I am not sure that I am any the wiser after all this discussion! What I do know is that the dance works brilliantly if the men stay exactly where they are and the ladies come to them for the swing. Since the men are on the outside of the waves that means that all the swings will take place on the (out) side of the set and there are no collisions.
Michael Barraclough www.michaelbarraclough.com On Fri, 2013-02-22 at 16:08 -0800, James Saxe wrote: > On Feb 22, 2013, at 9:37 AM, [email protected] wrote, re the > A1/A2 of "Slow M'Ocean": > > > ...James > [That would be me, Jim Saxe] > > is correct that the opposite > > sex person one passes in stepping into the wave is the same person > > both > > times. If I'm L1, my current neighbor -- M2 -- passes me by the > > right shoulder > > and is facing the same direction as I face in the first wave. ... > > I do think > > (from a safety standpoint) that it's a good idea to keep the > > couples out > > of the center of the set during the short swing -- we've all had the > > experience of the joined-hands-swing-bonk, I assume -- and my "make > > the ladies > > come to you" instruction really had that purpose in mind. ... > > [*** NOTE: To understand the following remarks, read carefully > instead of just skimming.] > > In other words, if I understand correctly, when April wrote > "(Gents, make the ladies come to you.)" in her original dance > description, she was referring to motion (or lack thereof) > *away from (or towards) the center of the set*. That is, she > was advising that as dancers advance up or down the set to > swing their shadows in A1 or their partners in A2, the ladies > veer slightly (a foot or so) away from the center of the set > in order to get into the gents' arms for the swing, rather > than gents veering inward to engage the ladies. If swinging > dancers have their centers of gravity closer together than > adjacent dancers in wavy lines of four do, then somebody has > to do some veering towards or away from the center of the set > to make up that difference. April's point in suggesting that > the ladies veer out to meet the gents is to keep people from > being dangerously close to the other swinging couple across > set. > > Apparently Michael (and perhaps others, including Perry) > came up with a different, and unintended, reading of April's > comment "(Gents, make the ladies come to you)", reading it > as referring to motion (or lack thereof) *up or down the > set*. Interestingly, this reading results in a dance that > is technically workable (albeit a bit demanding to teach) > but different from what April intended. > > To be clear, I can't much fault Michael or anyone else for > misinterpreting April's comment. Indeed I might have come > up with the very same *mis*interpretation if I had read the > dance description carefully instead of skimming past the > comment. On the other hand, I can't much fault April for > the ambiguity of her comment (unless she continues to > circulate the same dance description without making it > clearer now that the ambiguity has been noticed). Often > these sorts of ambiguities in callers' or choreographers' > or anyone else's words are far more evident in hindsight > than when the words are first spoken or written. > > --Jim > > > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
