What I was noticing about switching every other time through is that for me, at least, and for some other people I've talked to about it, it did become internalized and I didn't have to think about it. That was the revelation, suddenly noticing that I had been dancing for a while, alternating roles and wasn't even conscious of doing it any more. Of course, it can depend a lot on your partner and whether they are similarly falling into the rhythm of it.
Actually, I like Alternating Corners despite the fact the caller has to keep calling. And my perception is that modern dancers generally like it too compared to a more traditional corners dance like Chorus Jig where you have to wait to be active (and which may never happen if sets are long). For a dance like this, sometimes all you need is a Lisa Greenleaf style minimalist prompt such as quietly saying "ones" and "twos" just to keep things going. I think the alternation makes the dance more interesting and I don't see it as my purpose to have every dance send dancers off into that la-la, altered zen state (that I nonetheless cherish as a dancer...) Will on 6/25/10 10:18 AM, Jeff Kaufman at [email protected] wrote: > Will Loving wrote: >> >> When you do gender role switching every other time it basically turns a >> 32-bar dance into a 64-bar one, at least that's what seems to be happening >> inside my head when I realize that I have stopped thinking about when to >> switch. >> > > I swap genders a lot when I dance, but I find switching every time is > hard for exactly this reason: it turns a 32 bar dance into a 64 bar > one. I can hold a 64 bar dance in my head, but it's harder and less > fun. I much prefer switching on whim, where we might switch more or > less often than once per time through the dance. Because the switch > is then a kind of flourish instead of a 'required' move, I don't have > to think about it at all until it happens. > >> >> There are some dances like Alternating Corners where you do >> something similar in that the dance in different every other time >> through, though with continued prompting from the caller. In the >> case of Alternating Corners, the 1s and 2s alternate doing the swing >> and contra corners. >> > > I don't like the dance alternating corners because dancers don't > internalize it properly. They learn it ok, so they can do it, but > they usually can't handle the caller dropping out. Once the caller > drops out people forget which turn it is and they have to step back > in. I've seen this happen even in groups where a caller could drop > out after two times through on a simplish dance. > > Jeff > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers -- William M. Loving Dedication Technologies, Inc. 7 Coach Lane Amherst, MA 01002-3304 USA [email protected] Tel: +1 413 253-7223 (GMT 5) Fax: +1 206 202-0476
