written by Mike Richardson
11/22/02
contradance to a 2 part slip jig, such as “Hardiman the Fiddler”
duple, longways, improper

part moves beats
A1. Swing neighbor (12)
A2. Down hall 4 in line, turn alone (6)
Return and bend the line to a circle (6)
B1. Circle L x 3/4) (6)
Dosido partner (on women’s side) (6)
B2. Swing partner (12)
(Men pass left shoulders on way to their next neighbor)

Notes

  1. It is wondrous dancing to slip jigs. There is something about the 9/8 time signature that inexorably pulls dancers through the figures as if they were hooked to an 18-wheeler. As a fiddler, I had played these tunes for years, but never danced to one until Penn Fix called Gene Hubert’s “Fan in the Doorway” at Camp Wannadance years ago. It was such a great experience that I vowed to write dances for some of the other fine slip jigs in the fiddle repertoire.
  2. This dance will work with almost any 2-part slip jig, but works especially well with “Hardiman the Fiddler”.
  3. At the end of B2, the women have progressed, but the men have not. The men’s progression as written in B2 above actually happens during the first beat of A1 as the two men walk past each other.
  4. I suggest warning the band not to play the tune too fast. Many musicians only play slip jigs in jams sessions at a mile a minute, and will have the dancers racing across the floor.
  5. Before starting the dance, it is  worth asking the band to demonstrate their slip jig "potatoes" for the dancers, i.e. the notes they will play to start the dance.  Expect some blank looks from most musicians.  I suggest that they play something along the lines of "diddly-dum-dee-dum".

Hardiman the Fiddler