Hinton

The Hinton dances DDMM do

Getting Upstairs
Lads a Bunchum
Shooting

Last updated 25 02 2021

General stuff about Hinton dances

A tradition not often danced by other sides, but we’ve used both Shooting and Lads as show dances. Getting Upstairs is a useful practice dance, and can get audience to join in the hand-clapping but we don’t dance it out as much as we used to (audiences seem less willing to join in).
Usual stepping sequence: Snappy single step with hankies down and up, or sticks held loosely at slight dip when not clashing. Right foot start for everything.
Usual common figures (cf): OY, Foot up (FU), Foot Down (FD), Into line (IL), Back to back (BB), Show out (SO). Df’s feature slip heys (H). Dances end on SO.
Other general info:

See individual dance notes for details of how many bars etc for each figure.
OY: Jump, no preparatory movement. Hands high if handkerchief dance Clash if stick.
FU followed by FD In ‘Shooting’ turn in to clash between FU, FD. Others turn out and down.
IL 1 step across to mid-line, going left, side by side with partner. Dance in line, then change places with partner, quickly going behind him and back into line. Then dance on the spot again before backing into place. Non-stick dances, hands go down and up.
BB ‘normal’ BB pattern (cross rt shoulder, go behind partner, back to place, repeat on other side. But: no jump in between the 2 halves. Non stick dances – hands do low wide twists.
SO Do 2 single steps on the spot before charging across and out of the set – distance dictated by staying in line with nos 1, 2. Turn cw, then back quickly into a line down set middle. The 4 capers, or 4 ss in stick dance to turn up to finish. All turn cw on the 4 (so odds just have to turn 90°, evens have to turn 270°).
Hey Slip hey, tops go down the set side by side until past the middles, they then spread out to let the bottoms come through. End in bottom position. Bottoms dance on their spots 1 bar before moving then go up the set side by side, into the middle position. Middles, move back out and up to let the tops through, end up in tops position. Second half of the hey is the inverse of this: old tops move first. All end up in proper positions. Points:

Movement is crabwise, keep facing your partner as much as you can while you move up / down the set
Start both halves of the hey right foot irrespective of where you are.
May do something else in between the two halves of the hey.

About how DDMM do specific Hinton dances

Getting Upstairs

Pattern is OY, FU, FD, df, IL, df, BB, df, SO. Bare hands dance. Apart from the OY (normal jump) all cf end with ‘shag’ (like the sea bird) = jump landing feet together and upper arms nearly horizontal, forearms nearly vertical.
Df is (hand clapping , half hey) repeat. Hand clapping = with hands at chin height clapX3 with yourself, pause, clap 2X self then clap rt across with partner, then clapX3 self again, pause, clap 2X self then clap left with partner.
https://youtu.be/ZheS5JcOGIk

Lads a Bunchum

Tune is actually a ‘Trunkles’ dance tune. Pattern is OY, FU, FD, df1, IL, df2, BB, df3, SO. Df is corners, consisting of a figure (different for df1,2,3), half hey. Figure again then second half of hey. For the full detail of df see separate .pdf notes on the dance.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUszsQkhpe8

Shooting

A stick dance with corners. Most of the sticking is medium strength, but the final clash across the corners is, by contrast, as strong as you can make it - ‘'with great spirit' according to the Black Book. Dance is snappy, military feel. Pattern is OY, FU, FD, df, IL, df, BB, df, SO. Point to note is the ‘twirl in’ with sticks which occurs half way through heys, BB and SO, and the ‘twirl out’ at the ends of heys and BB. In twirling, the movement is mostly from the elbow and shoulder, not from the wrist. For full details see separate .pdf notes on the dance.
Ian Trouse video about the Hartley Ring Meeting of 2012. Includes our show dance ‘Hinton Shooting’ from about 2.46 mins in.
https://youtu.be/v56SFEBiqX0