The Cure for the Claps

by Bob Isaacs

First, a brief note. Despite the best attempts of the folk process, the name for this dance is "The Cure for the Claps," not "The Cure for the Clap." It uses the petronella turn to swing transition, making the dancers choose between a longer swing or claps. (Let them discover this on their own, though. If you state your hidden agenda they'll rebel, tease, and still clap.) But that's not what interests me about this dance -- being of the younger, post-clap generation, I don't mind the flourish. Tradition is what people do, and if you started comparing today's "petronella turn" with what they did in the 1950's, you'd think people were doing two completely different moves.

So much for brevity.

What's more interesting for me is the petronella-to-swing transitions, put in a simple, fraction free structure. And that transition distinguishes it significantly from other more generic down-the-hall dances.

Instructions for this dance can be found here, along with a few notes from the choreographer.
A video of this dance can be found here.
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