Kitchen Triad

Kitchen Triad, dated 1984, appears in Fried Herman’s early book The Road to Ruin and is dedicated to Everett J. Delahanty, Jr, whose kitchen, occasionally used by Fried for dancing in the late ‘80s/early ‘90s, was just the right size for a 3-couple set. Everett was a long-time member of Country Dancers of Westchester, serving for a number of years both as board member, vice president (1983-1985), and president (1985-1988). He retired as a full professor from the Psychology Department of Manhattanville College in 2014, where he had taught since 1961 (see his picture from that time in the video at 00:09). He loved to perform in Gilbert and Sullivan operas and before his death in 2016 was an avid singer in a local ensemble known as Marie’s Circle of Singers, named after his voice teacher at SUNY Purchase and family friend, Marie Traficante. Kitchen Triad is a lively dance with a partner swing, but with a difference: Its signature figure, the cross-over star, is one of the many figures with which Fried extended the language of the English country dance. The men form a right-hand star for 3, the women a left-hand star for 3. As the stars turn, the first couple (1W preceding) crosses over and joins the other star, then the 3s, then the 2s, until all are on the other side of the set and the stars resolve into lines. Part of Fried’s vision for this figure was that the stars should retain their shape, even as dancers cross over, leaving one star and joining the other in only two counts of music; the dancers at Lenox accomplished this rather nicely. The happy music at the 2017 Lenox Assembly, where the video was taken, was provided by A Joyful Noise: Barbara Greenberg on violin, Daniel Beerbohm on flute, and Kathy Talvitie on keyboard. My thanks go out to them and to all the fine dancers at the Lenox weekend. –Paul Ross