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With two "kidlets" at home, I am only responding to email
and updating the list about once a month. Thanks for your patience.
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In response to questions from folks about what this move is:
Neck wraps are used in 2-Step and West Coast Swing. Fortunately, it has pretty much died out everywhere but the hard-core country dance scene. At best, a neck wrap was a butt-ugly move that was difficult to lead and more difficult to follow. It had a higher risk of injury to the follower than most moves. It is no wonder that followers flat out hated it. It's my candidate for worst dance move ever.
So, what does it look like? I hesitate to describe it for fear that I will be helping keep it alive ;-)
Anyway, it starts as a standard double outside turn. After the follower has done one turn, the leader lowers his lead hand down to her neck level. She finishes her second turn winding into her own right arm, ending up with her right hand on her left shoulder, palm toward the ceiling, with her elbow in front of her chin. (Now, that's ladylike!). After a pause, the leader then unwinds her with a single or double turn.
The first injury risk happens when the leader lowers his lead hand. If he does it too early, he risks hitting her in the face, if he does it too late, he risks torqueing her shoulder. Either way he risks pulling her off balance. The second risk point is leading the unwind. The leader is supposed to slip a few fingers onto her shoulder and lead from there. If he leads from her hand, it torques her shoulder.
After this move arrived on the scene, followers quickly learned to defend against it by resisting having their arm pulled down during the turn. As few leaders are stupid enough to get into an arm wrestling match while leading a double turn, this successfully prevented the
move from being led. The leaders that did try to overpower her when she resisted usually ended up with smacking her in the head or face with her own hand. Now there's a way to guarantee she'll never dance with you again!
Swing on,
Bill Lapworth
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