I mostly try to collect dances on the hoof so that I know how they feel
from the floor, but sometimes I do end up calling dances I haven't done
before, ones that I've gotten either from other callers or from written
sources. When looking at a dance in note form, how do you figure out
when it's likely to have end effects?
There's a particular becket dance I'm looking at right now, called Weeks
On The Road, by Al Olson (I just realized I've been spelling it "Olsen"
for some time. My apologies)
A1 On L diagonal, ladies chain
Across the set, 1/2 hey (wo by R)
A2 Balance and swing the neighbor you chained to
B1 Circle L 3/4
Balance the ring and CA twirl
B2 P balance and swing
If the dance starts with a neutral couple out at the end, that neutral
lady can chain in so that the complete foursome can do the dance, but if
there's no neutral couple to chain with, should the foursome dance with
a ghost, having sent that lady out to chain with nobody, or should the
lady who would normally chain out simply dance that round with her
partner as though she had just chained in from the end? If she does
that (ignore the chain on the diagonal and start the dance at the 1/2
hey), then she and her partner will wind up out at the end for the
balance and swing, which I guess is just fine. Hmm. OK, I seem to have
answered my own specific question here, but I'm still curious about the
general issue of how to tell when a dance is likely to have something
tricky at the ends.
Movement on the diagonal seems like an obvious warning sign. Another
one that I encountered a few nights ago is in Moon and Star Contra by
Don Flaherty, where a ring balance and CA twirl in the A1 leaves a cpl
alone at the ends for a very short wait while their original neighbors
star with someone else and then come back for a balance and swing. I
was noticing that everyone immediately crossed over, which is usually a
good impulse. In this case, though, they needed to just stay put and
wait for their neighbors to return. With the dance in progress, I
couldn't find a graceful way to give that information from the mic since
it was aimed at just 8 people out of the whole room, but was needed over
and over. I settled for sidling up behind occasional couples at the top
and telling them not to cross over, but there was still a lot of
confusion. So I guess another end-effect indicator would be short-term
movement out of the minor set? What else should I be watching for?
Kalia
