As of yet untitled, this is my first contra dance choreography!
In coming up with this dance I tried to break some rules (so that I could figure out what the rules are).
One in particular was trying to do a neighbor swing straight out of a robin’s chain across the hall. It is possible to do this, but it requires a more advanced lead by the lark to redirect the momentum. My friend suggested doing a robins-only richochet in the middle to fix that.
I'm a notorious rusher and while composing this dance in my head every figure seemed to take about four counts, unless of course it was a long partner swing. After consulting ContraDB it turns out I was wildly optimistic. Squashing two partner swings into one and taking advantage of the speed of a mad robin got my contra to fit into at least the 64-count standard timing, but I chose to also break the A / B sub-phrase timing in favor of a Macadamia Nut style momentum.
I managed to get to neighbors on the side of the hall with maybe a quarter or an eighth of the dance left. At that time I felt stumped until Sarah suggested a roll-away. (I had in rapid succession considered circles, petronellas, and a third thing to get back to the side of the hall but failed to address the key move which is getting partners back together.) This really pulled together the feeling of the dance and left me pretty satisfied.
setup
Hands four, circle left one place for Becket position.
figures