Gates for Gretchen

July 2010
Three couples proper longways
32 bars of 6/8
Music: a smooth jig ("Calliope House," for example)

A1	Ones cross and cast below (twos lead up) Gates on the first diagonal.
A2	Actives cross and turn right Gates on the second diagonal
B1	Hey for four on the second diagonal.
B2	Actives dance out through own line to the bottom (threes move up) All partners two-hand turn once.

Notes

The dance is for my wife, Gretchen Pearson. I don't get to dance with her as often as I'd like. Maybe I'll get to dance it with her someday!
In A1, emphasize the curvature of the cast in the "cross and cast." The active couple should loop out and down the outside, not simply dance down the outside. Dancing in after curving out will help the next figure, gates.
In A1, the gates are active lady with second gent and active gent with third lady. The actives are moving forward and they use their left hands in this gate figure (and the next gate figure as well).
In A2, "turn right" means that the active lady dances down the outside and the active gent up the outside. Each active dances around a same-gender neighbor. Think of this figure as ending (transiently) with the active lady at the bottom of the set, between the threes, facing up, and the active gent at the top, between the twos, facing down.
In A2, the gates are active lady with third gent and active gent with second lady. As was the case in A1, the actives are moving forward and they use their left hands in this gate figure.
In B1, the hey involves the same four who were in the last figure. It begins with the actives passing by the right shoulder. The figure ends (transiently) where it begins--with the active lady at the bottom of the set, between the threes, facing up, and the active gent at the top, between the twos, facing down.
At the end of the hey, the actives veer to their own right toward their own lines. For the active lady, this is up, and for the active gent, it is down. Once they dance through their own line, both actives dance down the outside as the threes move up.

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