With a becket that begins circle left 3/4 and swing your current/next
neighbor, I will frequently walk it through just starting from the
neighbor swing. If it's a pass through and swing a new neighbor, I'll
walk it through the second time with the pass thru, and then dance from
there so that the folks who just got sent out of the set will come in at
the beginning of the dance. Generally I do point out to dancers after
the walk thru that the dance is becket and that it will start from here
with you on the side of the set with your partner. This doesn't work
(or just isn't effective) for dances that do something other than just
take you back to improper at the beginning of the dance. If the dance
starts with long lines or with other stuff with your partner, then you
do still have to get becket first (or walk the dance through starting
somewhere in the middle, which, while it can work, can be chancy if you
have any newer dancers.
Jack
On 11/8/2010 11:35 AM, Andy Shore wrote:
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
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