The Clapping Dance

folk song / traditional

Lyrics

(Czech folk song, Hanakian dialect)

Come along, ye lads and lassies, harvest time’s begun,
Let’s away where ripening plums hang purple in the sun.
Oh, how sour they taste! Let us homeward haste.
Oh, alas! the plums they have not ripened,
We must come again another day.

“Reznicka” means “butcher,” but the dance is usually called “The Clapping Dance.” (source)

Dance

Formation: Couples stand around the room.

Measures 1-8 (and repeat) – Partners take waltz position and dance polka, turning round and round to the right without reversing. They now stand facing each other.
Measure 9 -The man takes the girl’s right hand in his left
Measure 10 – Then he claps his right palm to her right
Measure 11 – The girl takes his right hand in her left
Measures 12 – She claps her right palm to his right.

Do the clapping pattern while the girl walks backward and the man walks forward to the right round the room taking two steps to each bar:
Measure 13 – beat 1 – clap own hands together, beat 2 – clap right hands with partner
Measure 14 – beat 1 – clap own hands together, beat 2 – clap left hands with partner
Measures 15-20 – Repeat measures 13 & 14 three more times (source)