Venus and Mars
As I mentioned, I’m in Oregon, where I called a women’s square dance weekend. A dancer requested that I teach the Venus and Mars figure, so I did, and they loved it. I used The Galaxy Song (A 1021), just because it seemed appropriate (Monty Python: The Galaxy Song).
I did a Google-search for Venus and Mars and square dancing and didn’t come up with much. Here’s a page that describes the Venus and Mars figure. And here’s a page of old calls, including Venus and Mars.
Dancers seem to like long, memorized figures–witness the popularity of things like relay the deucey and spin chain and exchange the gears. I’ve mentioned this before: Squarez: Comments: Miscellany, and it continues to hold true for all kinds of groups of dancers. Maybe square dancers would really rather be contra dancers…
My mom has just started taking square dance lessons here in Southern Oregon with Lantz’s Dantzers. She’s having a great time. While searching for a Lantz’s Dantzers site (haven’t found one), I found this article: Dancing in Southern Oregon from last year, which (a) mistakenly identifies square dancing as the national dance (don’t get me started…) and (b) talks about the decline of square dancing.
Seems to me that if we’re trying to get people interested in square dancing, the last thing we want to emphasize is square dancing’s declining numbers. No one wants to join an activity that’s on a downhill slide; most people want to feel like they’re joining something that’s popular. It’s a dilemma, fer sure.
Hi,
I am Brigitte from Germany and heard very often about Venus and Mars. But nobody remember how to dance it. Some callers told that they would teach it but they don’t know it.
Could you explain to me how it is to dance?? Or do you know a website where the discription is to find?? This would really very nice of you
Thank you
Brigitte
Here’s a description:
Start with any thing that will get the dancers in a Star Promenade (man on inside with left hand). On command the #1 lady will lead to the right to start a separate right hand star. The ladies will follow in sequence leaving the men in their star. Turn the stars. As the first woman and first man come together again, the woman steps over in front of the man, and joins his star with her L hand; while the man steps across and joins her star with his R hand. Each couple will repeat the action in turn, until all the women are in the Left hand star and all the men are in the right hand star. It is done very smoothly, very naturally, very easily. Remember that each woman steps in front of her man in changing stars. (The caller can turn the stars as many times as desired) Upon command the star change will occur again putting the men back into the left hand star and the ladies in the right hand star. To get out of the stars, the #1 man can pick up his partner for a promenade, with the other couples following in turn.
Hope this helps; thanks for reading my blog.
Kris
kris@squarez.com
http://www.squarez.com