ACDOL: Lovely Lane Chain

Lovely Lane Chain

By Bob Dalsemer
Composed April, 1983

Source	Bob Dalsemer's web site http://tri-county.main.nc.us/~dalsemer
Level	med (assigned by the editor)
Type	Double Contra
Formation	Four Facing Four

A1	(16) Ladies chain over and back (courtesy turns encouraged!); at the end of the second chain roll away with a half sashay
A2	(8) Lines of four go forward and back (8) With your opposite dosido
B1	(16) Center four right-hand star, then left-hand star; while the ends balance and swing End facing your partner; give right hands to your partner
B2	(8) Wrong way right and left grand around the group of eight (8) Partners swing End facing original direction (couples will have swapped places in the line).

Author's Notes:
While this may be danced as a double sicilian circle (mescolanza), it works better in lines, even though there is some waiting out at the ends. One way to set up the formation is to create two improper contra lines of even length and slide them together to make lines of four facing four. My inspirations for the dance came from an English folk version of a 19th century ballroom dance (Tom Pate/La Tempete) and a modern square dance figure (eight chain thru). Composed to celebrate the wedding of Bruce & Susan Edwards at Lovely Lane Church in April, 1983. My favorite tune for the dance is Peacock Rag. This dance is included in the 7th edition of Dance A While: Handbook for Folk, Square, Contra, and Social Dance published by Macmillan (New York, 1994).