How to play
- Participants
- Pairs, each dancer facing their own partner.
- Space
- A level area where each couple can step and turn without colliding with others.
- Equipment
- Music suitable for this version, or a live musician · A leader who demonstrates the movements and musical section boundaries before starting
- Starting formation
- Without joining hands, bend your arms in front of your chest, close your fists and hold your elbows slightly out.
- Section I, bars 1–2: wind your fists away from your body as though winding thread in bar 1; pull your elbows out twice as though stretching it in bar 2.
- Bars 3–4: repeat, winding towards your body.
- Bars 5–6: wind away, then tap your right fist down onto your left. The description says each eighth-note pulse: four even motions in a 2/4 bar, counted one-and-two-and.
- Bars 7–8: wind towards your body, then repeat the tapping with the left fist on top.
- Bars 9–16: repeat the first eight bars.
- Section II, bars 1–16: take waltz hold and dance a waltz-polka. The melody is played twice as fast in polka rhythm. Learn the step before beginning.
Ending: The written sequence ends after sixteen bars of waltz-polka. Agree with the musician whether to stop or return to section I; the source gives no separate finale.
Documented version: The LNKC paired version: sixteen bars of hand gestures followed by sixteen bars of waltz-polka.
Getting ready
Rehearse the hand sequence on its own: wind away, stretch, wind towards yourself, tap. An experienced dancer should teach the waltz-polka hold and movement beforehand.
What a leader needs to teach
You can use this page to prepare the hand sequence. LNKC names the waltz-polka but gives no sequence of feet, weight transfers or couple turns. This is therefore not a complete independent lesson for beginners; a leader who knows the waltz-polka must teach the second section.
Which version are we learning?
The LNKC paired version: sixteen bars of hand gestures followed by sixteen bars of waltz-polka.