Sleepless Spirals

December 2005
Duple minor longways, improper
32 bars
Music: not settled

A1	All set to partner, turn single, and two-hand turn.
A2	All set to neighbor, turn single, and right shoulders round.
B1	Circle left four hands once around. Circulate single file along the lines (the entire set in a large oval, ladies ahead of their neighbors).
B2	ladies turn back over right shoulder & two-hand turn neighbor once and a half. Single file back along lines until each person is opposite partner.

Music: I've tried a number of tunes with this dance, including The Mulberry Garden (a leisurely jig) and Greensleeves played as a waltz. Naturally, the dance is different as a jig (with 32 bars containing two dancing beats each) or a waltz (with 32 bars of three dancing beats each). I think I like the waltz better, but it works either way.
What I like about this dance is the progression--the circulation along lines, changing places with neighbor, and returning to progressed place opposite partner. I was inspired by a contra dance that featured this progression. I remember that Nils Fredland called it at the Rochester Thanksgiving weekend festival, 2005, but I didn't remember the name of the contra dance. (Since then I learned that it is "Gang of Four" by the late, great Gene Hubert.) It occurred to me that it would be nice to put such a progression into an English style dance. This was the first of my own dances I dared to call in public.
The spirals in the title refer to the ever widening clockwise motion from the end of A2 through B1: turn single, right shoulders round, circle of four, and whole-set circulation. The sleepless part comes from an episode of insomnia during which I put the sequence together.
B1: The motion along the lines continues the clockwise motion of the circle of four. It is circulation in a large oval comprising the whole set, ladies in front of their neighbors, bending around the ends of the set.

Here is a contra dance version, with an English-style set and turn single.

A1	Ones balance & swing.
A2	All set to neighbor, turn single, and right shoulders round.
B1	Circle left once around. Circulate single file along the lines (the entire set in a large oval, ladies ahead of their neighbors).
B2	ladies turn back over right shoulder & swing neighbor. Single file back along lines until opposite partner.