[Callers] Thoughts on B2/A1 swings and having time to flourish

[tavi merrill via Callers]

Precisely. What Jeff says here is to me much more than an aside as it helps
define and clarify my thoughts around the main point i was trying to make.
Dancers are accustomed to swinging for  anywhere from 8 to 12 counts (as a
balance and swing is 16, minus the 4 counts a balance takes), thus a swing
longer than 12 counts feels too long. "Counting from the end" is nigh
impossible, as we get wrapped up in the experience of the swing and it's
mostly those who are well-developed musicians and/or who know contra tunes
by heart that can pick up on where in the musical phrase they are without
counting and thus judge how far from the end of the phrase they are and
correctly time the initiation of a 4-count flourish. But in the event that
a 16-count swing happens, the moment when it suddenly feels like too long a
swing (that moment where we pass 12 counts MAY be perceptible to everyone,
not just musicians, because we're conditioned to swinging for no more than
12 counts) could perhaps become the cue to initiate a 4-count flourish and
magically arrive on time. It's just a hypothesis based on dancer behavior
and my experience as a caller and musician, but it may bear testing out.
I'd be curious to hear how an experiment goes if someone calls 16 count
swings where dancers have been instructed to initiate 4-count ending
flourishes the moment they feel they've swung for a normal amount of time.
(Might just try running that experiment myself at a May 7 workshop i'm
co-leading.)

On Sun, Mar 27, 2016 at 6:36 PM, Jeff Kaufman <jeff.t.kaufman at gmail.com>
wrote:

> Hmm, I think I've seen people be late with it on twice count swings too?
> My interpretation is more like, when dancers are starting to learn swing
> ending flourishes the "counting from the end" to end things on time is
> hard, and they tend to be late a lot. The longer the flourish they're
> trying to lead, the longer in advance they need to start it and the less
> likely they are to leave enough time?
>
> (This is all still an aside, though, and I'm interested in discussion of
> the main point of your post.)
>
>
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