On 6/21/2013 3:03 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote:
I run into this periodically as well, and haven't found a way to
verbally interrupt whatever's going on in their heads. It may be that
they're so overloaded that further verbal info just can't get in. I've
had some success with going onto the floor and physically guiding
folks through a move (easier with English than with contra, simply
because there's more space in the dance in which to insert myself
without being an obstacle). I've often found that even standing
directly in their line of vision and pointing straight up or down the
set (say, for 4 changes of a circular hey) doesn't work. It's like
they're specifically excluding _any_ outside input, which makes my job
very challenging. It's especially difficult in that situation to be
fair to the rest of the room, who may also need some guidance, if all
my attention is on keeping the trainwreck-in-progress from happening.
Tough situation. Much harder when I'm calling from a stage and can't
really get onto the floor. Kalia
We have some very similar experiences in this regard.
I've had good luck with couples who aren't getting that
down-the-center-and-back-and-cast-off includes casting off by getting in
their way and pointing with both hands. Not so good luck with people
who do quarter-figure-eights. And of course I won't even try that stuff
if I'm stuck behind a microphone on a stage. (Around here, as Kalia
knows, an English caller will only be in that situation if he or she is
calling a ball, where you can make an assumption that most of the people
in the room know very well what they're doing and if somebody loses it
their neighbors will fix it. And you_have_ to make that assumption,
because you can't really do anything about it.)
What makes me extra crazy is the people who are doing something wrong
that's obvious to an external observer, which then leaves them in the
wrong place. (Eg, if you're doing Regency-era dances, the stock ending
of four changes of rights and lefts, where a couple forgets to start on
time, only do three changes, and are puzzled by being left improper when
they start the next round. Which is only one of a half-dozen failure
modes seen in the wild in rights and lefts - make a half-turn instead of
a pull-by and be left facing the wrong way, baffled about where your
next person is; try to go back the way you came after two turns; pull by
right with partner and then reach left hand across the center of the set
to the next person and then have no idea how to get home, etc, etc,
etc.) So you get in there and you somehow get enough of their attention
to get them to do it in a way which will leave them in the expected
place at the expected time, and they hold on to that for maybe one round
and then they lose it again.
-- Alan
