House of Love – DI – Don Veino 20170529

Type: Contra, Duple Improper
Status: Proven

This is a re-imagining of my dance Soft Gummy Tummies to provide everyone partner and neighbor swings plus allow for greater tune flexibility. Note the A-parts marching direction is reversed here vs. SGT in order to ease the A2 swing entry. An alternate approach is to have the marching start CW and continue CW all the way around the 4 sides of the box back to the start – but I prefer it as written below.

The title for this dance was supplied by our 5 year old daughter Raeden and she made this illustration to go along with it (I’m the tall guy on the right pushing the swing):House of Love drawing

A1
(Facing CCW around your hands/4 – think of the hands/4 as a box with the dancers at the corners)
(4,4) March 4 steps & turn 90 deg. left, march 4 steps more & turn to face center
[have walked around 2 sides to opposite the starting spot, facing back at original spot]
(4,4) Take 4 steps to center, loop/turn single over right shoulder to face CW back at this corner spot

A2
(Facing CW around your hands/4)
(4,4) March 4 steps & turn 90 deg. right, march 4 steps more & Ladies turn back over right shoulder
[have walked around same 2 sides back to starting corner spot]
(8) Neighbor Swing

B1
Give & Take to Gents, Partner Swing
[Alternate tune fit: Ring Balance, Gents draw Partner back to Swing]

B2
(4,4) Ring Balance, Petronella Twirl/Slide Right
(4,4) Ring Balance, Pass Through Up/Down

Tune: Softly Good Tummas still works. For others suggest bouncy/march tunes, e.g.: Keith Murphy’s Reign of Love, The Wren, Burning of the Piper’s Hut, etc.
Video: First test at the Berlin, MA Country Orchestra dance 6/3/2017

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2 Responses to House of Love – DI – Don Veino 20170529

  1. Don says:

    From testing the first draft of this dance, I note some (newer) dancers were quite literal in taking the full 4 steps in each segment of the marching. I’d originally expected them to rush the A2 last leg to get into the B1 Neighbor Swing, but they appeared to be taking the full 8 beats of marching such that some Ladies would turn back ~beat 9 for an abbreviated Swing. I intend to try the following A parts variation so that the Swing should be more timely:

    A1
    (Facing your Partner across – think of the hands/4 as a box with the dancers at the corners)
    (4,4) March 4 steps passing your P by right across & turn 90 deg. to face N along, march 4 steps more past N & turn to face center
    [have walked around 2 sides to opposite the starting spot, facing back at original spot]
    (4,4) Take 4 steps to center, mirror loop/turn single over inside shoulder (so you could wink at your P if you wished) to face the other way back at this corner spot

    A2
    (Facing your N on the side)
    (4,4) March 4 steps passing N & turn 90 deg. to face across, march 4 steps passing P & face N on side
    [have walked around same 2 sides back to starting corner spot]
    (8) Neighbor Swing

    • Don says:

      Tested this variation at the Concord, MA Monday Contras dance on 6/5/17 and it appeared to be much more difficult for some dancers to keep the sequence straight. The swing entry was quicker for those that “got it” but the folks having difficulty ended up needing to figure out where to be – never mind getting a short swing. I asked dancers who were at both events which they preferred and all of them liked the first version in the main body of this post – case closed!

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