Folk dance from Denmark

1000 tanker (1000 Thoughts)

Sønderhoning (South ho dance)

Niels Mejlhede Jensen, Bøgeløvsvej 4, 2830 Virum, Denmark. e-mail (web master)

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Dance description:

1000 tanker (1000 Thoughts), Sønderhoning (South ho dance)

Couple dance
Walking steps (2 steps per bar), south ho steps (2 steps per bar)
The dance is in 2 sections: a, b :

a: maybe 8 bars: walking forward
b: maybe 8 bars: turning around with south ho steps

maybe not 8 bars, but any number of bars, gent decides

Feet movement in turning around

For 1½ bar we do:

Gent: left, together, right (or = left, right, right)
Lady: together right, left (or = right, right, left)

1000 tanker (1000 Thoughts) - Sønderhoning (South ho dance) - couple dance
8 bars or any number of bars		Walking forward Gent left foot on beat 1 in the bar, lady right foot (or what you find OK) (so if you get out of the turning around not ready for the best foot, you use a loose step (not stepping down but repeat foot)).
8 bars or any number of bars		Turning around with south ho steps, shown below. The dance position, dance hold, is today mostly the special south ho position. But I learned to dance it with a normal position, and danced it always so until I got into new company 20 years ago. So let us not make a difficulty out of the dance position here now.
beat 1 (or beat 2)		Gent left foot down, lady both feet. Example 1: If walking forward in bar 8, gent has a big step on his right foot on beat 2 (bar 8) to turn over in front of and facing his lady who is then stopped walking. Then gent: left foot down and lady: both feet, starting to turn around.
beat 2 (or beat 1)		Gent both feet, lady right foot.
beat 1 (or beat 2)		Gent right foot, lady left foot.
beat 2 (or beat 1)		As in the first feet figure: Gent left foot, lady both feet.
The above turning around and starting on turning around is just like in a Swedish polska in time signature of 3/4, only that the south ho is in 2/4 so that not only 1 bar is used for a full turn, but 1½ bar is needed, or 3 bars for 2 turns, or observe: 8 bars give 5 turns we say. After those 8 bars of 5 turns think of starting walking forward on bar 9 beat 1: gent on left foot and lady on right foot (use a loose step, gent left foot, lady right foot in bar 8 beat 2). The gent decides and leads all the way, and the poor lady has to try to follow him. But if the lady is ever in doubt of what to do next in a pleasant flow of steps, it is all due to the gent giving bad or confusing or no clear body signals.
Because the music is in 2/4 and the dance in 3/4 you can enjoy vary the start of turning: Example 2: You walk forward up to bar 8 and gent has a loose step on his right foot on beat 2. On bar 9 beat 1 gent turns in front of his lady on right foot and then left foot on beat 2 (= first foot figure above). It is special to have a dance in 3/4 to music in 2/4 (where an ordinary Swedish polska could seem more rational, and is easier defined), but after some experience you get used to the south ho dance. And after more experience you get to enjoy the important small differences. Later you want more and more and include the variants. There are dances, also in my Copenhagen area, where people dance only south ho dances all night. And there are festivals where they dance south ho all day and all night - for a whole week.

The dance is repeated as long as pleased.