Friday, May 5, 2017

EA Calls for May 11

Jerry Called. Was preceded by a Ken Burke Weekend

  1. From squared set Jerry called:
    1. Heads Lead Left
    2. Veer Right
    3. Ferris Wheel
    4. Everybody Roll (note this is what the Roll would look like if Jerry had called Heads Lead Right, Veer Left, see sequence diagram below for both versions)
    5. Boys Wheel Around
    End with lines facing in and which allowed him to call Pass Thru next.

    Jerry: When I did that Wheel Around after the Ferris Wheel and Roll you boys were a little bit alarmed about that. Remember the principles of Roll: finish the call, don't leave that real estate, turn another quarter in the same direction the body was flowing. The reason you had trouble was because the boys stood there by themselves, there was somebody beside you that you could have joined hands with and then you could have taken the body flow and gone ahead and done your wheel around.

    This sequence diagram demonstrates the difference between heads Leading Left (what Jerry called) and heads Leading Right (Jerry would have had to call Reverse Boys Wheel Around to get lines facing out and the Pass Thru would not have been necessary). In both scenarios the Wheel Around inherits the flow from the Roll.
  2. The execution of a roll requires two pieces of information: the direction of flow at the beginning and whose hand to grab at the end. Regarding the hand grab, there are three possibilities, grab hand of person on your right, grab hand of person on your left and don't grab any hand. The latter happens in these cases
    1. Chase Right and Roll
    2. Scoot Back and Roll
  3. Looked at spreading from various configurations. Jerry said it is one of the most difficult commands in square dancing because there are so many different definitions for it.
    1. Leaders in tandem groups are spreaders, e.g. Heads Star Through and Spread. Note: it doesn't make any sense for the trailers in a tandem group to spread because that would require the leaders to back up.
    2. Active dancers are spreaders, e.g. if the following formation resulted from the girls (circles) trading, then spread would refer to them because they are the active dancers.
      .
      Note that here the girls are neither the leaders in a tandem group nor are they the centers of a line.
    3. Tag the Line. If the following formation resulted from a Tag the Line

      Jerry said "Some callers would think it is okay to call spread and expect that the leaders of the tandem groups (the circles) would spread since they do so in other situations (e.g. 3a above). This is essentially a Centers In call and I would call that instead of Spread".
    4. Jerry said: "[If] there are no leaders in your boxes, that rule goes out the window when you are in ocean waves or lines. It only works when you are in two groups of tandems, one behind the other, that the leader or centers thing will work for you. From here, spread goes to the centers of the wave". See Taminations for an example of centers of a wave spreading.
    5. Now consider the following two-faced line formation created when the girls (circles), say, ran around the boys in a wave

      All dancers are active here (the boys had to slide) so the Spread command is not directed at the active dancers as it was in 3b. above. Jerry said "Some callers contend that you can [tandem] spread from here, I think that the definition doesn't allow for it myself. If I said spread some callers think that the trailing couple would move up and get between the lead couple (the lead couple slides apart).The definition very clearly says from General Lines and Waves that the centers work so if I said spread here the girls [(circles)] would have to slide open and the boys would slide to the middle.".
  4. The spread examples from Taminations can be grouped into the categories that Jerry described
    1. If only some of the dancers are directed to Spread, they slide apart sideways to become ends, as the inactive dancers step forward between them.
         Heads Star Thru and Spread
    2. If the (Anything) call finishes in lines or waves (e.g., Follow Your Neighbor), the centers anticipate the Spread action by sliding apart sideways to become the new ends, while the original ends anticipate the Spread action by moving into the nearest center position.
         Acey Deucey and Spread
         Bend the Line and Spread
         Coordinate and Spread
         Cut the Diamond and Spread. Note this is equivalent to points move in and cross run
         Fan the Top and Spread
         Follow Your Neighbor and Spread
         Hinge and Spread
         Pass the Ocean and Spread
         Swing Thru and Spread. Note this is equivalent to ends trade, centers cross run.
         Trade the Wave and Spread. Note this is equivalent to centers trade and ends trade
    3. If the (Anything) call finishes in tandem couples (e.g., Wheel & Deal from a line of four), the lead dancers slide apart sideways, while the trailing dancers step forward between them.
         Cloverleaf and Spread
         Ferris Wheel and Spread
         Pass to the Center and Spread
         Wheel and Deal and Spread
         Zoom and Spread
  5. Careful: Split Circulate followed immediately by an All Circulate
  6. Peel Off: Leaders two things to remember 1. Roll away from center 2. Step forward; Trailers do just the opposite. How far you step depends on how far apart the leaders and trailers are at the start of the call.
  7. Jerry defined Cross Peel Off as a regular Peel Off preceded by a Half Sashay. As in a regular Peel Off, the leaders will become ends and the trailers will become centers.
    1. After a Tag the Line: sequence diagram.
    2. From two-faced lines: sequence diagram.
  8. Finish a Ferris Wheel from offset boxes. sequence diagram.
  9. When the formation is facing diamonds, right hand waves Cut the Diamond requires that the centers do a Partner Trade since they are facing the same direction. Dancers sometimes "correct" the formation by having one of the points turn around so a mini-wave trade can be done.
  10. The reverse happened when dancers got "overtrained" on the Cut the Diamond: the cutters in a mini-wave would try to convert to become couples.
  11. Heads Separate, girl around 1, boy around 3, including her. End up at ends of lines.
  12. Boys to boys Walk and Dodge (boys are not next to one another)
  13. From an Alamo Ring boys Run Right, boys Run Left.
    Here is the Alamo Ring

