[Callers] Fwd: Balancing LEFT in a wave?

[Alan Winston]

Accidentally sent only to Maia.

Sent from my iPad

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Winston, Alan P." <winston at slac.stanford.edu>
> Date: November 8, 2017 at 11:30:06 AM PST
> To: Maia McCormick <maia.mcc at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Balancing LEFT in a wave?
> 
> I would say the potential unidiomaticness of the balance left is *very high*.  In a regular Rory O’More kind of balance R&L, slide R, balance L&R, slide L, I always see a quarter to an eighth of the dancers balance right first both times.  (I can get it down a lot by pointing out that you always balance to the same person first, but very rarely can get everybody.). 
> 
> So as you saw, if you try to overcome the “right first” balance you’re really fighting the tide, and it’s going to be a lot of work.
> 
> In the particular case you describe I’d think you’d do a lot better (both for flow of the dance and for getting the dancers to do what you tell them) to strongly suggest they balance forward and back to set up the allemande rather than L&R *or* R&L.
> 
> That said, to answer what you specifically asked, I agree that L&R makes more sense than R&L, but I don’t think it’s a *lot* more sense (that is, R&L isn’t even close to fatal) , and it’s not the hill I’d choose to die on.
> 
> -- Alan 
> From: Callers <callers-bounces at lists.sharedweight.net> on behalf of Maia McCormick via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 8, 2017 11:07:20 AM
> To: callers at lists.sharedweight.net
> Subject: [Callers] Balancing LEFT in a wave?
>  
> Recently called a dance with an allemande R into long waves, balance wave, allemande L. Because of personal preference, I taught the balance as "balance left, then right", but cuz I didn't teach it all that clearly, the dancers defaulted back into balancing right first, and enough tricky stuff was happening in the dance that I didn't wanna correct them in flight.
> 
> I'm just wondering: do others agree that a balance left makes more sense / flows better in this context, or is this a weird personal preference? In your opinion, does the flow of the balance left outweigh its potential unidiomaticness?
> 
> Cheers,
> Maia
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