Ladies in Center Back to Back ~ Kentucky Square Dances

Ladies in Center Back to Back ~ Kentucky Square Dances Ladies in Center Back to Back ~ The Running Set Four Ladies to the Center ~ Ford

Ladies in Center Back to Back ~ Kentucky Square Dances is an Appalachian Circle Dance. It was published by Ida Levin in 1928 in Kentucky Square Dances. It is a Custom dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 126 bars.

Ida Levin describes an early form of "square dancing" which is actually danced in a large circle. This bears some similarities to the dance which Cecil Sharp called The Running Set 10 years before.

Every "change" of a dance begins win an introduction, first Ida gives the calls for this:

  1. Join hands, circle left all the way around.
  2. Swing home
  3. Corners, too.
  4. Don't forget your partner

And then she explains what the calls mean:

  1. All couples join hands in a circle and walk to the left completely around.
  2. Partners join both hands and swing once around.
  3. Each gentleman joins both hands with the lady on his left and swings her once around.
  4. Each gentleman joins left hands with his partner and swings her once around

(At this time "Swing" was a generic term which meant roughly: "turn in a circle", it did not mean the modern partner swing.)

This figure is a little unusual for these Kentucky Square Dances in that it does not contain a do-si-do.

Again Ida gives calls for the figure:

  1. Ladies in center, back to back.
  2. Gents shuffle to left.
  3. Pass your partner one, swing, place her back.
  4. Go on around.
  5. Pass your partner two, swing, place her back.
  6. Go on around.
  7. Swing home, corners too.

and meaning...

  1. All ladies walk to the center of the circle, turn, face their partners and remain in place.
  2. All gentlemen walk to the left completely around
  3. Each gentleman passes his partner and, stopping before the lady on his partner's right, joins right hands with her and swings her once around.
  4. While the ladies remain in place all gentlemen coninuue walking to the left completely around.
  5. Each gentleman passes his partner and, stopping before the second lady on his partner's right, joins right hands with her and swings her once around.
  6. While the ladies remain in place all the gentlemen coninue walking to the left completely around. They repeat the figure swinging each lady in turn until they again meet their partners.
  7. Each gentleman, joining both hands with his partner swings her once around, then joining both hands with the corner, that is, the lady on his left, swings her once around.

I'm not sure if Ida intends for the men to use a slipping step when they circle (that might be what "shuffle" means), or walk single file. I have chosen single file because it flows better with the right hand turns.

Cecil Sharp's version has the men turning their partners to the middle, and then going counter clockwise around the set, and he adds a promenade after each hand turn.

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
 
1-12Circle left, all the way around
13-15Partner two hand turn
16-18Corner two hand turn
19-22Partner left hand turn
Figure
 
1-2Ladies to the center, turn, and face out (and stop)
3-14Gents single file clockwise, pass your partner, right hand turn the next
15-26Gents single file clockwise, pass the last lady you turned, right hand turn the next
27-38Gents single file clockwise, pass the last lady you turned, right hand turn the next
39-50Gents single file clockwise, pass the last lady you turned, right hand turn the next
51-62Gents single file clockwise, pass the last lady you turned, right hand turn the next
63-74Gents single file clockwise, pass the last lady you turned, right hand turn the next
75-86Gents single file clockwise, pass the last lady you turned, right hand turn the next
87-98Gents single file clockwise, pass the last lady you turned, right hand turn your partner to home
99-101Everyone partner two hand turn
102-104Everyone corner two hand turn

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=LadiesInCenterBackToBack-KentuckySquareDances

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The dance is copyright © 1928 by Ida Levin. 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.