Jeff's Square Dance Related Articles
These are articles related to Square Dancing that I have written. I recently re-found the original WORD files documents for the olders ones. Most of the newer ones have been copied from my archive of "Australian Callers Federation" newsletter "Callerlink", (which I was editor of for several years). The "date" information is based upon the "last save date" of the original documents. Some of the dates might not be correct, but should be close.
PROGRESSIVE SQUARE DANCER CONTRAS
From Callerlink CL218
The Square Dancer Contras are well established as a dance form here in Australia and have proved popular in most states. Like most Aussies, I like to use, (or adapt), the contras authored by David Smythe in the 1990s. One of those adaptions is to turn a ''square dance contra" into a "progressive square dance contra" where dancers swap between multiple lines.
How do you do it? Well remember that in contras have your partner standing across from you in the opposite line, so you have to have your partner next to you before you cross-over the line, then you have to get your partner back into the new opposite line you have moved into.
Let's put it into practice with two pairs of lines, one pair of lines longer than the other:
Starting set up - with two normal pairs of contra lines.
Note that each person has their partner standing across the line from them in facing lines with a contra.
Step 1
Get partners standing next to each other, (in same line)
Step 2
Eveyone Pass Thru
Step 3
"TRADE THE LINES"
Those facing nobody do a partner trade
Those facing another person (in an opposte line) pass thru with that person
Step 4
Get partners back facing each other again
Adapting this to a “Square Dancer Contras”
We’ll take the “Flutter Wheel Contra” (By David Smythe 1991). In it’s original state is:
Figure 1:
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2 LADIES CHAIN
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2 LADIES CHAIN BACK
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PASS THE OCEAN
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SWING THRU
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BOYS RUN
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COUPLES CIRCULATE
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CHAIN DOWN THE LINE
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RIGHT & LEFT THRU
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FLUTTERWHEEL
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REVERSE FLUTTERWHEEL
Do this for maybe 3 or 4 times through. Then modify it to add a bridge between steps (9) and (10) to create the following figure:
Figure2:
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2 LADIES CHAIN
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2 LADIES CHAIN BACK
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PASS THE OCEAN
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SWING THRU
-
BOYS RUN
-
COUPLES CIRCULATE
-
CHAIN DOWN THE LINE
-
RIGHT & LEFT THRU
9. FLUTTERWHEEL (This gets partners together ready to cross over the bridge to the next line)
PASS THRU (One end of the bridge between lines
TRADE THE LINES (The other end of the bridge between lines)
10. REVERSE FLUTTERWHEEL (To undo the partner change of step (9))
You can now go back to the original Figure1 for maybe 3 or 4 times to work dancers in slightly different lines.
Depending on how clever you have been, you can keep switching lines throughout the dance. If you’re really clever you might even get the lines back to the original starting positions.
Most contras don't actually have two consectuve partner change moves that you can cut into like the above contra does. So you will need to add in a separate "Ladies Chain", "Pass Thru", "Trade the Lines" and "Ladies Chain" bridge when you want to progress between lines.
In summary, the technique is simple:
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Take a standard Australian Square Dancer Contra
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Use the standard figure any number of times
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Build in a bridge that (1) swaps partners, (2) which has a “Pass Thru”, has a “Trade the Lines”, and then (3) swaps partner back.
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Continue on with the standard figure any number of times.
Why, you may ask, did this come about? Well as my club kept growing we had a problem! It kept growing to the extent that we had too many dancers for one pair of contra lines. It was no longer possible to fit a standard pair of contra lines up and down from front to back. I could either turn the lines by 90 degrees from left side to right side, OR we could have two pairs of lines next to each other. We adopted the two pairs of lines side by side. Then the idea of swapping between lines just evolved from there.
Jeffrey Garbutt