TI One On
devised by Chris Kermiet
Triples aren’t done much anymore. Because of that, our contemporary contra dancers are easily confused by the progression. And most of the older dances don’t have enough swings. And if someone makes a mistake, most dancers don’t know how to recover from it in a triple, and they just stand there frozen in space, waiting for someone else to help them. And help, when it arrives from one of their fellow dancers, usually just makes things worse. This was my attempt to write a bullet-proof triple minor. By bullet-proof, I mean a dance which is nearly impossible to screw up. This dance seems to go over well with contemporary contra dancers.
One of the things that usually creates a screw-up is the inability to wait two times before starting back in at the top (i.e., the need to be doing something all the time). This dance starts with "Circle Six to the left". Just tell your dancers that if they don’t have six people, don’t do anything – just stand there. You need to wait out one more time. If you drill that in, and really emphasize "Circle Six ", you should be OK. (Don't shorten the prompt to just "Circle Left").
At the bottom of the set, where it’s necessary for the ones to continue to progress to the foot by dancing with a ghost third couple, the dance works well since the progression is in the swing – and who can resist a swing!
The only other difficulty is reminding the twos that they become threes in the next set, and the threes become twos, etc. The circle six helps with this as well.
Download a copy of the dance notes (pdf).
Triple Improper: top couple (1s) crossed over.
32-bar reel or jig
A1: Circle six to the left (16).
Emphasize "Circle Six " – (see my notes above)
A2: Ones face twos, Di-Si-Do (8).
And threes face their partner. There's usually not enough time to include this in the prompt. During the teaching, I just say that I'm counting on the threes to be smart enough to know that they should Do-Si-Do and swing with their partner.
Same person, swing (8).
End the swing all facing in, with ladies on the right of the gents, and you will have a temporary little triangular set.
B1: All face in, men star right (8).
Once around.
Turn the one you swung by the left hand round (8).
About 1 1⁄3 times around. Then the top two ladies should be in position to reach across and start a ladies chain, while the threes should be back on their proper side.
B2: Top two ladies chain (16).
Ladies one and two, over and back.
→ And here is an Alternate B2, which makes the dance a little more challenging (use cautiously):
B2: Top two ladies chain across (8).
Top two couples circle left ¾, pass through, circle six with the next. (8).
The timing on this is a bit tighter – 6 counts to circle left ¾, and 2 to pass through.