Playford's Progeny

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====== The Night Crossing ======

If you picked this dance up before 27-Nov-17 please note that there was an error in the instructions — at the start of B the men should cross left shoulder, not right.  Sorry!  And a further correction on 23-Apr-18 — I had said that the pause was at the end of the C-music but it's actually at the end of the B-music.  The musical notation is correct, so the musicians would play it correctly but it wouldn't be what the caller was expecting!  Thanks to Roy Garrington for pointing this out to me. CH



Format:  4 Couples longways, 1 & 3 improper

Dance: Colin Hume, Music: John New, 2006.

<code> 
A1:	Lines of four fall back (with conviction); turn single right.  Lead forward, hesitate (back in set position for a moment of poise); two-hand turn partner half-way.
A2:	All that again.
B:	In fours, men cross left shoulder; ladies cross right shoulder and “face the next”: new middles face middle neighbour, ends face partner.  Set to this person; two-hand turn half-way and open up to face partner.
C:	On the right diagonal, cross right (same sex person) while the two people not involved turn single right; cross left on the left or turn single left.  Cross right on the right or turn single right; all single file clockwise one place to finish opposite partner.

Progressed position is:   3 improper, 1, 4 improper, 2.  Repeat the dance three more times.
</code>

CH: 
"I was at a Folk Camp in Holland in 2006 with Hilary Vare and John New as the musicians.  I have done several camps with Hilary, but had not met John before.  In the music workshops we played a few of his tunes, and we were all very struck by this one.  The inspiration for the tune came when he was on the open forward observation deck on the Val de Loire, crossing from Portsmouth to St Malo.  It had been a very congenial evening in the restaurant, with good company and good live piano music, and the sea was flat calm and moonlit.

"John wrote it as a slow air, but said he was happy to play it faster for a dance, so I wrote this and tried it out at the end of the week.  The tune still needs to be slow, or it loses its style.  John wrote a pause at the end of the B-music, and I think a slight pause works well with the dance.  The dance needs room for the fall back in the first part, and the dancers must fall back with conviction, otherwise after the lead forward you are too close to your partner to do a good turn.

"The other tune of John's to which I have written a dance is Caulking Jig."

Sheet music: https://colinhume.com/abc.aspx?T=The_Night_Crossing

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=77iBG6N4OWM (Ottawa English Dance TTO)