Other formation Dances
Links to dances on other pages
The Barry Special 
Added 23-Oct-24
Dance and Music: Jill Lawrence, 1981Format: 4 trios (woman, man, woman) in a square numbered clockwise + Odd man in the middle
| A1: | All except odd man join hands: in to the middle and back. Ones and odd man left-hand star, others hey for three half-way — men start right shoulder with right-hand partner. |
| A2: | Into the middle and back again while odd man fall back from ones and come forward. Ones and odd man circle left while others hey for three half-way — men start left shoulder with current left-hand partner. |
| B1: | Odd man and ones: ladies chain over and back while sides wheel to face threes who set to them R and L; sides arch and all cross over (Jill doesn't say which of the four arches the three people go under). Side left ladies go under the right-hand arch and right-hand ladies wheel forwards and man turn right to turn the line inside out, then sides move back to place as threes face down and set. |
| B2: | First man with right-hand partner, odd man with the other partner, ballroom hold and polka once around the other pair, all finishing in home place while third ladies right-hand star with the nearer side couple and 3rd man turn single R and L. Twos, threes and fours basket swing. |
| Second time: Odd man with the twos, etc. | |
| Third time: Odd man with the threes, etc. | |
| Fourth time: Odd man with the fours, etc. | |
| Fifth time: Odd man joins in between the threes and fours: | |
| A1: | All circle left (slip). In to the middle and back. |
| A2: | Circle right. In to the middle and back. |
| B1: | Whole heys for three — odd man hey for four with the fours — I'd assume the men start by passing their right-hand partner right shoulder and the odd man starts by passing the woman on his right right shoulder. |
| B2: | Basket of 13. |
Why would anyone write a dance for 13 people?! Jill explains:
Barry Special was written at the request of a group of dancers from Wales, who come to our County Club, and who have 26 members in their group!
The Cheltenham Merry-go-round Added 19-Oct-24
Dance and Music: Jill Lawrence, 1987Format: Three facing three around the room
| First Figure: | |
| A1: | Circle left (slip). Middles set to L partner; R. |
| A2: | Circle right. Middles set to R partner; L. |
| B1: | Middles pass L partner right shoulder: Hey for three. |
| B2: | Middles right-hand star while ends chain two places: left to each other, right to the next, finishing one place round the square. In new threes, left-hand star. |
| Second Figure: | |
| A1: | Middles side (Cecil Sharp) with L partner while R partner turn single right and left. Middles set to L partner; R. |
| A2: | The same on the other side. |
| B1/B2: | As before. |
| Third Figure: | |
| As Second Figure but arming in place of siding. | |
| Fourth Figure: | |
| As before but back-to-back. | |
| Coda: | |
| A1/A2: | As in first figure. |
For 9 dancers, miss out the Fourth Figure. For 15 dancers add a Fifth Figure with gypsy right and left.
Jill wrote it for groups of one man and two women, but in these gender-free days I've given the instructions without reference to that — it really makes no difference.
For Louise
Dance and Music: Colin Hume, 2022.Format: 3 triples longways.
| A1: | (12 bars): Up a double and back, then the leading row turn around. On the left diagonal (which I'm going to call the first diagonal), half a hey for three: pass R at top, L at bottom, R at top, then middle person turn right. On the second diagonal, half a hey: pass R at bottom, L at top, R at bottom. |
| A2: | Down a double and back, then the leading row turn around. On the first diagonal, half a hey: pass R at bottom, L at top, R at bottom, then middle person turn right. On the second diagonal, half a hey: pass R at top, L at bottom, R at top. (Home.) |
| B: | (12 bars): Outsides circle left half-way (8 steps). Top and middle rows face, join hands in lines and set; cross over to 2-3-1. Middle and left columns set in lines; cross over. |
Repeat the dance twice more to return to starting positions.
My first gender-free dance! Here's how the progression works: the top of the set is at the top of the diagrams. Each time through the top row moves to the bottom and the left column moves to the far right. It's always the same three people in the first diagonal heys; the second diagonal heys are a mystery! The same people start both heys in one turn of the dance, and they're all right-shoulder heys.
But in fact left shoulder heys will work, and facing the wrong way for one or more of the heys will work, and even doing the heys on the wrong diagonal will work provided you do both diagonals, so the main thing is for the middle person to be confident and don't change your mind.
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For Louise Siddons, who has dual nationality — she sounds American but she's now moved back to England. Louise specialises in calling (and teaching other people to call) positional dancing, which means there's no mention of Men and Women, or substitutes for these such as Larks and Robins. I'm planning to stick to (actually) Men and Ladies, but I recognise that if there is to be positional dancing Louise is the ideal person to teach it. When I sent her this and described it as my first gender-free dance she replied, “You realise in my world all your dances are gender-free ;) but I do love that this one is also non-binary!”. I Googled “define non-binary” and indeed the first meaning is “not relating to, composed of, or involving just two things” but all the other references are to people who are neither male nor female. Louise said, “I think the first definition is a useful one when it comes to social folk dance, as it handily describes a subset of dances and formations for which there is not, otherwise, a catch-all term.”
