Hey Par
(Armenia)

[Full notes] [Summary notes] [Other dances & the source code]

Alternative Names 'Hej Par' is a transcription in Dutch by Tineke.
'Hey Par' is an English transcription.
Formation Short lines. Shoulder-hold.
Dance Structure ((A x 4) + (B x 4) + (C1 x 3) + C2) repeated throughout the music.
Music Structure 6 beats/bar, 4 bars/phrase. 4 counts/bar, 2 bars/phrase.
Music Speed 140 counts/min.
Translation 'Hey Dance' in the sense of shouting "Hey!".
Choreographer Tineke van Geel.
Source Sally Fletcher, who learnt it from Tineke van Geel, in Ipswich in 1997. Additional Part C detail from Tineke's notes published in Dutch in 'Doe Dans Basics 1'.

Disclaimer: Mistakes are quite likely in the notes and no guarantees are made as to accuracy. There may be other versions of the same dance or other dances with the same name. Music may differ, particularly in speed, introduction and duration, between performers. The division into parts, bars & counts might not be standard. These notes of the dance are freely distributable (under GPL or CC-by-sa) in so much as the note's author's contribution but the choreography and/or collection were by other people and so their copyright might apply to the dance itself. Better than using notes, go to a dance class where it is taught by Tineke van Geel.

A very energetic lively Armenian dance with shouts & high kicks.

To me the music sounds as if it has 4 counts per bar in two bar phrases but musically it is written as 6 beats per bar in 4 phrases i.e. what I count as "ONE Two THREE Four" is actually a faster counting "ONE two three Four five six | ONE two three Four five six". For the following notes I've used a compromise of counting it as "ONE & a Two & a THREE & a Four & a" with each of my 'counts bars' equalling two musical bars.

Note that it starts with the L foot. I've once been in a party where the band medleyed this dance onto the end of a R footed one, Ambee Dageets, which caught me out and I started Hej Par in mirror image which was a big problem as it starts with big motions of the working leg from one side to the other!

A tip to reduce the learning time is to note that both Parts B & C begin with a repeat of the last motion of the previous part.

Most of this is based on how I learnt it from Sally. Confirmation of the extrovert styling was from the social dancing in the Balkan Festival at Zetten in the Netherlands. However I was inexperienced in learning details at the time and had glossed over some minor details, in particular I'd simply fudged the couple of counts of Part C bar 1 counts 3-4 into a couple of steps. Hence 13 years later, when planning to teach this dance, I looked those up in Tineke's notes 13 years later and the version below for those 2 counts is based on Tineke's notes (albeit I might have mistranslated from Dutch!). In reading those I noticed that I had originally written the styling of bar 2 sloppily (as a simple backwards-bicycling motion not differentiated from a lift & dig) and so corrected that too. Tineke's notes also had an adjustment of the final time through to ((A x 5) + (B x 5) + (C1 x 2)) but I left the sequence as the regular repeats for simplicity.

Style: Very lively. Big high kicks (to a minimum of 45 deg from the downward vertical but preferably to at least horizontal). Energetic showing off macho.

Introduction

Summary: 2 bars.

Start after 2 bars.

Part A

Summary: L, R across heel touch, R sweep to side with a foot twirl. R, L close, knee bounce, 2 x quick heel bounce.

Start Facing the centre. Shoulder-hold.
1
1 L in place.
2 R across infront onto the heel without weight transfer with the knee straight.
3-4 Move the R foot to the side onto the heel without weight transfer with the knee straight. This motion is made to look spectacular, almost as if the lower leg is spinning around at the knee, which is something the knee joint can't do, by the foot travelling on path with a loop in it. This comprises raising & flexing the knee, moving the foot in a cw circle relative to the knee (lower leg transcribes a conical path with knee at apex) and re-straightening the knee all done whilst the upper leg angle moves from L to R.
2
1 R in place (which is to the side).
2 L close taking weight onto both feet.
3 Bounce down & up by bending & straightening both knees.
4 Bounce up & down by raising & lowering both heels.
& a Bounce up & down by raising & lowering both heels.

Part B

Summary: Bounces as in Part A, bend knees, straighten lifting R. (Leap onto R with L high kick & shout, revert) x 2.

Start Facing the centre. Shoulder-hold.
1
1-2 As Part A bar 2 counts 3-4a (knee bounce down-up, 2 x quick heel bounce up-down).
3 Bend both knees.
4 Straighten the L knee taking weight on L foot whilst raising the R leg up behind from the knee.
2
1
Feet Leap onto the R foot in place whilst kicking up the L leg with straight knee high (at least 45 deg, ideally to the horizontal or maybe even more if ones hamstrings allow) infront.
Shout "Hey!".
2 Leap onto L foot in place raising the R foot behind again.
3-4 Repeat counts 1-2 (leap onto R with L high kick infront & shout, leap onto L raising R behind).

Part C1

Summary: Kick as in Part A (no shout), R in place, L with double bounce. R in place with L lift & dig, mirror.

Start Facing the centre. Shoulder-hold.
1
1-2 As Part B bar 2 counts 3-4 but without the shout (leap onto R with L high kick infront, leap close onto L raising R behind).
3 R in place.
4 L in place with a bounce by raising & lowering the heel.
& a Bounce again by raising & lowering the heel.
2
1 R close whilst lifting the L foot. L upper leg goes to horizontal & L lower leg to vertically down.
2 Straighten the L knee whilst lowering the upper leg to about 30 deg from the vertical infront. This is somewhat like a spade digging motion.
3-4 Repeat counts 1-2 in mirror image (L close lifting R, R dig).

Part C2

Summary: As C1 but replace final lift & dig with L & R in place.

Start Facing the centre. Shoulder-hold.
1 As Part C1 bar 1 (kick as in Part A (no shout), R in place, L with double bounce).
2
1-2 As Part C1 bar 2 counts 1-2 (R close lifting L, L dig).
3 L in place.
4 R in place.

This is simply adapting the end of the final Part C to get back on the correct foot for the next Part A.

Notes by Andrew Hardwick.
Written 2010/3/16. Updated 2010/4/18.
Contact (email:info@duramecho.com).
Available on-line at http://duramecho.com.