Box the Gnat ~ The Running Set

Box the Gnat ~ Quicksand Box the Gnat ~ The Running Set

The Kentucky Running Set is the name Sharp gave to a style of dancing he found in the Southern Appalachians when he visited in 1917. The locals called the dances square dances even though they were often danced in large circles. Sharp, however, describes squares, and this is an attempt to follow his description.

One common figure is something called "do-si-do" (which is nothing like the back to back figure I grew up with). I use the term "do-si" for the figure "do-si-do" to distinguish it from the modern usage, (Sharp also did this).

Sharp's version of the "do-si-do" is different from that Ida Levin describes in Kentucky Square Dances, 1928, and different again from what Lloyd Shaw describes in Cowboy Dances, 1939

Two couples face. Men turn their partners half-way round with left hands, pass each other by the right (moving sideways, right shoulders forward, back to back), turn their contraries half-way round with right hands and return to places, passing each other by the left (back to back, left shoulders forward). This movement, which is known as the Do-si-do or the Do-si, is then repeated.

At the conclusion of the repetition, men turn their partners once round with left hands, cross hands with them and dance round a small circle, counter-clockwise, each couple breaking off and proceeding to its original station.

The half turns in the Do-si-do must be executed at great speed and with bent arms, each performer describing as small a circle as possible. In crossing over between the turns the men should arch there backs and pass as closely to each other as they can.

Sharp mentions that these dances are always called: Normally, the caller recites certain prescribed verbal phrases, a mixture of prose and doggerel rhyme that, in the course of time, has become stereotyped. Sharp provides an appendix with the calls used at one of the dances he saw. Sadly the calls he gives for the introduction don't appear to match the figure he describes.

This style of dance begins with a common introduction:

• Circle left
• Partner two hand turn
• Corner two hand turn
• Promenade home
• Heads circle four
• and do-si
• Left hand turn and promenade home
• Sides circle four
• and do-si
• Left hand turn and promenade home

Each time a new figure is called, it begins with a "Grand Promenade." Sharp defines this as: partner two hand turn, corner two hand turn, promenade with partner half round, reverse direction (turn inward, without releasing hands), promenade back, partner two hand turn, corner two hand turn, partner promenade all the way around.

Then starts the first figure: the first couple moves right to the 2nd couple and does some figure with them. Then they move on to the next couple (3s) and do the same figure. Then on to the last couple and do the same figure. Then they do a do-si with that couple and promenade home.

Most of the time the "Little Promenade" comes between repetions of the figure.

Then the 2nd couple repeats the whole thing, starting with the 3rd couple.

Another "Little Promenade"

Then the 3rd couple.

Another "Little Promenade"

And finally the last couple.

At this point they would do the grand promenade again, and the 1st couple would start with a new figure, and so forth.

Sharp adds a paragraph at the end of Appendix B where he mentions that in one dance he watched the progression was slightly different: the second couple would start as soon as the 1st couple reached the fourth (rather than waiting until the 1st couple had finished with the fourth and were home). This is exactly the progression that Ida Levin describes in her Kentucky Square Dances book (and is topologically the same as the progression used in longways duple minor sets from 1650 to 1850).

Sharp writes that the "Little Promenade" consists of:

Men turn their partners half-way round (four steps), turn their contraries half-way round (four steps), rejoin their partners, cross hands, and move once round the circle, with them, counter-clockwise to places, men on the inside (i.e. on the left of their partners).

For this figure, Sharp writes:

First man turns his partner half-way round with the right hand and once round with the left hand.

First man turns right and left in like manner with the second woman; while his partner does the same with the second man.

First man turns his partner half-way round with the right hand and once round with the left hand.

First man turns right and left in like manner with the third woman; while his partner does the same with the third man.

First man turns his partner half-way round with the right hand and once round with the left hand.

First man turns right and left in like manner with the fourth woman; while his partner does the same with the fourth man.

First and fourth couples hands four.

First and fourth couples do-si-do and promenade home.

This figure seems very awkward to me. After turning the 2nd couple, the ones end up on the outside and the 2s on the inside with no indication of how they get back. I looked at Ida Levin's Kentucky Square Dances, which also contains a description of this figure, and she says the same thing.

The real problem is with the 4s — they need to be in a position to do a do-si after the box the gnat figure, and they aren't. So I have changed the figure to be a left turn once and a half.

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