slightly silly dances

Subject: slightly silly dances
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 04:42 AM

Me again.
In a two hour dance club I always try to do a bit serious, but then I've found the group quite like a fun/ silly/ not too difficult dance. I've used all my repetoire of those now - heel toe/dishcloth/ square strip the willow/ teapot so can anyone recommend any more.
Thanks
Flora.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 05:07 AM

some lack of ambition revealed here .....why go 'slightly silly' when there are so many 'completely insane' alternatives?

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: banjoman
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 07:48 AM

Most dances are silly if you really think about it. I am sure that you will find some way to keep the silliness in all you do.

Love - Pete

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Long Firm Freddie
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 08:02 AM

You might like to consider The Dashing White Privates from Sid Kipper's site:

Privates

THE DASHING WHITE PRIVATES

A DANCE FROM THE VILLAGE OF ST JUST-NEAR-TRUNCH



Tune - Any 48 bar jig with stops.

Formation - 4 couples longwise.


Figure 1      STARS

       Right hand star (4 bars)

       Left hand star (4 bars)

       Both hand star (8 bars)

(This represents a couple meeting and getting to know each other)



Figure 2      CROMER PROMENADE (8 bars)

       Double cast, in Cromer promenade hold (both partners hug each other, and shuffle along as best they can).

(This represents the couple going back to her place for a bit)



Figure 3      DO-SHE-DO OR DO-SHE DON'T? (8 bars)

       Pass right sides, return right sides (Do she don't)

       Pass right sides, return left sides (Do she do)

(This represents her playing hard to get, but he gets round her in the end)



Figure 4      BACKWARDS & FORE (8 bars)

       End Do She Do holding hands along row, close together.

       Four steps back and four steps forward, twice.

       On second occasion as lines come together they cry "Oh!"

(This represents them getting to know each other a lot better, till her parents come into the room and surprise them)



Figure 5      WINDOW SILL (8 bars)

       Top couple form a window sill, and all the others jump over it and cast.

       The bottom couple, however, have to go off and join the top of another set.

(They are now a loose man and a loose woman, and must run away from home)



Now do it all over again.

LFF

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 09:03 AM

How about a Copycat dance. In a square or small circle (to suit number of dancers. You can make up the first 16 bars worth (turn partner, turn neighbour / do-ce-dos etc.whatever).
Bar 9-16 couple 1 steps in and the others circle left & right.
Bar 17-24 1st couple does something (maybe a swing in a particular hold, maybe something different)
bar 25-32 the other couples copy.
I'll pm you another that I use (since I don't like putting other people's work up in public)It's called Jiggilywig by Colin Andrews annd is very simple until you actually dance it, when it's completely disorientating.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 09:22 AM

Some here
I like Star Trek.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 09:23 AM

If you log in as FloraG (without a .) you'll find my pm.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 11:35 AM

Further afield - I always found the Bacup Nutters more than a little silly - and offensive
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: GUEST,floraG
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 02:59 PM

Thanks to all so far. Its mainly a ladies dance group so the dances need to work in a non sexist way.
We visited Trunch. Its realy a very nice village with a welcoming pub.
FloraG

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 12 Mar 12 - 07:22 PM

At an advanced American Square dance club I used to go to, they had two callers.

The first one would get all the dancers mixed up, in the wrong place with the wrong partner and often swapped places guy for gal.

Then he would hand the mic over to the other guy who would have to get them all back in their rightful places, before the end of the dance.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 07:18 AM

Sounds like fun, Bert. And all without a walk-through.
White-knuckle-calling.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: GUEST,Working Radish
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 10:16 AM

Mo - any chance of describing the Jiggilywig in non-copyright-infringing terms? I'm deeply intrigued.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Marje
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 10:34 AM

"Ninepins" is quite a fun dance - it's a square set with an extra person in the middle, who tries to grab a partner in a free-for-all figure at the end of the moves, after which a new person is left in the middle.


If the dancers wish to add a bit of silliness, the active couple/threesome can always mess up something like Cumberland Square Eight or Three Around Three by galloping off into another set and taking the place of the lead couple/three in that set, who are then forced to do likewise ....

