[Callers] Shadow Swing Disclaimers?

Tue Sep 8 10:41:03 PDT 2015

Luke,

The "tripletesque" suggest is a neat one... I had been pondering how a
Shadow Swing dance is similar to many four-face-fours or squares. In those
cases dancers more carefully choose who is in their formation. Your idea to
just have shorter lines that are chosen both gives the dancers the
opportunity to choose neighbors (and thus, shadow) while also putting a
little boundary around the dance as "special", so a caller doesn't lose
confidence of some bristled dancers.

Ron
On Sep 8, 2015 1:30 PM, "Luke Donforth via Callers" <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> Maia,
>
> Let me see if I'm correctly reading your goals:
> You want to call dances with shadow swings
> You want to minimize discomfort
>
> To do both of those, I think an announcement after folks have lined up is
> worse than an announcement earlier. If someone is uncomfortable with the
> idea of swinging a shadow, how comfortable would they be leaving a line
> after you've made the announcement and highlighting for everyone in the
> room that there's a problematic interaction? There's no way to
> surreptitiously drop out; folks have to take new hands four and identify
> new shadows. I think making the announcement after folks have lined up just
> puts public pressure on your dancers.
>
> You can announce it ahead of time, either at the end of the previous
> dance; or even during the walkthrough of the previous dance. I know some
> callers do this for mixers: "Alright, thanks everyone for lining up and
> taking hands four. Just so you know, the dance after this will be a mixer.
> You'll keep your partner for this dance, but the one after don't expect to
> stay with your sweetheart." etc. Andrea raises a good point that it's hard
> to know where the shadow would be when you line up (or if someone lines up
> after you).
>
> Other options that come to mind:
>
>    - Call these dances that are dear to you only in instances where it's
>    unlikely to be an issue. I.e. small dance communities where you know
>    everyone and know it'll be fine; or very large events (dance weekends, etc)
>    where it's much less likely for you to run into someone you have a bad
>    interaction with. If you had a festival session called "Shadow Dances";
>    then anybody showing up is probably going to expect that they'll swing the
>    occasional shadow.
>    - As Ron suggested, you can modify the dance and say "and this move
>    can be a swing". Might defeat why you're trying to call the dance though.
>    - Make it triplet-esque; in that rather than full long lines, you
>    break folks into small groups (10 dancers, etc) and run the dance for a
>    short time. If there's a shadow, partner, and neighbor swing, chances are
>    you don't want to run the dance super long anyway. You announce "find a
>    partner and about 4 other couples for a special dance" and folks can self
>    select a little more. Smaller groups also let more experienced dancers
>    goof/chaos/play more with repetitive dances without throwing off large
>    portions of the hall (I consider a dance with shadow & partner swing, with
>    or without a neighbor swing; to have a high possibility of repetitiveness).
>
> Hope that helps get you thinking about other options too. Have fun, and
> remember we're there for the dancers to have a good time.
> Luke
>
> On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 11:06 AM, Maia McCormick via Callers <
> callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>> Hey all,
>>
>> First, a disclaimer: Some people on this listserv thing shadow swings are
>> problematic. Some don't see any issue with them. This is NOT the
>> conversation I want to have in this thread; *I ask that you respond to
>> the question I'm asking and do not debate my premise--at least not in this
>> particular thread. *This should help keep this thread on track and
>> hopefully reduce excess noise and go-nowhere discussions on this listserv.
>> Thanks!
>>
>> Anyway, the actual question I wanted to ask (whew!)--
>>
>> There do exist some really fabulous shadow-swing dances that I would love
>> to be able to call, as long as I could do so without putting anyone in an
>> uncomfortable position. Do folks have ideas for ways to mitigate the
>> potential harms of shadow swing dances? I was considering, at the beginning
>> of the dance, having dancers identify their shadow and mentioning, "this
>> will be a shadow swing dance, so if you need to make any changes, do so
>> now" (or something like that)--haven't gotten the wording down-pat, but the
>> idea is giving dancers advance warning of a shadow swing so they can move
>> (thereby changing their shadow) if they need to. Any thoughts on this
>> method? Suggestions of others?
>>
>> Cheers.
>> Maia
>>
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>>
>
>
> --
> Luke Donforth
> Luke.Donforth at gmail.com <Luke.Donev at gmail.com>
>
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