On Jan 30, 2012, at 11:59 AM, barb kirchner wrote:

> gleeful threesome, by ?  kirsten koth  ?

So far as I know "Gleeful Threesome" is by Christy Keevil,
not Kirston Koths (note correct spelling of the latter'e
name, btw).

A description appears in Larry Jennings' book _Give-and-Take_
(p. 163) under the title "Wild Waves"--a name invented "with
apologies to the genuine composer" by Larry, who had not
managed to identify title and composer by the time of
publication.

Here's a description of the dance.  I've borrowed many of
Larry's words but been somewhat more verbose, added
numbers of beats for the figures, and made one change
(see note below) to the ending.

Start in large circle of trios in waves, center person
facing cw, others ccw.

   1. Balance waves (4), those with R hands joined almd R 1x (4).
   2. Balance waves (4), those with L hands joined almd L 1x (4).
3&4. Hey for three (pair of phrase 1 starting by R shoulder) (12),
      balance waves (4).
   5. All promenade individually in direction faced (i.e., center
      dancer of each wave goes cw around big circle while end
      dancers go ccw) and turn alone (8).
   6. Promenade individually to meet original group (8).
   7. Circle L (8)
   8. Circle R 1/2 (4) and pop original center person cw under an
      arch made by the other two to form new waves of three (4).

Note: Larry's description of the last 8 beats of the sequence
reads "8. Cir three R & pop any ind cw ..."  I learned the
dance from Charlie Fenton, whose card for the dance (which he
believes he got from Penn Fix over 25 years ago) reads
"Circle R 1/2 (ends crossed - that's OK); pass thru to next."

     So [Charlie says] in the version I have, the center person
     always stays in the center and progresses CW, while the
     outside 2 people swap ends but stay together as they
     progress CCW.

I'm guessing (though I don't have any other confirmation) that
that's Christy's original version.  Note that if dancers take
turns popping through the arches, they will often find themselves
reuniting with the people they danced with in previous rounds.


Charlie also notes that he has sometimes noticed dancers who
are unfamiliar with heys for three and may need a bit of extra
teaching, even though they have no trouble with heys for four.

During the walkthrough of another dance done in lines of three,
I once heard the caller refer to the "center people" (meaning
the person in the middle of each line of three) and observed
some dancers who apparently thought he was referring to the
people nearest the center of the hall.

     *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *    *

Here's a video of "Gleeful Threesome" as performed by several
groups of costumed Italian children:

     http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyztneh4N1o

The groups aren't dancing identical versions of the choreography.
Some circle to the right in phrase 7.  The balance after the
hey for three is generally omitted, and one group has simplified
the dance further by eliminating the hey and simply having
dancers step while turning around in place.

--Jim






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