Wheatley - Description and Figures

The Tradition

The dance is single-step and danced at a steady, relaxed pace. The hand movements in the handkerchief dances are straight up-and-down, with the emphasis on the up. There is very little leaping up and down and the main characteristic is its rhythmic quality.

The Figures

There are five basic figures:

1. Foot Up
2. Hey
3. Rounds
4. Double Hey
5. Caper Rounds

Since the dances are substantially different, apart from the figures, a description of each of these follows.

Foot Up

This is danced on the spot, with no forward movement and no introductory movement of any kind. Always a right foot start and single step. In the handkerchief dances, the hands are brought up on the beat.

In an attempt to smarten up the presentation, we looked closely at the fact that the Wheatley foot-up was a fairly dull figure and, perhaps following any number of 'once to yourselves', led to a lot of A musics.

The solution adopted was to begin with a short (half-length) foot-up half-way through the first OTY, thus ensuring a snappy start to the dance.

This convention has been adopted for ALL Wheatley dances with the sole exception of the new Greensleeves (qv).

Hey

The essential pattern is that of a conventional hey, but with a few adjustments which make it distinctive and suit the character of the dances. The aim is to spend as much time travelling up and down the set in parallel pairs as time, space and music will allow.

What this means in practise is that the tops turn out at the beginning of the figure (starting from a facing-up position), while the middles move straight up the set, shoulder to shoulder. As soon as the tops have passed the middles, they then immediately converge and proceed down the set together. Meanwhile, the bottoms have turned out and up and, having waited for the tops to pass between them, they too move together and proceed up the set, passing between the middles who have turned at the top of the set and are making their way back down.

This pattern is repeated, with pairs parting, turning and coming back togther at regular intervals in time with the music. This is most effective in the double hey.

Rounds

Very straightforward, right foot start and dance round in a circle. Flash b******s are prone to introduce impromptu twirls as they proceed. This should, of course, be firmly discouraged. :-)

Double Hey

Quite a simple way of doing something quite striking. The two heys run into each other without a break.

Caper Rounds

The same as Rounds (q.v.), but with Capers. The capers in question are very much upright "spring" capers as seen in Bampton, where you leap off one foot on to the other and hop. This is the last figure in those dances that include it and finishes with an 'all-in'.

Return to The Wheatley page.

© Cardiff Morris 1996