The California Show Basket ~ The Running Set

The Old Shuck Basket

The California Show Basket ~ The Running Set or The Old Shuck Basket is an Appalachian Circle Dance. It was published by Cecil Sharp & Maud Karpeles in 1918 in The Country Dance Book (Part 5). It is a Square dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 328 bars.

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.

I have, however, changed the calls into modern terms because I find the old terms confusing. "Swing corners" seems to mean "allemande left" rather than what "swing" means to me.

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:

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 and second couples hands across once round clockwise, men joining both hands, and women joining both hands, the men's hands being above the women's.

The men, raising their hands over the women's heads and lowering them to waist level, enclose the women and all four go once round clockwise.

The women lift their hands over the heads of the men and rest them on the men's shoulders; while the men raise their hands to the level of the women's necks. In this position all move once round clockwise.

First man turns second woman into her place; while first woman turns second man into his place.

The first couple repeats these movements with the third couple.

The first couple repeats these movements with the fourth couple.

It is suggested that the second circuit (i.e. when the men are eclosing the women) should be executed counter-clockwise.

The Basket figure is an old quadrille figure, you can find it described on page 19 of De Garmo's The Prompter (New York, 1868).

The animation plays at 120 counts per minute normally, but the first time through the set the dance will often be slowed down so people can learn the moves more readily. Men are drawn as rectangles, women as ellipses. Each couple is drawn in its own color, however the border of each dancer indicates what role they currently play so the border color may change each time through the minor set.

Intro
 
1-6Introduction: Circle left
7-8Partner two hand turn
9-10Corner two hand turn
11-16Promenade partner home
17-20Heads circle four
21-28Do-si
29-34Left hand turn and promenade home
35-38Sides circle four
39-46Do-si
47-52Left hand turn and promenade home
Grand Promenade
 
1-4Grand Promenade: Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn
9-12Promenade half round
13-16Turn inward to face back and promenade home
17-20Partner two hand turn
21-24Corner two hand turn
25-32Promenade once around
Figure
 
1-1$1 couple lead right
2-5Two hands across circle clockwise
6-9Gents raise hands over ladies' heads and circle
10-12Ladies raise hands over men's heads and circle
13-16Neighbor two hand turn
17-17On to the next
18-21Two hands across circle clockwise
22-25Gents raise hands over ladies' heads and circle
26-28Ladies raise hands over men's heads and circle
29-32Neighbor two hand turn
33-33On to the last
34-37Two hands across circle clockwise
38-41Gents raise hands over ladies' heads and circle
42-44Ladies raise hands over men's heads and circle
45-48Neighbor two hand turn
49-49Actives go home
Little Promenade
 
1-4Little Promenade: Partner two hand turn
5-8Corner two hand turn
9-16Promenade once around
Figure
Little Promenade
Figure
Little Promenade
Figure

If you find what you believe to be a mistake in this animation, please leave a comment on youtube explaining what you believe to be wrong. If I agree with you I shall do my best to fix it.

If you wish to link to this animation please see my comments on the perils of youtube. You may freely link to this page, of course, and that should have no problems, but use one of my redirects when linking to the youtube video itself:
https://www.upadouble.info/redirect.php?id=TheCaliforniaShowBasket-RunningSet

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The dance is out of copyright in the US, but I'm not sure of other jurisdictions. My visualization of this dance is copyright © 2023 by George W. Williams V and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
Creative Commons License My work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. Most of the dances have more restrictive licensing, see my notes on copyright, the individual dance pages should mention when some rights are waived.