Recently someone posted a dance sequence and rather then hijack that thread I'm starting a new one.
> Right hand turn, Left hand turn > Two hand turn, No hand turn (do-si-do) > Balance and swing > Promenade and slip the clutch (ladies turn right and meet the next gent) Outside of modern square dancing you can define slip the clutch any way you like, of course, but within MSD, a slip the clutch requires both dancers in the couple to already be facing in opposite directions. What would be borrowed here from MSD is a "ladies rollback while the gents move forward". What's good here is the definition for this rare contra call is included. What's bad is this exactly not the definition in squares. I know slip the clutch sounds cooler and is shorter to say. Its likely this was misobserved, misremembered or a coincidence of invention. It could even be a very old definition that diverged in the two dance styles. It's still going to (mildly) confuse the handful of people who dance both contras and MSD-they'll either mess up or hesitate. I can dance a contra to whatever words the caller wants to use as the caller defines it, but if this were undefined and sprung on me, say in a medley, I'd do something the contra caller did not intend. So again I'm glad the definition is included in the choreography. (Here's and easy reference to the rollback and slip the clutch calls from MSD: http://www.mit.edu/~tech-squares/lessons/lesson6.html. There are more precise definitions at the callerlab site.) What do you think? \bob
