If you are familiar with contra or square dancing you probably giggled when you first this post or the original web site this came from. If you aren’t, then you probably were expecting to see examples of domestic abuse or erotic photos of damsels in distress. Sorry, neither of those things are available here.

You see, before moving here this blog used to be called The Ladies Chained (I changed the name since I stopped focusing on dancing a while back) and was hosted on the domain name ladieschained.com (which I still have and am trying to do something fun with).

“The Ladies Chained”, or simply “ladies chained”, is a pun on the ladies’ chain, a figure in contra and square dancing. Two couples face each other before performing this figure. The ladies of both couples will eventually end up in the others’ place. Then, depending on what you consider a ladies’ chain should be, they either stop there or “chain back”. That is, they perform the exact same figure to get back to their original starting place.

I’m more familiar with the ladies’ chain as a figure where the ladies just switch place once. Some people call that a half-chain. I think that’s weird. Some people think I’m weird.

The name of the figure, as far as I know, comes from the fact that the ladies begin the figure by extending and holding right hands and forming a chain of two ladies. In certain dances it’s also natural for their partners to “give” the ladies away by pushing them towards each other using momentum from the previous figure. This creates a metaphorical longer chain of gents on the outside and ladies on the inside.

After the ladies grab each other’s hand, they pull each other behind them to switch places. Then it’s the gents’ job to catch the incoming lady. He then wheels her around and puts her gently down where she should be.

Do you want to see a much better description and an animation of the figure? [ http://www.squaredancecd.com/basic/B-18aHeadLadiesChainAcross.htm ]Here is a good square dance description of it. For contradancing, simply remove the side, stationary, couples from the picture.

So, I love the ladies’ chain. It’s more complicated than it seems. Beginners—especially the leaders—usually have trouble with it. Unlike other more complicated figures, though, it’s usually not taught in depth in a mixed level contradance. From a teacher’s point of view, this is the first challenge for an inexperienced contradancer after she learns how to swing.

Stylistically, there are lots that can be done with the ladies’ chain. Around where I dance it’s very common for a leader to twirl a follower multiple times after “catching” her, instead of wheeling her around with a firm and gentle guiding hand nudging her around a wide arc. In fact, the follower usually demands that she be twirled! I like to gauge the style and atmosphere of the dance by how many twirls the average follower demands at the end of a ladies’ chain. A mellow, gentle dance does not have any twirls. A nice, brisk dance has one per ladies’ chain. Eighty percent of the people I dance with at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield demand two. I think twirling a woman four times after a chain was my personal record.

Personally, I like two twirls when I follow.

There’s more to it than the twirl after the catch, though. Sometimes the ladies actually twirl towards the center at the beginning. Sometimes they pass each other without touching. Sometimes they hold palms, rotate around their joined palms, then push off each other. But that’s not my favorite bit of the figure.

The way the momentum works, the gent can actually whip very quickly with a twirl after grabbing the incoming lady and twirling her multiple times. This is one of the figures where it’s very easy to make a skirt fly if you’re leading.

Symbolically, there is actually some power play going on here.

Basically, this is a dance figure where men let go of their partners, have them waltz (actually, it takes four beats) to another man who gently embraces them and puts them where the men’s old partners were. Alternatively, the ladies are being twirled vigorously by another man. In most cases, they are enjoying it tremendously.

Who really had the control here? Is it the men letting go and swapping wives? Or is it the women who blissful smile at each other as they walk past each other towards the man the other once danced with? The men, dumbfounded, can only do what instinct tells them to do.

Who really is in chains when the ladies are chained?

You see why this is one of my favorite figures in contradancing? There is so much going on in terms of the basic movement. Layer on top of that all the stylistic nuiances that dancers insert. Above (or below, depending on your point of view) it is a lovely heaping of the emotional energy and platonic, physical sharing that goes on during an exciting social dance.

That, and it makes a nice, naughty pun.

Wing :: Jan.07.2009 :: Posts :: 4 Comments »