Duple improper contra dance Double Progression

A1: Balance neighbor right hand; Box the gnat
    Start right once around to next neighbor along

A2: Balance new neighbor left hand; Swat the flea
    Star left once around

B1: Women drop out on home side while men allemande left 1-1/2 to partner
    Swing partner on side

B2: Women allemande Right once around, pull by left with partner
    Men pull by right in center, allemande left with neighbor 1-1/4 to next neighbor

David Kaynor and I wrote the first half of this dance one evening at Sue Songer’s house while we were playing music and never finished it. That was the Fall of 2010. Then he went east and I stayed west and we each finished the dance in our own way. So if you find a very similar dance by David with a different name, that’s why. I borrowed the B2 from Steve Zakon-Anderson’s dance Southern Swing.

One problem with the dance is that the first progression happens early and the second at the end of the dance. So there is almost always a couple waiting out. I thought of “fixing” that by starting the dance at the current A2, but that would lose the symmetry of the dance. So I decided to leave it this way and consider it a chance for a couple to rest.

Skip Morey is a contra and English dancer here in the Portland area. Skip has danced all around the country for many years and is a delightful presence on any dance floor. He came up to me one evening to show me that the name button he has worn to dances for years had developed a beautiful layer of rust on the back from the many hours of warm, humid conditions it has endured pinned to Skip’s shirt.