My secret weapon, in more ways than one.
First of all, it's an English Country Dance infection vector. The A1 is directly lifted from the dance "We'll Wed and We'll Bed" (Since bowdlerized into the title "Dublin Bay.") Then it adds a second ECD move, the cloverleaf turn single. (The cloverleaf turn single is a go-nowhere-in-four-beats figure, so even doing it wrong won't mess things up.)
And then the dance manages the dual impossibility of being very forgiving yet very distinctive. This raw simplicity pushes it above any of the other handful of contra dances that steal the same down-the-hall variation.
This is a dance of last resort -- if I pull out this one, chances are high I'm going all out to provide the best possible recovery to wash away any bad feelings about the previous dance.
Instructions for the dance can be found in the
book "Give and Take," as well as "The Rosen-Hill
Collection." The latter is a very good book. The
first you should already own.
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