Jeff Kaufman wrote:
> Chrissy Fowler wrote:
> >
> > I am curious about the phenomenon that Jeff refers to in this
> > sentence. I've never danced at, or called, or even heard about a
> > dance where the caller could "just wait for people to get into
> > position."
>
> Sorry, you're right. I wasn't rememebring well. I should have said
> "wait for people, and then when they're mostly ready say 'hands four'
> a few times". The point is that usually the dancers don't need to be
> instructed in how to get into position, just prompted to actually do
> it.
>
I called at MIT in Cambridge Tuesday night and I thought I would
follow up.
The dancers mostly lined up improper and in hands four without my
prompting. On the second dance I saw a couple standing reversed [1]
and said "ones cross over", and that couple switched. A couple times
I could start the walkthrough simply with "with your neighbor balance
and swing" but most of the time I needed to say "hands four",
primarily to get them to stop talking and pay attention.
Jeff
[1] This is complicated. I could tell they they didn't intend to be
swapped because I knew them. But if you make a point of getting
any couple standing gender-swapped to switch you'll annoy dancers
who are dancing that way on purpose. (And I think more people
should dance both roles, so I don't want to annoy or embarass
people doing it.) It helps not to single anyone out and instead
just say something generic like "ones cross over".