She also asked, “What prompted you to think about a gender-free dance in the first place? In my experience a lot of unusual-number dances are born of necessity (whether real, when only 5 dancers show up, or imagined, as when there are more women than men present).”
In fact it wasn't for a specific situation. I was (for some reason) thinking of a 3 couple dance with a diagonal reel of three and then I realised there were only two people on the diagonal so I thought “Let's see what happens with triples instead of couples”. And then I wanted a reel on the other diagonal and I thought “That makes 12 bars, but that's no problem — I write my own tunes”. And naturally I named the dance and tune “For Louise”.
Read more about Louise at louisesiddons.com.
I called the dance at The Round on February 2nd 2023 and it went very well. My demonstration set danced it perfectly and Spikey Griffiths took the video on the left. Then I had three sets dancing it, and reassured them that we weren't videoing it. There were a few mistakes, but I think everybody finished where they started. John Thoburn — a caller from the States who visits Cambridge on a regular basis — seemed amazed that at the end of the third walkthrough everyone was back in their original place! Afterwards he made the point that not everybody had the chance to be the middle person (which they couldn't in three times through). Sally Vernon (middle front in the blue T-shirt) said the same thing, and suggested the dance should go nine times through. I pointed out that this would involve changing the dance and it would be much more complicated — if anyone wanted to rewrite it they could call it “Not for Louise”! Lying in bed that night I wondered whether changing the amount of the circle left might give people a chance to dance in all nine positions, but the next morning I used my handy Progression Checker and although I tried circling different numbers of places, none of them worked out.
Instead of saying “middles face the left-hand column” it's probably easier to use a landmark such as “face on the clock side”. However John has now pointed out that I called the last part wrongly — it should be changing at the top first and then on the side. You can't trust YouTube videos — even when they're called by the composer! The second video shows the dance called by Louise in Nottingham and she did a better job than me, except that she didn't have people joining hands when setting.
The Gender Balance
Dance: Colin Hume, 1994. Music: 32 bar reels.Format: One man two ladies facing same.
| A1: | Right-hand ladies chain on the left diagonal, and finish with left hands joined with receiving man. Across the set, pull by left to start half a hey with hands — the final change is a left-hand turn half-way for the man and his original left-hand lady. |
| A2: | All that again with new ladies — ending with left hands joined. |
| B1: | Left-hand star with the spare opposite lady about ¾, then men cross right shoulder. Right-hand star with the other two ladies. |
| B2: | Men leave this star to swing your other partner (original left-hand lady), then pick up original right-hand lady with your left arm to make basket of three — end facing a new line, with the ladies reversed. |
I wrote this in 1994, sparked off by discussion in CDSS News, and I've never called it!
Kaleidoscope 
Dance and Music: Colin Hume. Published 1990.Format: Longways, three facing three, with the Odd One (the one of the opposite sex) in the middle.
| A1: | Reel of three across the set: middle person start by passing right-hand partner right shoulder. |
| A2: | Reel up and down the set: all pass opposite right shoulder, left all the way round the next (round an imaginary person at top and bottom of the set), right past opposite again, left around the next. |
| B1: | Middles circle left with the two on their right (their right-hand partner and someone from the other line), finishing in new lines with the odd one in the middle. (This means that the original left-hand dancers have changed lines.) Set in lines; pass through to meet a new line of three. |
| B2: | Those who can, ladies chain across. (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 — which may be on the diagonal.) Set in lines; pass through. |
The dance is a double progression — trios reaching the end just turn round and wait for the second pass through to bring them a new line to dance with. There is more variety of position if some trios are two men and one woman, others are two women and one man (but not uniformly so). Don't let any ladies dance as men.
Some people near the ends of the set may complain that they just oscillated between two positions, but it's all down to where the men and women happen to be.
The Nottingham Jubilee
Dance and Music: Ellen Taylor, 1987Format: Three facing three around the room
| A1: | Circle left. All to the middle and out. |
| A2: | Circle right. All to the middle and out. |
| B1: | Middles right-hand star with the two people on your right. All circle left half-way. |
| B2: | Middles left-hand star with the two people on your left. All circle right half-way. |
| A3: | Middles hey with the two people on your right. |
| A4: | Middles hey with the two people on your left. |
| B3: | Middles face right-hand partner and hey with own partners. |
| B4: | Lines of three forward and back. Pass opposite right shoulder to meet the next threesome. |
Ellen wrote it for groups of one man and two women, but in these gender-free days I've given the instructions without reference to that — it really makes no difference.
