Hi Alan,
Sorry for what is really a slow response. 
Fisher's Jig
Tom Hinds
Becket
A1-On Left Diagonal for those who can (i.e. not at ends) Right and Left
Through / Straight across: Right and Left Through (Together these figures
are called a bucksaw, although few here know the term)
A2-Hey for 4: full hey, ladies start by the right shoulder
B1-Ladies meet again in the center and swing each other
B2-Partner Balance and Swing
Note:  change the same gender swings to men swing each other at will. I vary
it back and forth from women to men swing each other.
Never fails to yield a great increase in energy. Pretty easy and very well
received.
Rickey Holt,
Fremont, NH

-----Original Message-----
From: Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing
[mailto:winston@slac.stanford.edu] 
Sent: Friday, May 29, 2009 6:41 PM
To: tradcaller
Cc: trad-dance-callers@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [trad-dance-callers] Re: Gender Free Dances

Rickey wrote:

> (1) OK, Maybe I'm a sucker for names but I have to ask but
> ...Falling Masonry, Up the Sides and Down the Middle, Around One, and
> Three Meet from Alan and Back Road to Ayer, and Air Pants, from Donna?
> Can any of you folks post these dances? Of these the only one I have
> even heard of is Three Meet.

Mine are all out of the English Ceilidh (or barn dance) tradition.  Note
that
they are thus English dances with swings (although "Three Meet" has only a 
basket swing, and there are no neighbor swings).

Falling Masonry
Easy, ceilidh
4-couple longways; 32-bar jigs.

A1: Hands in lines, forward and back, drop hands, cross over, stay facing
out.
    (Variants possible here with arching).

A2: Hands in lines, backward into the set (touching glutes optional),
forward,
    drop hands, cross backward (same shoulder) into original lines.

B1: "Falling Masonry" figure (like a collapsing chimney):
     Tops gallop down while everyone else moves up (important);
     new tops the same, until all four have galloped down.
     (A new couple starts every two bars).

B2: 1s to the bottom again, others move up, all swing when you arrive
    in progressed place.

(From Jonathan Coxhead's calling and my memory, but I think John Kirkpatrick
invented it.)

Fun, easy dance.

----------------------------


UP THE SIDES AND DOWN THE MIDDLE (CDM, own tune or any bright jig)
[_Serpentiner_ is very, very nice with this.]
Collected in Symondsbury; there's a name tune which has a jig part and
a reel part, bu it doesn't really matter.

Long set for four to six couples.

A1: Step-swing balance in lines twice; cross over with polka step.

A2: Repeat to places

B1: (Reel time) 1s down the middle (walking, 8 bars) while 2s lead a single
    cast (polka step) down, then up through the 1s moving arch.

B2: Swing partners.

(Repeat until 1s at top again).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

AROUND ONE
by the great Hugh Ripon, from his collection "The Willow Tree"  Easy,
ceilidh
3-couple longways, 32-bar New England single reels
(Gives "reel de Ti-Jean" and "Green Mountain Petronella")  I last called
it with Gaspe Reel, which works fine.


A1: Lines go forward and back then cross to the other side THUS:
      middles turn right hand one and a half WHILE
      ends do a half right and left four around them (hence the title)

A2: Repeat to place.

B1: Right hand star for six; left hand star for six. (He's not expecting
    a wrist-grip star, although you could do it if you did it for contra
    dancers.)

B2: 1s down the middle to the bottom while the others move up and swing.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

THREE MEET (CDM-3) Sicilian circle for threesomes.

Forward and back in lines, then forward and promenade by threes around each
other, trios staying face to face.
Repeat back to place.
Circle six left, then right (or elbow swing each partner)
Progress via a basket with pivot step.

(I called this with some success at a greatly-imbalanced contra recently.)




> (2) As far a "gender free", how about dances where men dance
> with men and women with women - like Family Contra by Sheri Nevins
> or Fisher's Jig by Tom Hinds, not just women dancing men's roles
> or the reverse.  I can trade these last two for directions to the dances
> listed above if anybody needs them

Family Contra has come by on this list several times, but I don't know
Fisher's Jig.  I'm curious about "Air Pants" too.

-- Alan

-- 
============================================================================
===
 Alan Winston --- WINSTON@SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
 Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL   Phone:
650/926-3056
 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA
94025
============================================================================
===


