Dances with a Difference, Volume 3

Book by Colin Hume, published 1990.

CD by The Rampions, published 1995.

Musicians: Gil Howell, Martin Howell,
John McGeachen, Gill Willis,
Paul Roberts, Brian Smith.

Links to instructions

Print all instructions
The Valentine's Day Massacre
Janet Murphy's Delight
Ten Year Tested
Kaleidoscope
The Fifth Dimension
Good Humour
Under New Management
Dutch Crossing
A Trip to Sweden
A Trip to Morland
Colin's Back
The New Man
The Poodle-Faker
Helena

The book is now out of print, so the above list gives links to the instructions for the dances, allowing you to print them all in one go or as individual dances. Apart from a few corrections and amplifications I've left the wording as I wrote it in 1990.

Introduction

I've heard it said that in every Pat Shaw dance there's an easy bit. Similarly it seems that in every Colin Hume dance there's a disorientating bit. Dancers still won't believe that when it's one of mine they really can't switch off and go onto autopilot. But for those dancers (and musicians) who don't want everything standardised, here's my third selection of Dances with a Difference. No doubt people will now start asking when I'm going to produce a record of the music — and my answer will be: “when I've sold all the records of Volume 1 and Volume 2!” So you know what to do now.

[There is now a CD of the music for all these dances by The Rampions.]

I've written the dances out as I would call them, rather than in a technical language which each caller will then have to translate into English. I've tried to make the instructions clear without being too pedantic. Unless otherwise stated, each section is eight bars long. A full stop (period) marks the end of a four-bar phrase; a semicolon marks the end of a two-bar phrase.

Corrections to the printed book

The Valentine's Day Massacre — page 3

Key signatures missing on second line (two sharps) and fourth line (one sharp).

Kaleidoscope — page 7

Provided you open out the circles with the odd one in the middle (that's why it's in upper-case) the line will be either man-lady-man or lady-man-lady. Therefore each line contains a man with a lady on his right, and these are the four who do the ladies chain. I should have mentioned that the chain may be on the diagonal.

Good Humour — page 10

I called this as the final dance at Southam in 2011 and got it wrong! To clarify things, the figure eight movement in B1 starts with the men moving out and the ladies in.

Dutch Crossing — page 13

The last-but-one bar of the C-music should be a first-time bar.

A Trip to Morland — page 17

Key signatures missing on second and third lines (one sharp). C music bars 1 and 3 should end with a minim (half-note) not a crotchet (quarter-note).

The New Man — page 20

The promenade in C1 is with the same person you swung — your new partner for the next turn of the dance.

August 2011