Kings Frolic
Dance and Music: Jill Lawrence, 1978Format: One man two ladies, three facing three around the room
| A1: | Men out to the right: circle left with these two ladies. Men to the left: left-hand star with the other two ladies. |
| A2: | Right-hand ladies lead your line half-way round (still facing the same opposite three). Ladies meet in 3 steps, clap on 4th beat; as ladies fall back, men move forward on the left diagonal. |
| B1: | Right elbow swing this lady (about1¾) while spare ladies cross right through the middle. Men left elbow swing own left-hand lady (who has just crossed) while spare ladies cross right — all home. |
| B2: | Half reels of three with hands — men give right to other partner (right-hand lady) to start. Set in lines; men make an arch with (new) right-hand lady, move on to the next trio — ladies have changed sides. |
Note that if the middle person keeps hold of the person making the arch there's only one other person to pick up for the circle.
I would actually call this gender-free, as in “The Nottingham Jubilee” above, and by making the reel four changes rather than three you could put a new person in the middle if you wished.
| A1: | Middles out to the right: circle left with the two people on your right. Middles to the left: left-hand star with the other two. |
| A2: | Right-hand ends lead your line half-way round (still facing the same opposite three). Ends meet in 3 steps, clap on 4th beat; as they fall back, middles move forward on the left diagonal. |
| B1: | Right elbow swing this person (about1¾) while spares cross right through the middle. Middles left elbow with own partner (who has just crossed) while spares cross right — all home. |
| B2: | Half reels of three with hands — middles give right to other (right-hand) partner to start. Set in lines; middles make an arch with (new) right-hand partner, move on to the next trio — ends have changed ends. |
The Poodle-Faker
Dance and Music: Colin Hume. Published 1990.Format: One man two ladies, three facing three around the room
| A1: | Lines of three forward and back. Men go out to the two ladies on their right (one partner, one opposite) with a right-hand star. |
| A2: | Men cross left shoulder into a left-hand star with the other two ladies. Men dance half a reel of three with their own ladies, starting by passing their right-hand lady right shoulder. |
| B1: | Men back-to-back with the lady diagonally left. The same on the right. |
| B2: | Ladies circle left 1½ round the men (who step to each other, swing or discuss the ladies). |
| C: | Men choose either pair of ladies and make a basket with them, opening out with their backs to the other line. (The ladies are now back on their original side.) |
Dedicated to the lovely Rachel Taylor, who once called me a Poodle-Faker. My dictionary defines this as “Youth too much given to tea-parties and ladies' society generally”.
It seemed appropriate to write a dance for one man and two ladies (though some of my friends would have suggested five or six ladies). The three-handed stars are known to Scottish dancers as “tea-pots”.
Die Woaf
Dance and Music: Traditional Austrian (modified)Format: Couple
| A1: | Take butterfly hold (as in The Gay Gordons): two chassées diagonally left; two diagonally right. Without letting go, raise both hands and lady turn right (moving forward all the time) to go clockwise all the way round the man, then turn clockwise to place. |
| A2: | All that again — finish apart, with inside hands joined. |
| B1: | Balance together, apart; man roll the lady across to the other side. Together, apart; roll back. |
| B2: | Ballroom hold: Two chassées forward; two back. Waltz around. |
The original Austrian dance is just the first 8 bars repeated indefinitely. The version I picked up does this twice, and then someone has added the second half to make a 32-bar dance. Some people will see this as the Folk Process; some will see it as sacrilege. If you're in the second group, have a look at these YouTube videos — they're all different!
- Example 1
Rather slow and very serious, with the teacher counting out “ eins, zwei, drei, vier” to try and slow the dancers down and eventually clapping out the four bars. The women rotate clockwise. I'm willing to believe that this is the original version, but I don't believe the Tyrolean villagers would have been so ponderous — they danced because they enjoyed it, not to preserve some precious immutable heritage. - Example 2
Even slower and slightly twee. The women rotate clockwise. Someone has modified it so that after the second time through you move on to another partner and it's now a 16-bar dance (which fits the 16-bar tune). - Example 3
Faster but very twee. The women rotate anti-clockwise. Again a change partner version. Someone has not understood the instruction about the women going all the way round the men. Actually there are several videos of this one, so maybe I'm wrong and this is the real thing. Who knows? The Society for International Folk Dancing has published a non-progressive version where the women go anticlockwise round their partners. - Example 4
Slow and ludicrous. The women rotate anti-clockwise. Presumably the man in the green shirt has been told to keep his eyes on his partner the whole time. They all do the twirling movement in two bars and then do nothing for the other two bars. This video is no longer available. - Example 5
The man in the leading couple sometimes turns while his partner is going round him, and they throw in a bit of the “Gay Gordons”. The women mainly rotate anti-clockwise though at 1:07 the leading woman rotates clockwise. - Example 6
Words fail me.
Having seen all this I have no hesitation in putting forward the above version. I'm sure there were many variations in the tune and dance as it went from village to village and was passed down from one generation to another. I've now written a second half to the tune to bring it up to 32 bars — I doubt that there will be any protest!
