DIAMONDS IN THE ROUGH
BECKET!
Tavi Merril, 2012

Per Tavimerrill.com/originals.html

Diamonds in the Rough (A little challenging)


becket formation
A1.	Partner balance & swing (16) 

A2.	Ladies' chain across (8). with neighbor, 
        look for shadows on the left diagonal. 
        Left diagonal pass through (4) and neighbor California twirl (4)
        to form a diamond with these shadows, 
        ladies facing up and down, gents facing across

B1.	Diamonds balance and spin right; repeat (8,8) 

B2.	Facing same neighbor on the right diagonal: 
        neighbor RH balance and box the gnat (8), 
        gents taking LH to form a diagonal wave 

        Balance the wave and spin right, 
        ladies spinning across to meet your partner progressed (8)


(5/2012) Dancers benefit from knowing that the shadows they pass through with
will be the same two they form the diamond with; waiting out with their
neighbor in A2, they'll reenter with the B2 box the gnat/waves. The right
diagonals in B2 contain the members of the original hands-four, ladies who
chained now back to back in the center. Too little room along the set will
create confusion when forming diamonds, but too much room and dancers may need
to shift left slightly for the chain with new neighbors. See "Diamonds" danced
in Charlotte, NC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9RA-DOENCJo

This dance owes its existence to sharedweight conversations on how some callers
like to end dances with a partner swing. Borrowing a figure from Bob Isaacs'
"Leap of Faith" provided instead a way to end with a dramatic reunion. I'd also
been thinking about the relative rarity of petronella diamonds in new
choreography, and searching for a novel way to form diamonds. Dave Eisenstadter
supplied the idea of a B2 box-the-gnat; many thanks to George Marshall and Jack
Mitchell for helping fine-tune this dance!