As a dancer, if I'm at the end of a line and see that there are particularly lost-looking newbies in my foursome who are about to be "spat out" after the walkthrough, I'll sometimes rotate our foursome to make the new folks progress into the set so that they won't have to deal with turnaround confusion right away. If I don't find out until after the walkthrough is finished that it's a right-progressing Becket after all, then in my attempt to help I may have actually made it worse for them.
So as a caller, I think it's always helpful to give people a heads up - either "line up Becket; this dance will progress to the right," or (my preference) "line up, take hands four, then turn one place to the right into Becket formation." It's true that a lot of dancers don't notice or care, but I think enough of us *do* care that it's worth giving just a word or two to those who are listening for it. As for identifying shadows, I find that unless I have *really* clear notes, if I try to identify the relevant shadow at the beginning of the walkthrough it often backfires on me. I usually prefer to just walk everyone through the dance until they actually get to the shadow part, and then tell them "remember this person." Koren Wake dancer, caller, musician Seattle WA On Tue, Feb 20, 2024 at 2:47 PM Harris Lapiroff via Contra Callers < [email protected]> wrote: > I think some dancers know which way they're expecting to progress as soon > as they line up and it makes them think they've gotten something wrong > during the walkthrough if they progress the "wrong" way. > > I find it's helpful for dancers like that to be prepared, since they're > often your first line of defense in helping guide confused dancers on the > floor, so I'll usually throw in a quick "this dance is becket *right*, for > those who know what that means" (or "for those who care" if I'm feeling > cheekier). > > Harris Lapiroff > > Dance Caller and Organizer > Boston Intergenerational Dance Advocates Board (Cambridge MA) > Pinewoods Camp, Inc Board (Plymouth MA) > https://chromamine.com/contra/ > > On Tue, Feb 20, 2024, at 5:14 PM, Ken Panton via Contra Callers wrote: > > ). > >> - There was some confusion about shadows, but it really doesn't matter > >> who that is, so I ignored/squashed questions about direction and just > >> let the dancers muddle into it. > > > > Does "questions about direction" refer to the often quite "robust" > > demand to know if a Becket dance progresses CW or CCW? It's always > > puzzled me why that's so important to some people, perhaps because I've > > never intuited any value, as a dancer, in knowing. > > > > It's not a burning question, but does anyone have a good answer to > > that? Even my understanding of end effects hasn't been enhanced, to my > > recollection, knowing a priori the progression direction. > > > > Cheers > > > > Ken Panton > > _______________________________________________ > > Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] > > To unsubscribe send an email to > [email protected] > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >
_______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
