There Is a Tavern in the Town / Three Ladies Chain - Dudley Laufman
To the tune of "There Is a Tavern in the Town," Dudley Laufman calls as part of the "Square Dance" Retrospective session at the annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend in Durham, NH. The musicians are Old New England (Bob McQuillen piano; Jane Orzechowski, fiddle; and Deanna Stiles, flute).
Complete instructions for the dance will be found in the RPDLW 2013 Syllabus, edited by David Smukler; it will be online (starting in January 2014) here. Notes for the Three Ladies Chain figure:
"Couple one is in the center lined up with couples two and four. Ladies one and two chain, but gent one does only a half courtesy turn with lady two and sends her off to chain with lady four. He turns lady four halfway as well. Continue this process until all three ladies are back where they started. The chain with couple three is a normal ladies chain. When the ones go on to the last the three ladies chain starts with couples one and four."
In his introduction to this dance, Dudley commented: “There was a dance that was popular back in the day called 48, or 96 (or double that) swings: ‘First lady (or gent) swing your corner, swing your partner, swing your corner again then your opposite, then your corner, then your partner…corner again, opposite, and the last one, then the opposite, then the corner, and everyone swing partners. Repeat with first and second ladies, or men, and then with three, and then with all four.’ Page would sometimes do it that way, but usually he would have all four ladies at once, then all four gents, making 24 swings. He would do it all twice to make the 48. Usually he used the Devil’s Dream or Old Joe Clark, and mostly at Tuesday night at the Boston YWCA. But I heard him do it in Peterboro, New Hampshire outdoors, at a street dance in front of the Town Hall, storm threatening, and he sang the whole thing to Pistol Packin’ Mama. This really surprised everyone. (You can find this in Frank Lyman’s One Hundred and One Singing Calls.)
“He sang a lot of his squares. Billy Boy, Buffalo Gals, Casey Jones, Hinky Dinky, Jingle Bells, Life on the Ocean Wave, Nelly Bly, Nellie Gray, Red River Valley, Wait For The Wagon, Wearing of the Green, to name a few. He recorded Odd Couple Promenade to Road To Boston, but before that he used Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight. But it was a long time before he took on My Little Girl and Just Because.”
Subjects: Northern / Singing
Tags: Dudley Laufman, Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, singing square, There Is a Tavern in the Town, Three Ladies Chain
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To the tune of "There Is a Tavern in the Town," Dudley Laufman calls as part of the "Square Dance" Retrospective session at the annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend in Durham, NH. The musicians are Old New England (Bob McQuillen piano; Jane Orzechowski, fiddle; and Deanna Stiles, flute).
Complete instructions for the dance will be found in the RPDLW 2013 Syllabus, edited by David Smukler; it will be online (starting in January 2014) here. Notes for the Three Ladies Chain figure:
"Couple one is in the center lined up with couples two and four. Ladies one and two chain, but gent one does only a half courtesy turn with lady two and sends her off to chain with lady four. He turns lady four halfway as well. Continue this process until all three ladies are back where they started. The chain with couple three is a normal ladies chain. When the ones go on to the last the three ladies chain starts with couples one and four."
In his introduction to this dance, Dudley commented: “There was a dance that was popular back in the day called 48, or 96 (or double that) swings: ‘First lady (or gent) swing your corner, swing your partner, swing your corner again then your opposite, then your corner, then your partner…corner again, opposite, and the last one, then the opposite, then the corner, and everyone swing partners. Repeat with first and second ladies, or men, and then with three, and then with all four.’ Page would sometimes do it that way, but usually he would have all four ladies at once, then all four gents, making 24 swings. He would do it all twice to make the 48. Usually he used the Devil’s Dream or Old Joe Clark, and mostly at Tuesday night at the Boston YWCA. But I heard him do it in Peterboro, New Hampshire outdoors, at a street dance in front of the Town Hall, storm threatening, and he sang the whole thing to Pistol Packin’ Mama. This really surprised everyone. (You can find this in Frank Lyman’s One Hundred and One Singing Calls.)
“He sang a lot of his squares. Billy Boy, Buffalo Gals, Casey Jones, Hinky Dinky, Jingle Bells, Life on the Ocean Wave, Nelly Bly, Nellie Gray, Red River Valley, Wait For The Wagon, Wearing of the Green, to name a few. He recorded Odd Couple Promenade to Road To Boston, but before that he used Hot Time In The Old Town Tonight. But it was a long time before he took on My Little Girl and Just Because.”