Peter Varley’s dances

REQUESTS - A reader recently E mailed me with various requests, but, with a particular interest in seeing some more of the dances arranged by Peter Varley published here, having been impressed by those I had already published. Peter was a regular if occasional inventive competitor, and a regular winner in the 70′s, and certainly one of our best arrangers (the ever popular Rumba One was his). I will no doubt publish more of his dances in due course (and probably others requested by that reader). For the interrim, I have included below a link below to one of Peter’s dances selected from the current library. It is interesting looking back at this to see how the dances have changed over the years ! Peter (like many of his contemporaries) really knew how to build patterns of figures that gave the dance some kind of character as a whole (and that was more than the sum of the individual parts), and true to the rhythm. The reader might also be interested to know that Peter’s partner, Jill Bush, invented many dances under her own name, but also in the Peter Varley vein of sound technique and good taste, and many of her dances are also in the current library. Sadly, Peter died in 2005. There are various obituary testimonials to him on the ISTD site, which make interesting reading. Here is a link to cut & paste into your browser: http://www.istd.org/latin/facultynews/december%202005/PeterVarley.html – and there is a link in the Blogroll.

HONEYSUCKLE JIVE Peter Varley, 1981: Advanced jive routine with an unusual variation on the change of hands behind the back. Plus open throwaways, and the argentine crosses (both now rare), and an attractively styled same foot variation. *** For photos of Peter & Jill demonstrating this dance click this link.

Note added Aug 2010: there are now more of Peter’s dances on the site (here – see the Latest Page – and on the new site), and more to come !