[Callers] ???? Looking for Author of Dance -dancers adjust

[James Saxe via Callers]

The dance "Cows Are Watching" can be seen in this video.

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kz8C4THCx2I

You can all watch for yourselves and judge how long dancers are taking
for the various parts and how leisurely or rushed the action appears
to be.  It seems to me that men are usually starting their allemandes
sometime between beats 13 and 15 of B1, and more often a shade before
beat 14 than a shade after.

According to the YouTube timer, the time for 12x64 beats of music (from
a beat near the start of the videao to a beat at the same point in the
tune near the end) is about 6:20, giving an average tempo a little over
121 b.p.m.  The hall is not crowded, so dancers have ample space for
the roll-away in beats 5-8 of B1.  In some cases, but not all, dancers
appear already to have started to veer ("zig") left by beat 8.  The
general skill level of the dancing is pretty high, with only occasional
mind lapses and not a lot of fumbling around or confusion about what to
do next.  Perhaps the typical timing of the zig zag would be different
with a different tempo of music, a more crowded floor, or a different
mix of dancer skills, or with a caller who made a big point about
asking dancers to take a full four beats to zig left.

I haven't found any other videos of "Cows Are Watching", but here's a
video of "Weave the Line":

     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H8peDGz-zkc

It seems to me that dancers are completing the sequence

     Veer (zig) left past current neighbors
     Veer (zag) right to face next neighbors and keep veering
         right to pass them
     Veer left to face third neighbors

pretty much within the first 8 beats of A2, though they may sometimes
be stealing a beat from the figure before (circle left) and/or from
the figure after (do-si-do third neighbor). 

--Jim

On Mar 25, 2017, at 11:43 AM, Jerome Grisanti via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> I tend to think of the zig as four beats and the zag as four more. Four total would be zesty or rushed, depending on the crowd and music.
> 
> Jerome
> 
> 
> 
> On Friday, March 24, 2017, Tom Hinds via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> I believe that zig left, zag right normally takes 4 beats.  If the dancers zag a little farther so men can easily take a left hand that would take an additional 2 beats for a total of 6 counts.  I'll confirm the timing this Saturday.
> 
> For me there's this issue of how much we ask the dancers to adjust.  It seems that asking dancers to adjust is common in English and perhaps less common in contra.
> 
> 
> Tom
<snip>