Set and Link Contras
It occurred to me recently that I don’t think there are any contra dances that feature a set and link figure. This is a figure from Scottish Country Dancing¹ which follows this sequence (for the purpose of this description I assume dancers are in contra dance formation becket, on the side with their partner):
- Couples face the other couple across the set, taking convenient hands with their partner along the side
- All balance right and left (4 beats)
- All turn over their right shoulder as they trade places along the side of the set with the larks going through the middle and robins casting round the outside (4 beats)
It could be thought of as a petronella twirl for two or, perhaps, as a mad robin halfway with twirling. If none of those descriptions work for you, there’s also a video of the figure in action².
Contra dance is fairly omnivorous in borrowing figures from other forms. We’ve taken “right shoulder round” and “mad robin” from English Country Dance, “pass the ocean” and “box circulate” from Modern Western Square Dance, just to name a few that I know off of the top of my head. So I figured I’d try my hand at writing a couple set and link dances, starting with a very simple move introduction:
Balance the ring
Petronella twirl
Balance the ring
Petronella twirl
Each time through after the first, the set and link should start with a big balance to the right to progress to new neighbors
And a slightly more complex, but still accessible, one:
Robins alle L 1½
Partner swing
Pass through up and down
Next neighbor DSD
Can also be done in becket by starting with B2, skipping the pass through, and changing to a slide left progression at the end.
I danced these through with a few dancers in a living room and they worked. I was worried the “Set And Link Contra” wasn’t appropriate for any crowd, being too simple and repetitive for an experienced dance but too tricky for beginners. Some of my test dancers agreed, but others thought that it was satisfying enough to dance to work – which I could see maybe working for a late evening brain-off-dance-trance vibe.
A few open questions I have about these dances:
- In “Set And Link Contra,” is the big balance right to progress satisfying or awkward? We didn’t have enough dancers to test the progression. A different option might be to make it Becket CW and slide left, then balance back to the right. (I suspect slide right, balance right would feel too muddy.)
- Balance right and left as a couple isn’t natural to contra dancers. Is there a way to lead into it that makes it more natural? (Notably: a couple of my test dancers had done at least a little Scottish and they both liked it, but one dancer who had only done contra found it awkward.)
- Alternatively is there a different way of doing that balances that would be more at home in a contra? I think balancing together and away wouldn’t give good momentum into turning over the right shoulder, but perhaps balancing in and out in a ring would work?
- In “Broken Link,” I’m still not sure if the set and link into a robins left hand allemande sequence feels good. When I tested it myself it felt flowy in a weaving sort of way, but some of my test dancers reported it was awkward. We didn’t take time to workshop it to see if the flow felt better once the set and link was more familiar.
I’ve danced it in at least one English Country Dance as well, but I’m reasonably confident it originates in Scottish Country Dance and when I asked some Scottish dancers about it, one of them rustled up a note attributing it to Scottish Dance choreographer Alec Hay. ↩︎
The video is to strathspey music, which is a fairly leisurely type of Scottish dance, but it can also be done in quick-time, closer to contra dance tempo. ↩︎