Notes from the Iowa State Convention, April 7-8

These are notes from the Iowa Square Dance Convention held in Ottumwa on Friday and Saturday, April 7 & 8. Please comment if you participated in some other rare or unusual calls.

1. Load the Boat was fractionated (1/4, 1/2, 3/4): sequence diagram.
2. 1/2 Tag the Line twice (could be generalized to n times): sequence diagram.
3. From facing lines, both boxes do the center part of Load the Boat: sequence diagram.
4. Teacup Chain from lines facing in Taminations, sequence diagram.
5. Head Boys Center for a Tea Cup Chain from a half-sashayed square
6. 4 Boys Chain, Chain them back. Boys need to use their right hands in the star so they can offer their left hands to the girls to be Courtesy Turned
7. Dixie Style to an Ocean Wave using sashayed couples. Roles are reversed.
8. Reverse Dixie Style to an Ocean Wave - men Left Pull By and Right Touch a Quarter: Taminations
9. Unbounded Promenades. Whenever Promenade was called you could go to any position in any square with your partner
10. Progressions: From lines facing out, if dancers are facing another square they Pass Thru with those dancers. If they are facing dancers in their square, they do a normal Pass Thru. If they are facing a wall, they partner trade. Ultimately the squares converge to the original ones. Is this correct?
11. Six couple squares: the extra couples become heads so each head position has two couples.
12. Start with half-sashayed squares. Any call the mentions "boy" is done by the girls and vice versa. The following calls that do not mention gender are also done "backwards".
    1. Promenade: the men are on the inside
    2. Left and Right Grand: the men go clockwise
    3. Weave the Ring: the men go clockwise
    4. Star thru: the men go under the arch
    5. California Twirl: the men go under the arch
    6. Courtesy Turn: the men have to offer their left hands to the girls
    7. Dive Thru: Men involved in the center arch, have to go under the arch of the concluding California Twirl
    8. Wheel Around: The women back up while the men go forward
    9. Box the Gnat: The men go under the arch
    10. Calls like Heads Star Left, Everybody Hinge, Everybody Trade and Everybody Circulate are not affected.
    11. Others?
    The above list is from the mens point of view because men rarely dance as women. Many women have danced as men so they are used to the switch.
13. Women roll to look at their partners ear and everybody does a grand square (the women are the "facers"). To prepare for unusual Grand Square configurations like these, it might be helpful to do a regular Grand Square ignoring any cues from the other dancers. Just move within your quadrant as if there were no other dancers in the square.
14. Wheel and Deal from a Tidal Line: Taminations
15. Spin Chain the Gears is much more difficult if mixed genders are the circulators.