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Record: LS 5-139
Formation: Regular four couple square set.
Honor your partner, the lady across the hall
Honor your right hand lady, honor your corners all
Each man bows to each lady in turn as directed, and they
each return his salutation.
All around your left hand lady.
She's a honey she's a pet
Without ever changing the direction in which he is facing
each man walks behind his corner lady, around her twd the
center of the set, and backs up into place. As he passes
behind her she takes two steps fwd. And as he passes in
front of her she takes two steps back to place.
See-saw your pretty little taw
Places now all set!
Still continuing to face always in the same direction, he
passes behind his partner, fwd beyond her far side, and
back in front of her to place. As he passes behind her she
again steps fwd, and as he passes in front she steps back to
place. With a slight bow, he takes his regular place in the
set ready for the change to begin.
Gentlemen swing with the corner girl,
You swing her up and down
You swing the lady you just left,
You swing your partner round.
Each man swings his corner and then his partner (buzz
swing).
Allemande left on your corner
on your corner allemande all.
Swing your partner once again
the best girl in the hall.
After doing an allemande left around his corner, he swings
his partner again.
You dos-a-dos on the corner
on the corner dos-a-dos
You dos-a-dos with your partner,
with your partner dos-a-dos
Everyone passes back to back around their corners, the men
starting to the outside of the women. Then all pass back to
back with their partners, the men starting to the inside
(always passing R shoulders).
Swing the corner girl again,
swing her slippers off!
Swing that same corner girl to a promenade
Sound off!
Swing the corner woman again until the words "sound off"
when with a "stamp-stamp" in place, you take promenade
pos, waiting a split second to start marching around the
square.
One-two-three-four,
one-two-**-three-four
Take that pretty girl with you
and promenade the floor.
With high knee action (in promenade pos), everyone marks
time by taking short steps. After eight of these short mark-
time steps (ending with the quick spoken "three-four") they
all stride out with a full and easy step and promenade back
home. (The mark-time steps should cover about one-fourth
of the distance around the square, and the natural steps
should cover the remaining three-quarters).
They must not try to change the rhythm of their steps with the final
quick-spoken "three-four." They keep right on marking time in the
regular way, left-right-left-right, etc. but on the next to last or
seventh count when the caller rests and says nothing, they take
their regular step on the left. Then on the last beat he says quickly
"three-four." The "Three" comes with the raising of the right foot.
Then they step out with a full stride. It can be very delightful,
especially if the whole floor counts with the caller.
Repeat the main change an dchorus three more times until you get
your own partner back.
The ending is the same as the beginning except that the two
quatrains are reversed.
All around the left hand lady,
Oh, boy, what a baby
See-saw your pretty little taw,
now thank the ladies all
Honor your partner,
the lady across the hall
Honor your right hand lady,
Honor your corners all.
The men pass behind the corner woman, around them, and
back to place. Then they pass behind their partners, around
them, and back to place as described in the introduction.
Then they bow to each lady in turn, as directed by the
caller.
Music note: The music of the verse is thirty two measures long,
divided into two slightly different sections A & B. The B section
begins with "Dos-a-dos on the corner." the chorus is the same as
the A section, but it is only half as long and it begins with the
rhythm of the "Count-off" accented in the base. The introduction
and the ending to the whole dance is the A section only. Here the
words "Honor your partner" are freely spoken during the first four
counts, and "the lady across the hall" is half spoken and half sung
to the next four counts. The rest is sung to the tune.
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