    Note that the girls have to slide into the boy's (the one that ran around them) position. If the boys run Right and Left they are proceeding counterclockwise around the circle and the girls proceed clockwise. If the boys Run Left and then Right they will proceed clockwise around the ring and the girls will proceed counterclockwise. This feels like weaving to the boys.
  14. Heads left Square Thru 4 to end facing your corner and then left Spin Chain Thru. Since couples are in a box, they have to Step to a Wave first. It is natural to step to a left hand wave since the dancers that ended the Square Thru had just used their right hands for the final Pull By. Callers try to avoid having dancers use a same hand twice in a row.
  15. Jerry generalized Do Paso so that corners are not necessarily next to one another. You still left turn your partner but you keep turning until your find your corner somewhere in the square and do a right arm turn with them back to your partner for the courtesy turn (if there is no other instruction to do something with your partner). sequence diagram
  16. He also generalized the definition of the man's corner to be the first woman clockwise from him that is not his partner. He demonstrated this by having the heads do a Right and Left Thru from a squared set and then had everybody Half-Sashay. Here is what Jerry said at this point:

    Now your corner has changed, it is not your physical corner, it's your corner of the square, it is the corner you need to look for after you turn your partner by the left. It is the girl over to the left. It is not your original corner but it is still the corner of the square. That is your corner of the square. That's the one you're looking for. So it is not always your physical corner, it could be anyone who is at the corner of the square. See sequence diagram.
  17. After Peel Off and Roll be sure to deflate the square to keep it tight.
  18. Do first part of Crossfire: centers trade while ends cross fold. This puts the dancers in a Z-formation. This is a natural formation to call a Peel the Top from: sequence diagram.
  19. When you extend to start a Cast Off 3/4 (a in Peel the Top) do not count the Extend as one of the turns.
  20. Remembering who and where you are
    1. Head or Side: Promenade, don't stop, heads Wheel Around and make lines.
    2. Heads face your corner, Star right, then Star left with the other heads.
    3. Corner: In a Do Paso your corner may not be next to you.
    4. Corner: Square Thru in middle until you find your corner.
    5. In an Ocean Wave know who you are holding in your right hand. On Swing Thru you will trade with that person first. The means that Swing Thru in a left hand wave starts with the center dancers.
    6. After Rolling find the dancer, if any, you are supposed to hold hands with.
    7. If in a diamond the center of the diamond should be holding hands.
  21. Reverse Single Circle to a Wave ends in left-hand Ocean Waves. Jerry emphasized the flow: sequence diagram
  22. From lines facing out: Girls (in center) Chase Right. Boys are not involved but if they don't hear the modifier to the call ("girls") they might be tempted to participate since they are in a position to do so. Need to listen!
  23. Called Right and Left Grand from lines facing in. You have to turn to face your partner to begin otherwise you won't see her.
  24. Called Grand Swing Thru from lines facing in. Have to step to a tidal wave first.

5 comments:

  1. It looks like the diagram for #18 is wrong. the last panel has dancer #4 facing west when she should be facing east, I believe.

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  2. The idea that your corner can be someone who is NOT right next to you is a bit screwy, IMHO. (#15, #16)

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  3. Commenting on the Ken Burke weekend: reading through the description of the calls is nowhere near as fun as it was actually dancing them!! Even when the calls were unfamilar. Ken is an entertaining caller and a excellent teacher. Totally enjoyed him. Especially liked the variations on spin-chain and exchange the gears. Also liked the scatter-shot sooot back (or whatever it's called.) I must say that when you introduce a lot of variations, fractions, wave-rules, other rules, protocols, etc.. Calls that require intellectual analysis to execute -- it does take the fun out of things. It becomes more a test of endurance than a dance; an iron-man competition instead of a social gathering. I think the caller should guage his dancers and be careful not to destroy them with challenging moves they can't handle. I'd be curious to know how long these guys must study square-dance "science" before they can call a dance.

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  4. It's tough to go to these dances and workshops when you don't have a regular partner. So far it's been okay, in Fairfield at least, since there are enuf "loose" women, but I hesitate to go out of town to a dance by myself. From what I can see, people just do not switch partners very much in square dancing, even during a class/workshop. It's different in other dance classes (e.g., west coast swing, tango, ballroom), where the instructor *makes* you switch partners frequently so you don't get overly dependent on just one person.

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  5. The Ken Burke weekend summary is fantastic. One thing I didn't see mentioned: Ken recommended that if the square breaks down, it's better to find your partner and form a line rather than to simply grab anyone and form a static square. This gives the caller a better chance to get your square back into the game.

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