Box the Gnat ~ Quicksand

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.

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 I don't understand the calls he gives.

This style of dance begins with a common introduction:

• Circle left
• Partner two hand turn
• Corner two hand turn
• Promenade home
• Heads forward and back, change with opposite, forward and back, change with opposite
• Sides forward and back, change with opposite, forward and back, change with opposite

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. In most figures the 1st+4th couples then do a do-si, but this one seems not to do that.

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

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