Note: A2: For each change: with your partner, face the other
couple, pull by your opposite R and courtesy turn your
partner, as in a square dance R & L through
I asked
Scott Higgs about this:
I wanted to ask you about the right and lefts in A2. What is good wording for that,
and how do you do it? Is it a right pull by and
courtesy turn?
Yes. At least, that's what I have danced, and what I teach.
I don't teach it often, but usually a crowd will
figure out "right and left through with a courtesy turn."
If you add teaching hints, I have a couple:
1) for A2, the 2s initiate the sequence by starting to their
right, and keep dancing until they get home. The other couples then get a final
pass. This saves a lot of thinking about what number each couple is, and who you face
(e.g., halfway through, it is not obvious how the 2s and 1s keep track of their
neighbors' identity in order to face eachother ... but it is easy for the 2s to
just keep going)
2) launching the shetland reel is often confusing for people. I
like to set the women up alone for the first time, and to clarify starting
position by having the #2 woman continue her promenade loop so she is behind
woman #3, both facing woman #1. Now if you tell people to dance a right
shoulder hey for three, everyone knows how it unfolds. Men need prompting to
stay very close (but discreetly) behind
their partners. (otoh, I have never tried a dolphin shetland reel -- might be
fun !)
3) forming the set is clear once it's familiar, but I have seen
callers get very tangled-up in trying to describe what they want. When the
dance is unknown, it can be easier to start by asking people to form 3-couple
sets, and then move the sets to the perimeter of the room.
(FWIW, I have often jokingly asked people to form a
Neapolitan circle -- like Sicilian, but with three flavors -- referencing the
label for vanilla/chocolate/strawberry ice cream ...)
NOTE: B2 isn't
really supposed to flow. There's a little break at the end of the B1, so
I like to settle out in the sideline before starting the pass left, turn by left.
NOTE: A1:
break the circle and face your partner before the setting. That will give you a moment of poise to
set right and left. The movement of taking hands again should get you back on
the correct foot to start moving into the circle left. It is stately and
controlled, and the setting is in triple time. Just one of the ways this
is a very easy pattern, but the dance is more difficult than it seems.
B1: (2s get confused and want to TS after they lead up
in B1 bar 2) The 2s will have hands from the lead up, and are all ready to 2
hand turn. Also, donŐt teach the turn single at the end of A2 and cast
down in B1 as 1-1/2. That would make the movement cross the break in the
phrase, and I think there's a break in the movement, too. There are 6
steps for the 1s to TS, then there are 6 steps for the cast to 2nd place, so
that's a long cast, in contrast to the quick 3 step cast for the 1s in B2 bar
2, where Andrew wants everyone back in line in their progressed place for the
final TS in 6 steps.
Notes: Keep the heys in 2nd place, and the casts out of the line of 4 well down to keep the set from creeping up. Twirl holding hands closest to the direction (up or down) that you want to end facing. Dolphin Hey: 1s act as a unit, after the first pass 1st W takes the lead. After the 2nd pass, 1st M takes the lead again.