On Fri, May 4, 2012 at 2:32 PM, Jeff Kaufman <[email protected]>wrote:
> I was at a dance recently where the caller noticed that there were > many new dancers and that it probably wouldn't work to just wait for > people to get into position. They told all the couples to stand with > the ladies in one line and the gents in another, to take hands for > from the top, and that this was proper formation. Then they introduced > 1s and 2s and had all the ones cross over. But they didn't call any > proper or assymetric dances all night! Which is fine; I think they > chose good dances for the crowd. But why introduce the terminology? > Especially when there's so many other terms we want them to be > absorbing? > If nobody teaches it, then when someone does call one, half the people in the hall will be starting at the stage like deer in headlights. Much like why triplets, triple minors, and even squares, do not work well in the Boston-area contra dance scene any more, even though they used to be called frequently back in the VFW days.
