated
23-SEP-2014):
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For
the WEB online folks, my suggestion is to try the following WEBSites
Hit the "Basic
and MainStream" button to pull up your desired call, ie "Chain
Down the Line", then in the center of the page, Hit the "Play"
button". The dancers will move before your very eyes. Boys are
squares, girls are round.
Select either the Lesson Index or the Call Index. A new menu of sorts appears at the
bottom. For Lesson Index, select the Play
button for what you want to see. For Call Index, select the call
you want to see.