ACDOL: Cherokee Shuffle

Cherokee Shuffle

By David Kaynor

Level	easy-med (assigned by the editor)
Type	Contra
Formation	Improper

A1	Face your neighbor and take inside hands with your partner (8) Lines of two go forward and back (8) Neighbors dosido
A2	(4) Make a ring and balance (12) Neighbors swing
B1	(4) Gents allemande left 1/2 (4) Make a wave of four and balance (12) Partners swing (shorten for a square tune)
B2	(8) Circle left 3/4 (8) Balance the ring twice (only once for a square tune) (4) Partne California twirl

Author's Notes:
I also use the following variations:
A1: neighbors dosido, circle left
and/or
A2: neighbors balance and swing (no ring)
and/or
B1: gents allemande left 1/2, partners balance and swing (no wave)
"Cherokee Shuffle" sort of fell together at a Petersham dance. Because my cousin Cammy was late, I was calling. The musicians were remarking on the scarcity of opportunities to play the tune. Some dancers overheard this, whereupon the following observation, which I can quote exactly, was made:
"You'll just have to take extra measures."
Extra measures? ...good heavens, there are an extra two measures in each B part of the tune, and...gasp...a BALANCE takes up two measures... The mysteries of creation.
In actuality, it was really just a matter of tinkering with my only other dance composition, which I had thought up for my first Dawn Dance calling slot at the Shriner's Hall in Brattleboro in (I think) 1981:
Improper
A1: neighbors circle left, neighbors dosido
A2: neighbors balance and swing
B1: gents allemande left 1/2, partners swing
B2: right and left through, circle left 3/4, pass through along the line
It worked at 3:00 AM.
(posted to rec.folk-dance October, 1996)
I can not remember when "Cherokee Shuffle" came about, but it was a few years prior to writing "Mary Cay's Reel". Maybe back around 1982 or so.
(from email January 29, 1997)

Editor's Notes:
The tune "Cherokee Shuffle" has an extra four beats in B1 and B2; the instructions include modifications for use with a square tune.
Collected from George Marshall July, 1993.