Three Hand Star

Three Hand Star is a Square Dance. It was published by Ralph Page in 1949 in Northern Junket. It is a Square dance. It is a multipart dance. The minor set lasts 228 bars.

Ralph Page writes:

Any introduction you wish, then
Head couple swing inside the ring,
Head lady goes right, head gent goes left,
And make two three hand stars with side couples
(1st lady & 2nd couple join right hands and circle once around; 1st gent & 4th couple join left hands and circle once around)
The other hand back the way you are,
Meet in the center and go on to the next
And make a four hand right hand cross
Then allemande left your corners all
Grand right and left a half way round
Promenade her when you meet, you promenade her home.
Other couples do same figures in turn.

Before starting the call, it helps to have every one take a good look at their corners, for the allemande left is done with your original corners. There are always a few lost souls who can gaze at their corners till doomsday and not recognise them when the time comes to allemande left. But don't get discouraged. 'Twas ever thus.

Ralph Page says that M1's first star turns left. But both Colin Hume and Tony Parkes say it should turn right. Ralph's later command "The other hand back" could be construed as only applying to the 1s, but tradition suggests that everyone should change hands. Anyway, I have both the first stars going right and both the second stars going left.

Because Ralph does not provide an introduction, I have made one up.

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.

An online description of the dance may be found here.

The dance contains the following figures: hand turn (allemande), set, hands across, rights and lefts, ladies chain (courtesy turn), swing, back to back (and probably others).

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=ThreeHandStar

This website is copyright © 2021,2022,2023,2024 by George W. Williams V
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.