Box The Gnat

An online definition may be found here.

Bars: 2.

This figure involves a facing couple, they join right hands and raise them, then they trade places. The woman turning left 180° as she passes under the raised hands, the man turning right 180° as he walks around her. The right hands remain joined afterward.

History

Box the Gnat is a figure in Cecil Sharp's Running Set from 1918. However that box the gnat has very little to do with the modern figure, it appears more like a variation on strip the willow

How the modern call evolved after 1918 I do not know. Lloyd Shaw does not mention it in his Cowboy Dances from 1939.

CALLERLAB published the first standardized list of calls in 1975, and box the gnat was on that list.

Some dances which (probably) use this figure

• Dances for which I have animations

Note: This list may be incorrect or incomplete.

See Also

• Swat the Flea

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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.