Kitchen Stomp

by Becky Hill

Okay. So the petronella move all by itself is a cute, fun, simple move, which can be done over and over over and even over over over again. But where do you build from there? One answer is taking the clockwise motion of the turn, and letting it flow into a swing. An example of this is "The Cure for the Claps." Another answer is letting the centrifugal force of the petronella spin pull out your arms. The left arm's going forward, only to be stopped in the center of the set by the palms/arms of others, setting up a really neat timing target to try for. (Unless claps get in the way.)

Hence the petronella to star transition. This dance is my favorite adaptation, mostly for its general simplicity plus two swings.

There are other dances with more elaborate petronella transitions, and there's still plenty of unknown territory to be explored. If this keeps up, in another ten years the petronella turn might pick up the status of gypsy or hey as another "new basic." Stay tuned.

"Kitchen Stomp" is fairly hard to find. It's in the out-of-print book "Twirling Dervish Returns." A close variant, "Becket in the Kitchen" is in The Rosen-Hill Collection.
It's also travelled well, so try asking a local caller.
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