Otto’s Opener

Formation: Pairs (gender balance not needed) facing counter-clockwise (towards line of dance) in a big circle.
Music: Any 64-beat well-phrased singing call. This dance has only 32 beats, so there will be 14 partner changes in a standard seven-part singing call. Be sure that a standard singing call is slowed so that the music lasts four minutes (about 112 beats per minute).

Download RTF file: Otto’s Opener

Prompts: (4 beats per line)
Intro or
29-32   – – Walk forward four (start with outside foot);
    1-4   – California Twirl (right dancer under);
    5-8   – – Vine Apart (side, behind, side, touch);
  9-12   – – Vine Together (side, behind, side, touch);

13-16   – – Walk forward four (to reverse);
17-20   – California Twirl;
21-24   – – Vine Apart (side, behind, side, touch);
25-28   – Vine to new partner;

Description:
    1-4   Dancers join inside hands and begin using their outside feet (person on left uses left foot, person on right uses right foot). Partner pairs walk forward four steps.
    5-8   Teach the California Twirl without reference to gender. The person on the right ducks under their joined hands to take the place of the person on the left, while the person on the left walks a small semi-circle to the right to take the place of the person on the right. The pair ends facing reverse line of dance (clockwise).
  9-12   Dancers move sideways away from their partner stepping to the side on their outside foot, stepping behind that foot on their other foot, then stepping to the side again on their outside foot. On the fourth beat, dancers touch the toe of the inside foot to the floor and clap their own hands once.
13-16   Dancers move back together by stepping to the side on their inside foot, stepping behind that foot on their other foot, then stepping to the side again on their inside foot. As before, touch and clap on the fourth beat.
17-28   Repeat beats 1-12 going in the opposite direction.
29-32   The inside dancer does a Vine Together while the outside dancer walks (or vines) forward at an angle to meet a new partner and say “Howdy”.

Choreographer: Otto Warteman from Trinity, Texas
Source: Printed in CD Journal, December 2016
Usage: Otto used this during the summer for teenage students at Christian summer camps.

This page from http://dances.callerlab.org (CALLERLAB Dance Resource).