Music: "Airship Pirate
" by Abney Park
Inspired by nineteenth-century quadrille figures that reminded me of interlocking gears and other machinery.
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In memory of Paula Montrie
Music: "Throw Them Overboard
" by Abney Park (requires editing for more repeats)
This dance was designed to teach to people who don't have any couple dance skills but can be talked through figures. The figures are mostly nineteenth-century-inspired.
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Music: "Wanderlust
" by Abney Park (requires editing for more repeats)
A ragtime/country dance mashup which requires figure skills (including heys) but no couple dance experience, though there is a brief (8b) segment of 1910s-style Pomander Walk which requires briefly taking closed ballroom hold. It was written originally for the dancers of Kyiv, Ukraine, and can be easily taught to beginners. The figures are my response to the numerous Russian troika mixers that have as their progression either the gentleman walking forward to the next two ladies or the ladies walking forward to the next gentleman. I wanted a more interesting progression, so I hid it inside some heys!
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This was originally written as part of the Waltzlab weekly choreography challenge project run by Richard Powers back in 2012. The challenge that week was to create a waltz line dance. The original music was "Sunday in the Park", by Jonathan Jenson, as recorded by Amarillis, but any slow tempo waltz with a 16b structure will work. The recording I used was 127bpm, which I now consider too fast; I would recommend 115-120bpm. This is a four-wall line dance with a "wavy line" figure, which makes it most interesting done in multiple lines of dancers so the wavy lines form in all four directions. No actual cross-step waltz or turning waltz experience of any kind is needed.
The original two-couple Waltzlab video featuring members of the Monday Night Gang:
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Download Masha Poka! with ladies/gents calls (PDF)
Download Masha Poka! with robins/larks calls (PDF)
Masha Poka! is an adaptation of the Welsh circle mixer "Farewell Marian" or "Ffarwel Marian" composed by Gwyn Williams in the 1950s. The original, danced with varying degrees of success, may be seen here and here. Some background and a good description may be found on Colin Hume's website.
Personally, I find "Farewell Marian" unbalanced - the opening section with eight (!!!) sideways slides in the first sixteen bars is rather dull for experienced dancers, but, as can be seen on those videos, the final eight bars of waltz are difficult for beginners. In my adaptation, I've retained the original progression but complicated the first part and shortened the number of consecutive waltz turns required to try to make it work for a wide range of dancers. The opening S-curves were inspired by sixteenth century Italian dances.
I created this in Moscow, so the official name is the Russian version, pronounced "MAH-shuh pah-KAH". "Bye, Masha!" is the direct English translation. The name is a play on the name of the original dance ("Masha" is a Russian nickname for "Maria"), the tendency in Russia for "Masha" to be used as a sort of generic girl's name, and the repeated partner-changes (bye!) in the dance.
The name turned out to be sadly prescient; just a few weeks after writing this dance and teaching it for the first time, I left Russia for what I thought would be a few months of pandemic but has turned into a yearslong, possibly permanent, absence.
Music
Any slow (~120bpm) waltz with a 32-bar repeat structure; originally danced to "Captain O'Kane's
" by The Atomic City Rhythm Rascals off the
album The Split Tree Recordings - The Waltzes
.
Formation
A circle of couples facing line of dance; gentlemen stand to the left of their partners and start the dance by putting their backs to the center of the circle and turning slightly to the right
Figures
4b All ladies leave partners and progress counter-clockwise around the outside of the circle, moving forward two places to second gentleman after partner). Gentlemen don't move.
4b Taking left hands with this gentleman, make a half-turn to put the ladies in the center; all turn single to the right
4b All gentlemen progress counter-clockwise around the outside of the circle to their own partners. Ladies don't move.
4b Taking left hands, partners make a half-turn to put the gentlemen in the center; all turn single to the right
4b Taking right hands, partners balance forward and back, then make a bit more than a half-turn to bring the ladies to the center and get everyone aimed toward their left diagonal
4b Taking left hands with the person on the left diagonal, balance forward and back, then make a half-turn, changing places, the lady turning clockwise under the gentleman's arm (he pushes his arm out and away), coming into a closed ballroom hold
4b One complete turn of waltz (2b) followed by two sideways slide-closes (2b)
4b One complete turn of waltz (2b) followed by the gentleman raising his left arm and the lady turning clockwise under it and curling in a wide circle outward, ready to restart the dance
Watch points
(1) dancers traveling around the outside should pace themselves for a just-in-time arrival at the end of four bars
(2) turn single is not a spot-turn; use the six steps and make it a beautiful curved movement
(3) there is no underarm turn after the right hand balance, really truly, it should be a nice, big, flowing right hand turn
(4) the circle tends to shrink; don't let the gentlemen back up at the end or there will be no space in the center for the turns single
Special note
Masha Poka! also works just fine to polka music, becoming Masha Poka Polka! (Sorry, sorry...but it really does work!)