Halloween weekend, my partner and I attended the Fire Ant Frolic in Austin with Nils Fredland calling and Elixer playing. Great dances, great music, nice people - what a wonderful weekend!
Nils did something on several walkthroughs that I don't think I'd ever noticed before and I thought it was very clever and effective. I asked him during a break if he had thought it up or where he had learned it and he kind of avoided answering the question directly... but I thought I'd share it here and see what people think. On Becket dances that begin with a Circle Left 3/4, he did not have the sets "becketize" themselves before the walk through... he'd say "hands 4, ones cross over" and begin the walk through with a "Join Hands Circle Left All the Way" (which is the same a becketizing by circling left 1/4 and then beginning the walk through with a circle left 3/4). I often notice that many dancers aren't listening when you ask them to "becketize" by circling left 1/4, which leads to initial confusion down the line, so Nils' solution avoids that common problem. It was obvious (at least to me) that the dances were, in fact, Becket dances based on how they ended and his description of the progression, and he'd actually have us begin to the music from the "backed up" becket formation and Circle 3/4. I just thought it was a really neat way to do walk throughs for those Becket dances that start with a Circle Left 3/4. Note that it won't be correct to use for Becket dances that begin with other moves. Has anyone else ever seen or used this walk-through technique? What do you think of it? I tried it on one dance I called in Cocoa Beach on Saturday and it worked very well. /Andy Shore http://andyshore.com
