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The Society of Folk Dance Historians (SFDH) Avant-Deux
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BACKGROUND
Information: A dance.
Avant-Deux is a popular generic dance type of Brittany, the eastward-jutting peninsula that separates the Bay of Biscay from the English Channel, the Gulf of St. Malo, and all those islands with cows' names. Bretons, the inhabitants of Brittany (or Bretagne) have endured centuries of Druidic domination, Catholicism, Anglo-French territorial disputes, and, since the late 1950s, hordes of ethnographers mining their rich folk heritage. Yves Moreau introduced this dance to the United States in 1981.
Translation: Advance two
Pronunciation: ah-vahn-DOO
Other names: The Bumper-Car Dance, The Roller Coaster Dance
Region: Bretagne, France
Meter: 2/4
Formation: Short (4 to 6 people) lines of men and women. Actually, lines of 3 are recommended. Hold hands, bend your elbows, and interlock your arms tightly. People on the ends of the lines hold their neighbor's near forearm with their free hand.
| BARS | ACTION | |
| Introduction. |
| 1-8 | No action, unless you count adrenalin surges in response to the infectiously happy music. |
| 1. | Forward and back. |
| 1-2 | Run forward 3 steps onto: R ft, L ft, R ft (cts 1,2,1), hop on R ft (ct 2). |
| 3-4 | Repeat action of bars 1-2, with opposite footwork and moving backward. |
| 5-16 | Repeat action of bars 1-4, 4 times in all. Rotate CW as a line to move to different parts of the room. |
| Note: | The first time it's done, this part lasts only half as long because the Introduction takes the other half. |
| Rest step. |
| 1 | Step smally forward onto R ft (ct 1), hop lowly on R ft, picking L heel up behind R heel (ct 2). |
| 2 | Repeat action of bar 1, with opposite footwork and stepping back. |
| 3-4 | Repeat action of bars 1-2, but stepping to R and to L instead of forward and back. |
| 5-16 | Repeat action of bars 1-4, 4 times in all. |
| 1-32 | Repeat the dance from the beginning, about 5 more times. |
REFERENCE
- Folk Dance Problem Solver (1987), Society of Folk Dance Historians (SFDH), San Antonio, TX. Avant-Deux (de Travers).
DOCUMENTS
- France, a country.
- Yves Moreau, an article.
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