The Promenade in Modern Western Square Dance
In square dancing, and in particular modern Western square dance, when Promenade is called it is understood to be a "Couples Promenade" involving all four couples. The couples assume a promenade position, each turn to the right as a unit, and walk counter-clockwise around the ring. If not specified how far to walk, they walk to the gent’s home position, and then each couples turn as a unit to face into the center of the set. If close to home (¼ of the way or less), couples promenade a complete tour of the ring.
The caller can also specifically say “Promenade Home” or “Promenade All the Way” (or other variations on the wording) with the same result.
The gent might twirl the lady under his arm at the end of the move as a flourish. If the partners are ¼ of the ring or less away from his home position, then they promenade a full circle around to get back to his home.
The caller may fractionalize the call by specifically requiring the dancers to promenade only ¼, ½, or ¾ of the way around the ring.
The caller may also designate a specific couple or specific couples to promenade.
The caller may also require the dancers to continue promenading without stopping at the home position, by calling something like “Promenade – Don’t stop or slow-down”. This will be a lead-in to a new call, whereas a “Promenade Home” is considered the end of a square dance sequence in most cases.
Read more about this topic: Promenade (dance Move)
Famous quotes containing the words promenade, modern, western, square and/or dance:
“The day of the sun is like the day of a king. It is a promenade in the morning, a sitting on the throne at noon, a pageant in the evening.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“Most modern reproducers of life, even including the camera, really repudiate it. We gulp down evil, choke at good.”
—Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)
“For twenty-five centuries, Western knowledge has tried to look upon the world. It has failed to understand that the world is not for the beholding. It is for hearing. It is not legible, but audible. Our science has always desired to monitor, measure, abstract, and castrate meaning, forgetting that life is full of noise and that death alone is silent: work noise, noise of man, and noise of beast. Noise bought, sold, or prohibited. Nothing essential happens in the absence of noise.”
—Jacques Attali (b. 1943)
“Houses haunt me.
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How it sat like a square box!”
—Anne Sexton (1928–1974)
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—Frances Burney (1752–1840)