[Noho] May 9th Class

[Bethany Seeger]

Hi,

Just your weekly friendly reminder about dancing tomorrow night.

Last week we learned Trade The Wave, All 8 Spin The Top, and Acey
Deucey. The definitions are below, along with Relay The Deuecy. In Relay
The Deucey, here's a couple of things to note - you always end up with
the person you started with, and the 6 - 4 - 6 "flourish", if you will,
indicates when there are 6 people in a wave in the middle, then 4, then
6 again.

We also talked about making connections as you dance. These come in the
form of hand taps and taking hands with the person next to you. Hand
taps are a way to acknowledge when one move ends and another starts. As
a dancer, it feels good to have that connection before you move onto the
next move, when they're done in rapid succession. You'll get the idea of
how they work as you gain more experience dancing, it's just worth
thinking about now as you become more familiar with the moves. For the
"taking hands with the person next to you", what I mean by this is when
ever you have a chance to, make a wave or join hands as a couple. This
often helps with the next move - i.e.: when you have two diamonds next
to each other and Ken says "wave in the middle, swing through" - you're
ready to go if you've formed a wave already. Just some food for thought.

See you tomorrow,
Bethany

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Copyright 1995,1998,2006 Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
All rights reserved. Used by permission of Tech Squares, MIT.

ACEY DEUCEY: Starting formation – lines. Ends circulate while the
centers trade.

ALL 8 SPIN THE TOP: Starting formation – wrong way thar, right and left
grand circle, or thar star. If started from a thar, the handholds
forming the center star are released as each center dancer and the
adjacent outside dancer arm turn one half (180°). The new centers now
star three quarters (walking forward), while the new outsides move
forward one quarter around the perimeter of the circle to join hands
with the same person again in a thar star formation. If started from a
right and left grand circle, facing dancers step forward to join right
hands and then complete the call as above.

TRADE THE WAVE: Starting formation – any four-dancer ocean wave. Dancers
facing the same direction in the wave trade with each other. Right-hand
waves become left-hand waves and vice versa. Ends of the wave become
centers and vice versa.

RELAY THE DEUCEY: Starting formation – parallel ocean waves. Each end
and the adjacent center dancer turn one-half (180°). The new centers of
each ocean wave turn three-quarters (270°), while the others half
circulate, forming a six-person wave and two lonesome dancers. The wave
of six, working as 3 pairs, turns 1/2, while the others half circulate.
In the wave, the center 4 turn 1/2, while the other four dancers half
circulate. The wave of 6, again working as 3 pairs, turns 1/2, while the
others half circulate. Finally, the center 4 of the wave turn 3/4
(becoming the centers of the new waves), while the outside 4 half
circulate to become the ends of the final waves.