Laurelhurst is a 3 couple dance in waltz time, composed by Fried de Metz Herman in 1996 to a tune by John Stapledon, her long-time musical collaborator from England. The dance debuted at the Seattle Fried-for-All West in that year and is named for the park in which some of the dancing at that event occurred. This video comes from the 2011 Playford Ball hosted by Country Dance * New York.
My sincere thanks go out to the dancers for their efforts at realizing the choreography so well: my wife Faina and her partner Orly Krasner, Bob Erenburg and Ellie Hansen, and Mark and Lucy Weinstein. The outstanding musicians for this rendition of the tune are Barbara Greenberg, violin; Dan Beerbohm, flute; Marty Taylor, recorder; and Kathy Talvitie, keyboard.
Speaking of the choreography, please note some of the refinements that are viewable in this instance: the long arms of the dancers in the hands-6, the way some of them look back at partner at the end of the dance as the 2s cross by right hand and go below (twice) to progress to the bottom, the avoidance of a twiddle for the 2M as he begins the progression to the bottom with the right-hand cross with partner, the way all three dancers move at the beginning of the half heys, and the connectedness and feeling put into the setting forward to the right-diagonal person at the beginning of the dance. All these points and more lift this dancing from the pedestrian to the lyrical.