Quick to the Draw

January 2006
Longways Becket formation
32 bars of 2/4
Music: Bonnie Kate, also known as Bonnie Cate (in Barnes)

A1	All back-to-back partner (along lines) Women draw poussette opposite halfway around set.
A2	Set to neighbor (across set) and turn single. Four changes of rights and lefts (with hands), beginning with opposite across set.
B1	[last two of four changes] Back to back with opposite.
B2	Men draw poussette partner halfway around set. With hands still joined, partners continue two more steps along the line to progress, setting, then turn single.

Becket formation is a contra-dance formation in which couples face couples across the longways set. It was introduced by Herb Gaudreau in the mid 1950s in a dance called the Becket reel.
Breaks in the music and figures fall in different places. For example, the music switches from the A section to the B in the middle of the four changes. Likewise, the last figure of the dance connects to the first (across the switch of music from B back to A) in that the interaction continues between partners. This is an attempt to make the dance seem "seamless."