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A duple improper, double progression contra by Bill Olson
A1: Circle
R ¾, w/ partner ½ prom (Minnesota Promenade*)
A2: On RIGHT diagonal**
M allem L x 1.5 while W allem R x 1.5 , (W look straight ahead) L/H star
(hands across
inFRONT of shadow) x 1
B1: Partner Bal and Sw
B2: LLF&B, Cir L ¾, pass thru (to meet new Neighbors)
Notes: * It is important after the promenade to separate from neighbors and actually be moving back a little before starting the simultaneous allemands. Here I like to use what I think is a Minnesota Promenade. I learned the move from Rick Mohr. It goes like this. With inside hand joined withpartner ( i.e Gent's R/H in Woman's L/H) walk straight toward neighbors.Withouttouching neighbors rotate all 4 counterclockwise 180degrees, thenwith partnerBACKout to place on the other side. At this point it helps tohave the dancersintroduce themselves to their shadows who are on the oppositeside from theirpartners along the lines. This promenade is a cool moveand has everyonein aperfect position for the simultaneous left and righthand allemands.I calledthis dance in Knoxville, Tennessee, in October, 2001,and whilei was tryingto describe the move, one of the dancers called out"Sort of like an eggbeater!" Well, it is, and has been called the "eggbeater" move ever since. **The eggbeater is done with the first same-sex person to the right of the opposite person (neighbor). It is confusing to say to the dancers this figure goes on the rightdiagonal (though it does), because normally "right diagonal" means a figurewith the COUPLE to the right of the couple across. Best to tell the dancershere that the men stay in their minor set while the women go out of it. Anyway,the men fall in BEHIND their partners in the allemands as they sort of "interleave"each other. After changing sides on the eggbeater, the women drop right handsand each looks away from her partner to form a hands across left hand starby joining hands with a NEWwoman in front of her shadow. Whew! This is oneof those dances that is a LOT harder to teach than to dance! Incidentally,this IS a double progression dance even though it isn't immediately obviousby reading through it. The first progressions happens with the partner balanceand swing, even though it happens on the side of the set. The second is thepass through in B2.
Some time in the year 2000, Susan Kevra left for France to "seek her
fortune" and to call contra and square dances for an unspecified term. I
sawher at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA, just before she was
goingto leave. I remember telling her after the dance some thing like, "I
hope youhave a safe landing," sort of referring both to the actual airplane
landingand "landing" in France. Susan admitted that my implication that the
landingmight be anything but safe, worried her a bit. Since Susan isa French
scholar,I wanted to write and name a dance for her that had a French title
that wasa pun in French and meant something like "happy landings". I asked
my friendBenoit Bourque from Montreal what he thought would work here...
After thinkingabout it a while, Benoit came up with the title"L'Atterrissage"which
means"the landing", BUT it sounds like "l'atterreesage" which, loosely translated,.
means "the terrified wise woman". Not knowing French, the punhere really
doesn'thit me. BUT after all that effort it HAD to be the titleof the dance!
Susanis long back from France and thedance has finally been tested and works.
Itwas first conceived well over a year ago; so long ago I don't even remember
exactly when. The date today is Nov 27, 2001.
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