The Pretty Parisian

(CW1224) (30 JUN '12)

Dance 4 in "Simonet's Suite"*. 4-Couple Square Set. Change-partner, change-gender (heads separating to nearest corner places, sides crossing to far side of farther head place). After 4 rounds all are home, but then repeat A1:1-8 as a coda to convert the set into longways formation, with second and fourth places improper, ready for "The Last Syllable" (the final dance in this suite of five).

A1:1-4	All finishing in a longways set, side men pass left-shoulders and each loop right-shoulder around this head lady to cross in through that head couple and finish inside partner's current place, WHILE side ladies cast over their left shoulder to loop left around corner (head) man and cross in through same head couple as partner to finish opposite him in longways middle places. Side couples, in effect, dance a reverse half Figure-of-eight to their right, "enveloping" that head couple then crossing in through them, the side men having to cross the set before "joining in".
5-8	Top and bottom couples half Figure-of-eight in through the nearer middle dancers who courtesy-turn them to form a square set, and all keep these inside hands joined (as corner couples).
B1:1-2	Each head dancer draws their corner round this head place to the next corner, head ladies going inside head men (along concentric quarter-circles).
3-4	All set to face this one (on the new corner), dropping hands.
5-8	Passing right shoulders to start, all dance a circular-hey-for-eight, no hands, two changes (4), then two-hand turn the next halfway to face in on a corner, and keep inside hands joined (4).
B2:1-8	Repeat B1:1-8, beginning with "concentric draws" around the head places, leading men inside leading ladies this time.
A2:1-4	Sides, with the men doing what the ladies did and vice-versa, repeat A1:1-4, all eight finishing in a longways set (i.e. side ladies pass left-shoulders and each loop right-shoulder around this head man to cross in through that head couple and finish inside partner's current place, WHILE side men cast over their left shoulder to loop left around corner (head) lady and cross in through same head couple as partner to finish opposite her in longways middle places). Side couples, in effect, dance a reverse half Figure-of-eight to their right, "enveloping" that head couple then crossing in through them, the side ladies having to cross the set before "joining in".
5-8	Top and bottom couples half Figure-of-eight in through the nearer middle dancers who courtesy-turn them (and reverse out) to form a square set, and all keep these inside hands joined (as corner couples).
C:1-4	Heads facing side couple on their right and making a mutual arch on the corner between them, the "end" two (in each curved line-of-four, that is) change places by half Figure-of-eighting out under the arch.
5-8	Those who changed places now make arches (though not with each other) on the other corners and encourage their adjacent corner dancers to change places by half Figure-of-eighting out through these arches. Repeat the whole dance three more times, to starting places, then repeat A1:1-8 as a coda to finish, NOT in a square (as required in Rounds 1-4), but back in the original longways set used for the first dance, "An(ne)t(te')s in her Pants", of "Simonet's Suite" . This is the formation needed for the last dance of the suite,* "The Last Syllable" *.

Music: "La Trenis"(ABBAC x 4, + A) by Simonet (c.1820), as played by Spare Parts for the fourth figure, "No.4 La Belle Parisienne", of the "Fashionable Parisian Quadrille" suite on their 2007 CD "The Regency Ballroom" (Track 9).

* The non-stop sequence of five inter-connected dances that I've written to fit tracks 6-10 of the above CD (preferably without repetition, hesitation or deviation!) is called "Simonet's Suite" and consists of: "An(ne)t(te')s in her Pants" (4-couple longways), "Summer Storms" (4-couple Becket), "The Queen of Tarts" (4-couple Round), "The Pretty Parisian" (Square) and "The Last Syllable" (4-couple longways again).