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Chapter 5 |
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More Squares |
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The Docey-Doe
I
T WAS the customary order at a Western dance to get the sets out on the floor and do two square dances, then do a round dance, then two more squares, and so on through the evening. But gradually the round dances became more and more the modern one-step, fox trot, etc., and the program, following the modern tendency, became mostly round dances with perhaps only two squares called during the whole evening. If you are reviving the old Western dance, keep your round dances in the background and build your programs two to one of squares.
If this is your first dance and you have just tried the Rye Waltz or some simple round dance, call your sets out on the floor for another dance. It is customary to call "Form, your sets for another square" or "Form your sets for a quadrille." And then the caller walks around the floor helping each set to form. If he finds a set lacking a couple he calls "one more two' here" until he fills out the set. And after all the sets are filled, one lone couple may come out on the floor looking for a set, and the caller will help them by calling out, 'Three more 'twos' here, let's form another set. That's the stuff, thank you. Now two more 'twos!' Ah, here comes a couple. Now one more 'two,' please. Come, folks, come, let's get this dance started. One more couple, please." And he goes out and commandeers a couple from the side lines if he has to, and his floor is ready.
Ordinarily he would start the music and swing into a call without letting anyone but his fiddler know what was coming. But this is a first dance, and he will have to pause for a good deal of instruction. Perhaps right now he should teach the docey-doe. |
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