Gordo’s Quadrille

Formation: Four couples in a square formation.
Music: “Gordo’s Quadrille”, Square Dancetime SD-002 (The intro is 16 beats.)

Download RTF file: Gordo’s Quadrille

Prompts:
Intro or (The original music has a total of 16 beats for the intro.)
57-64   – – – -; – – Heads Lead Right;
    1-8   Split Two round One; down the middle with a Right and Left Thru;
  9-16   – – – -; – – Sides Lead Right;
17-24   Split Two round One; down the middle with a Right and Left Thru;
25-32   – – – -; – – Forward and Back*;

33-40   – – – -; – – Allemande Left;
41-48   – Pass your partner -; Take the next and Promenade;
49-56   – – – -; – – – -;
57-64   – – – -; – – Heads Lead Right;

Description:
    1-8   Head (or side) couples each move as a couple to face the couple on their right. The side couples slide sideways to make space and the head couples move through between them. The heads then separate with the gent going to his left and the lady going to her right.
  9-16   The head couples walk around one dancer (who is sliding back into his/her original spot) and then come into the middle to do a Right and Left Thru with the head dancers coming in from the opposite direction. (Right and Left Thru = Right pull by and then Courtesy Turn with the dancer beside you.) The head ladies have exchanged places and both head couples should now be at home.
17-24   The action described for beats 1-8 is now danced by the Side (or head) couples.
25-32   The sides continue the pattern as described in beats 9-16.

33-40   All 8 dancers move forward 3 steps and touch then back up 3 steps and touch.
41-48   Each corner pair turns to face each other and does an Allemande Left.
49-64   All dancers pass their partner by the right shoulder and take the next dancer to Promenade once around the square and back to the man’s home position.

*Note: The original dance has “Circle Left halfway” instead of “Forward and Back”. The resulting Promenade is supposed to be 1 1/2 around the square, which takes too long.

Choreography by: Jack Murtha, California
Source: The record “Gordo’s Quadrille” on Square Dancetime SD-002 from Jack Murtha Enterprises. This quadrille was included in New England Quadrilles by Bob Dalsemer.
Printed in: CDP Journal November 1992 and in Community Dance Program Handbook.
Usage: This dance is definitely not designed for a Beginner Dance Party. Partners change quickly making it an interesting challenge for a community dance group with some experience. This quadrille has a corner progression and is 64 beats in length. It can be prompted as a quadrille or used as the figure in a singing call. It can be adapted to a patter routine by calling “Four Ladies Chain” after the “Forward and Back”, which returns everyone to their home spot.

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