Monday, April 17, 2017

EA Calls for April 13

Jerry called.

  1. Some square dance pointers from Jerry to keep in mind
    1. Have fun
    2. Master the basics
    3. Listen
    4. Keep the square tight and connected
    5. Avoid confusing other dancers with talking or stray arm movements
    6. Flow to the beat
    7. Blend flourishes correctly into the call
    8. Remember who your corner is
    9. Remember who you are (belle, beau, head, side)
    10. Be precise in turning and walking
    11. Know left from right
    12. Be gentle
  2. Dixie Style to an Ocean Wave ends in a left-hand ocean wave. If normal heads do it, the men will be in the middle. If extend (to the sides) is then called another left hand wave should be formed.
  3. Reverse Single Circle to a Wave also ends in a left hand wave.
  4. In the Roll Out and Follow your Leader call, if not specified, the leader is the man of couple 1.
  5. Jerry demonstrated flow with this calling sequence:
    Start with left hand wave
    Left Swing Thru
    Recycle, boys do Cross Fold part (creates flow for next command)
    Reverse Single Circle to a Line
    
    See sequence diagram.
  6. Jerry: "Ever since we (CallerLab?) came out with Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears, nobody calls Spin Chain the Gears anymore and dancers have forgot how to do it." So he worked it for a while, both left and right handed. He emphasized teamwork, dancers in a star should wait until all dancers are in the star. If you follow dancers 1 and 2 here you will see that they both get to do a U-turn back, a cast off 3/4, a trade and a cast-off 3/4. One of the cast off 3/4s involves 4 dancers and the other one only 2.
  7. Jerry then worked on Spin Chain and Exchange the Gears with the men leading the dancers to the other side. Note that if you start from a left hand wave the 'snake' passes left shoulders. Whoever leads the 'snake' ends up in the middle of the wave along with the #3 dancer in the 'snake'.
  8. Jerry workshopped a double exchange where the 'snake' doesn't stop in the wave but keeps going to return to the end it started from and form a wave there.
  9. When an Acey Deucey immediately follows a Swing Thru be sure to complete the Swing Thru before starting the Acey Deucey, i.e. the center dancers have to Trade twice, once for the Swing Thru and once for the Acey Deucey.
  10. From a static square, just the heads Ping Pong Circulate is the same as heads Step to a Wave. If heads were to Ping Pong Circulate again they would step out and Trade. The resulting square is the same as if they originally did a Right and Left Thru.
  11. Jerry then had the heads and sides do the Ping Pong Circulate together: sequence diagram
  12. A wrong-way Thar can be thought of as intersecting right-hand ocean waves. If a Swing Thru is called everybody trades and then the left-hand star of four dancers in the center of the thar turn 180 degrees: sequence diagram
  13. Starting with a wrong way thar with men in the center and having men run around the women creates intersecting diamonds: sequence diagram.
  14. Compare Couples Trade from Lines Facing Out with Couples Trade from Right-Hand Two-Faced Lines. Think of doing two 1/2 trades.
  15. Listening opportunity
    1. Promenade but don't slow down
    2. Heads put your girl in the lead single file
    3. Heads don't stop
    4. Sides go into the middle and dosido
    5. Heads keep going
    6. Those in the middle star thru
    7. Square thru 3/4 round
    8. Allemande left (sides encounter heads)
  16. Jerry reviewed Relay the Deucey and Spin Chain the Gears with the second group. He did it from right hand waves, left hand waves and from sashayed couples.
  17. Also worked Follow your Neighbor giving boys and girls a chance to be leaders (fold and roll) and trailers (cast off 3/4)
  18. Jerry: Alexa, fix me a sandwich
    Alexa: Fix it yourself
  19. Start with 3/4 tag the line, end in right-hand facing diamonds with girls in the center: sequence diagram
  20. Partner Tag (an A1 call). The person you are holding hands with is your partner.
  21. Explode the Wave gentle Pull By with same person you do a Trade the Wave with
  22. Since Explode the Wave ends with lines facing out, Chase Right or Chase Left was often called.
  23. Unlike Star Thru, Slide Thru can be done facing the same sex. For the boys it's a no-hands Touch a Quarter. The girls pass thru and face left: Taminations
  24. Tricky sequence from a right hand ocean wave:
    Ends Run
    Ends Trade (these are the previous centers)
    
    sequence diagram

5 comments:

  1. I kind of enjoy making off-the-wall comments during the dance. (Like, "this music sounds like the track of a horror film" -or- "that call was evil". No doubt it's distracting. Hell - it distracts me! But that's the fun of it. It's challenging, like drinking beer while you play chess. You have to be sharp to not lose the "flow."

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  2. Couldn't find "roll out". But I did find "Out-roll". It's an A2 call. And Follow your Leader is a C3A call. Yikes! Are we really getting that deep into this!?

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  3. In #15, going from step C to step D is hard to visualize. Also going from G to H.
    The hardest "simple" move is the leader role of Follow your neighbor.
    The hardest Plus call overall is Spin chain and exchange Fears. Oops, I meant "Gears." Haven't seen/heard the call "Fix me a Sandwich" before. Must be really advanced.

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  4. Regarding #11 -- heads and sides ping-pong together. Had trouble following the sequence diagram -- last 2 boxes in particular. Maybe I need to look up the definition of Ping-pong circulate.

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    Replies
    1. Actually, the confusion starts in Box 6, where you face your corner. I'm guessing this has to be some "non-standard" applicaiton of the definition of Ping-pong.

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