written by Mike Richardson
3/3/88
contradance
duple, longways, improper

part moves beats
A1. With neighbor, balance and swing on sides of set (16)
A2. Long lines forward and back (8)
Ladies allemande right once and a half in center (8)
B1. Women swing their partners on the sides (16)
B2. Men dosido once (8)
Circle left 3/4 (6)
Pull by up and down the set, progressing to new neighbor {(2)

Notes

  1. in B1, an alternative that I now prefer is to balance and swing partners.
  2. Written to commemorate our local weekly free dance at the New Melody Tavern, located in the Ballard district of Seattle. It is here that many Seattle dancers, callers and musicians have learned their craft. Music and calling for the dance is done by whoever shows up that night. Some direction is given to the evening by one lead caller and one lead musician, who are chosen from a rotating pool of "on call" musicians and callers. I think of this particular dance as a sort of "magic wellspring" which is directly responsible for the large number of dancers, callers, musicians, and dances that we have in Seattle.
  3. When I first began to write dances, I went through a phase where each successive dance became more complex than the last, resulting in dances that were not fun for anyone to do. I wrote this one in reaction to that complexity. It is a simple dance with lots of slack in it for newcomers, but also with some nice transitions in it for more experienced dancers. I still occasionally write dances that are too weird to foist upon the dancing public, but I also continue to strive for simpler story lines like the one in this dance.