We have two dances coming up this month: December 10 at 7:30
pm at the United Methodist Church Social Hall in Rossford, Ohio and December 31
at the First United Methodist Church Social Hall in Troy, Michigan. The dances use the church social halls but
they are not affiliated with the religious organizations. Everyone is invited
to attend. It’s not necessary to bring a
partner. More information can be found
on our website
http://www.GoldenGriffonStringtet.com/performances.htm
Whether it’s called an old-time dance, community dance,
square dance, hoe-down or contra dance, these events usually follow a similar
format and use music and dances that follow the same rules: dances are sixty
four beats long, consisting of as few as four or as many as sixteen figures or
movements. Most figures are eight beats
long. A few are four beats long, some
are twelve and some are sixteen but the majority are eight beats long. Dancers go through a set of figures
interacting with one group of dancers then move on to repeat the figures with a
new group of dancers. A simple dance of
this sort would be:
Circle left (8 beats)
Circle right (8)
Right hand star (8)
Left hand star (8)
Do si do your neighbor (8)
Do si do your partner (8)
Four steps forward and four steps back (8)
Pass through on to the next (8)
The music that accompanies the dance follows this same
pattern: thirty-two bars or measures of music consisting of sixty-four beats
divided into eight phrases that are each eight beats long. Dancers take one step for every beat of the
music. Dancers listen to the music and
use the phrases as musical cues to indicate when it’s time to start a new
figure. While the music we play is
instrumental, a vocal example to help illustrate this concept would be to use
the song “Jingle Bells” for this dance.
Capitalized syllables and asterisks represent the beats or places where
dancers would take a step.
Circle left (DASHing THROUGH the SNOW * in
a ONE horse Open SLEIGH * )
Circle right (OE’R the FIELDS we GO *
LAUGHing ALL the WAY * )
Right hand star (BELLS on BOBtail RING *
MAKing SPIRits BRIGHT * what)
Left hand star (FUN it IS to RIDE and SING a SLEIGHing SONG
to NIGHT OH)
Do si do your neighbor (JINgle BELLS JINgle BELLS JINgle ALL
the WAY *)
Do si do your partner (OH what FUN it IS to RIDE in a ONE
horse Open SLEIGH * )
Four steps forward and four steps back (JINgle BELLS JINgle
BELLS JINgle ALL the WAY *)
Pass through on to the next (OH what FUN it IS to RIDE in a
ONE horse Open SLEIGH * )
This might seem complicated but it is actually much easier
to do than it is to think about. The
music is lively and energetic. All the dances are always taught before they are
danced to music and the caller provides clear, spoken, prompts throughout the dance
to help everybody stay on track. Come on out!
