Dance All Night

By Rick Mohr; July 2000

Four-Face-Four Caller's Box

Level: Easy/Intermediate

A1:

Lines of four forward and back (8)

Swing corner (8)

(Face the center in a square formation)

A2:

Ladies right hand star (9)

Allemande left with corner 1 1/4 (and face partner) (7)

B1:

Grand right and left (10)

Dosido partner (6)

B2:

Balance and swing partner (16)

This is a good straightforward "4 face 4" dance, long on movement and short on complexity. As with other such dances, your corner in A1 is next to you if you're in the middle of the line and across from you if you're at the end of the line. And after the swing in B2 dancers should face their original line of direction, having swapped to the other side of their line.

At the 2001 Labor Day Brattleboro Dawn Dance I called the "milkman shift", the 3:30-7:00 AM slot where dancers need a maximum of energy and variety with a minimum of confusion. This dance fit the bill, and after Maia Rutman's enthusiastic endorsement I named it for her and the other inspired dance-all-nighters.

Video: Sarah Van Norstrand & Perpetual E-motion at a 2011 Cornell contra, Ithaca NY:
Video: Gaye Fifer & Mean Lids at Contra Swing Shift 2011, Berea KY: