Aahz Maruch asked re Ron Buchanan's "Contra Corners Canon"
(or "Country Corners Canon"--I've seen both spellings and
don't know which one Ron prefers):
That sounds awfully similar to the Plus-level square dance call
"Teacup
Chain", do you have a reference so I can check? ...
and Yoyo Zhou replied:
It's probably similar in timing / phase shift but there are some
differences:
teacup chain has the inactives at the sides (rather than the corners)
teacup chain has the ladies active (rather than the heads)
Also, CCC has pairs of "active" dancers always turning
in the middle in between turning one corner person and
turning the next corner person. In Teacup Chain, the
ladies go into the middle after turning head gents but
they go directly from the side gents to the head gents
without going into the middle first. So CCC is not just
TC rotated by 45 degrees and with some of the gender
roles changed.
I've seen "Country Corners Canon" work well and give a
dancers a feeling of accomplishment when presented by a
skilled teacher to a suitably skilled and attentive
group of dancers, such as might be found at a workshop
session at a dance camp. But I strenuously urge against
trying to present a square of this complexity to any group
of dancers until and unless you (the caller) have a proven
track record of calling more moderately challenging
squares to similar groups of dancers with good results.
On page 59 of his book _Give-and-Take_, Larry Jennings
relates an anecdote to which he gives the title "Ambitious
Caller Meets Cocky Dancers." The dance sequence in the
anecdote is not named, but from the description, I think
it's almost certainly "Country Corners Canon." (I suggest
that the identity of the caller in the story, if anyone
happens to know it, had best be left unstated.) The scene
Larry describes is not pretty:
A few people found it exciting and rewarding to figure out
such a difficult figure ... Others, finding it hopeless
..., just entered into a random walk and appeared to have
a good time. However, there was an appreciable number who
struggled to understand the figure and, when they could
not, took on an air of resignation, and in fact, many of
them went home.
Unfortunately (in my opinion), when something of this sort
occurs in a community where most of the dances are contras
and where some of the dancers already have negative feelings
about squares, I think many of those dancers are likely to
interpret the incident as further indictment against squares
in general. On the other hand, if an overly complex contra
(say, one with surprising end effects, unusual out-of-minor
set interactions etc.) fell apart, those same dancers would
think only that that particular dance was too confusing, or
that it was a poor choice for the occasion, or that the
particular caller had taught and called the dance poorly.
--Jim
