Elizabeth

Colin Hume (1991)

duple minor longways

3/4 E minor BII p. 38

Choreography

A

(1-4) 1s set, two-hand turn ½ (12)
(5-8) All set to neighbor, two-hand turn ½ (12)
(All progressed, 1s are swapped, 2s are on home side)

B

(1-4) Back-to-back with partner (12)
(5-6) Circle left ½ (6)
(7-8) Come in close to partner, then fall back with neighbor (6)
(1s in original places, 2s below and swapped)

C

(1-2) 2^nd diagonal: RH turn ½
(3-4) Partners LH turn (until same two are facing in on 2^nd diagonal)
(5-6) 2^nd diagonal: RH turn ½
(7-8) Neighbors LH turn
(All end where they started C sequence)

D

(1-8) 1s cross and go below the twos
while twos pause, then half figure eight up.
Ones half figure eight up
while twos lead up.
(All progressed and on home side)

Background

Hume:

First performed at Elizabeth Elton’s 75^th Birthday Dance: Cecil Sharp House, 27^th April 1991, with The Rampions (then called Sussex Rampion) playing.

First published in “Dances with a Difference, Volume 4” in 1996, where I wrote the following:

My first contact with Elizabeth was when she phoned me to say that she was over seventy and was she too old to come to “Beginners” — the class I helped to run at Cecil Sharp House? Of course not, I said, so she turned up — full of life and ready to join in everything. When we ran a twelve-hour dance marathon she was one of the few who danced every dance, including the final polka. She liked the energetic dances — she would polka with me until I was worn out, then move on to someone else — but was also very taken by the beauty of the slower Playford-style dances, so I just had to write this one for her.

I haven’t seen Elizabeth for some time, but I’m told she’s bought a computer and is busy writing her memoirs; I know they will make fascinating reading.

Teaching Notes

C, Hume writes,

is not a […] chain, and shouldn’t be thought of as one — thinking of it that way tends to make the men act as if they wish they were doing a courtesy turn, and walk backwards, even when they aren’t.

D: Hume:

These movements overlap, and I suggest that you walk them through separately for the ones and then the twos. In effect the half figure eights are through a non-existent couple.

Music: Hume:

Although the tune is in ¾ time it is not intended as a waltz; please don’t take it too fast. It has also been published in The Waltz Book III, collected and edited by Bill Matthiesen.