A political dance for 5 October 2016 at Markarness Hall and featuring committee stars and the gang of four.

One of the dances I intend to call on 5 October features what I term 'committee stars'. These are explained below.

The dance is best done with 4 genuine men and 4 genuine women. It is not really suitable for 'gender neutral' dancing or for beginners.

The dance starts as a square set (numbered conventionally). The leading couple (number 1 in this case) promenade outside the set to stand behind their opposite couple (number 3's). These dancers are then called 'the gang of four'.

In 1981 the gang of four were Labour Party politicians who formed the SDP a few months after they issued what became known as the Limehouse Declaration.

Fast forward to mid 2016 and the Labour Party is again split with Jeremy being opposed to the views of members of the NEC 'the committee'.

committee stars.jpg (22436 bytes) In each turn (figure) of this dance there are two "Jeremys", one male and one female. They are shown circled green, for the first turn. Their partners also play a key role in changing political allegiances, albeit a few bars later.

Men are shown blue and women pink. The yellow + signs should be imagined as chalk lines on the floor showing the centres of the stars.

Once the initial promenade is completed (see top diagram) the call is "Gang of four - up, cast and back".

The 3's dance up and cast around, the 1's dance up to their home place and then fall back for one bar, ending on the inside arms of the + signs. Thus the stars form with one dancer on each arm of each + sign (see lower diagram).

Committee stars feature 3 dancers voting to go in one direction and one in the other direction. In this dance, both Jeremys are instantly converted to the true paths of socialism. Thus half the Party are in a R star (and in unison) and the other half in a L star (again in complete unison) - so the net result is zero political progress.

A short time later in the dance, Jeremy's partners (both of them) achieve sexual neutrality, fraternity, equality and harmony by crossing into their own sex star. The women's star is always right (because women are), and the men's star is always left (men being traditionally left with the housework).

The key bit of advice for the rest of the dance is 'keep your stars' (and keep them centred accurately) - some dancers are in these stars for 10 to 11 bars - nearly three rotations.

For the rest of the dance - you'll have to come along on 5 October.

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