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COWBOY DANCES |
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calling On to the next, he usually says, Balance home and everybody swing.
At most dances and in most sets this balance home simply means go home or back to position. But with the more experienced dancers they not only go home, but separating from each other in a half curtsy they come together for the swing. At the same time the three other couples in the set balance and swing, that is, face each other and each takes four steps backward and then four steps forward to his partner and then they swing. It makes a graceful and finished maneuver in the set. For the swing, of course, all four couples take the modified dance position and swing around twice in place. He then calls:
Turn the left hand lady With your left hand Then right hand to partner And right and left grand.
This is the same movement they learned in the Circle Two-Step. When they have all done the serpentine right and left and have again reached their partners he calls:
Take your partner And promenade home.
Or, which means the same thing, he may call:
Promenade eight When you come straight.
And each man taking the promenade position with his girl on his right walks counterclockwise around the square and back to his original place.
Before going on with the dance and sending the second couple around the square with the same figure, it is usually found necessary for the caller to straighten out some of the sets who have got badly mixed up. And it is best to take time out until the beginners get their difficulty cleared up.
In spite of the fact that they learned to do the Allemande left (or Swing the left-hand lady with your left hand) in the Circle Two-Step, they often have difficulty executing it in a square with only four couples. And I often find it helpful to walk them through this figure slowly without music until they get the idea fixed. Then too, some couples find it difficult |
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