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 03:37 PM

The confusing bit in Jiggiliwig is that the working couple face it other and (dividing the set across the diameter ) half follow the man (clockwise), half follow the lady (anticlockwise) in single file round the set.
Simple.
But as the working couple changes each time you may be going the other way next time, and it feels completely unpredictable.
In theory 6 go one way, 6 the other, but you can end up with any number. I've seen everyone marching in the same direction (and get home in time to swing partner).

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 03:39 PM

The confusing bit in Jiggiliwig is that the working couple face EACH other.

I used preview and still only saw it just after pressing Submit.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 05:13 PM

The trouble with slightly silly dances is that folks might not get that they are supposed to be humorous and instead find them embarassing. (or however you spell that)

I suggest you announce that "We will now rest our tired brains and do something absurdly simple..." such as

Here we go looby loo
The Chicken Dance
Jack on the Ball.

Such dances aren't all foolishness. You could work on posture, balance, style and showmanship while doing them. For example, in Looby Loo, when we 'turn ourselves about,' you could coach people to do it

like a ballet dancer
like a Highland dancer
like somebody doing the Charleston
like an Irish step dancer

I think it might be fun.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 05:58 PM

It was fun Mo.

We used to do silly things as dancers too; such as doing a random 'turn thru' in the middle of a right and left grand, which would put you going the wrong way and ending up dancing with a same sex partner somewhere different in the square.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 13 Mar 12 - 06:14 PM

something like this

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: GUEST,FloraG
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 06:52 AM

Thanks Bert - a bit beyond my calling yet but i get the idea.
FloraG

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 09:36 AM

I couldn't quite make out what the caller was saying, but noticed the 1st couple changing places with partner and dancing the rest improper. Was that their own idea or did the caller say so?

I did some of that for a few months (till our daughter's canoe class changed night and we couldn't go). At Ranch House SQuares in Manchester. occassionally a man would borrow his wife's petticoat and dance in the ladies place.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 11:14 AM

Mo, that woman didn't know the dance and was lost. That's the kind of thing that happens to me all the time.

(I couldn't understand the caller either.)

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 11:52 AM

That was their own (actually the guy in the white shirt's) idea Mo, otherwise the woman would not have got lost. She found herself unexpectedly going in the wrong direction in the wrong position. They soon recovered. You can see the guy waiting for her to figure out where she should be.

The video sound wasn't very good because it was picking up all of the room noise. It would have sounded much better if if you were dancing.
Actually if you listen to it a few times you can figure most of it out, but bear in mind that you won't know some of the calls.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 12:33 PM

Leenia, American Square Dancers never actually 'know' a dance. They just learn the movements and follow the caller. None of those dancers knew which movement the caller was going to call next.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: saulgoldie
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 12:45 PM

Don't know if it fits. But how can you talk about silly dances without mentioning the "Hokey Pokey??" (It really *is* what it's all about.)

Saul

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 01:00 PM

Thread drift Here's a good American Squares website

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 01:09 PM

Right saul. And don't forget Knees up Mother Brown, also Boomps a Daisy.

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Mo the caller
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 02:42 PM

The bit I noticed, after a man was left without a partner, was the guy in the white shirt changing sides with his partner.

Being a troublemaker is fun sometimes (in the right company, and they were all experts).

Subject: RE: slightly silly dances
From: Bert
Date: 14 Mar 12 - 06:26 PM

You are right Mo, they were all very good dancers, bloody good caller too.

Another way you can get silly with the dancers, even with simple movements, is with a promenade mixer.

'Promenade all over the floor
anywhere all over the floor,
find two more and circle four'

Then you can call any movements that they know, like
ladies chain,
four hand star,
do sa do, (American callers used to use the do si [see] do pronunciation to refer to the four handed do si do, and the old Texas style do si do was changed to do paso.),
right and left thru,
swap and swing, ('now we'll swap and now we'll trade, your pretty girl for my old maid, an even swap an even switch your pretty girl for my old witch' or 'I'll swing your girl, you swing mine, gee oh golly ain't that fine, I've got yours but she's too thin so gimme back mine we'll swing again')
half sashay

Then you can teach new stuff from a circle four position or can find four more and circle eight or getting really silly find TWO more and circle six.

Hey it's fun remembering all this stuff.