[Callers] Balancing LEFT in a wave?

[Michael Dyck]

On 2017-11-11 12:09 PM, Peter Simonyi via Callers wrote:
> I was in a dance with a similar sequence just last weekend.
> 
> Please bear in mind I'm piecing together memories from the middle of a
> dance weekend.  The caller was either Mary Wesley or David Eisenstadter
> and I can't recall enough context to decide who it was.  The part of
> the dance I remember went like this:
> 
> ladies 4 steps in, balance wave R, L
> gents in as ladies out, balance wave L, R
> two gents allemande L half way, swing neighbour

Hi Peter! I'm pretty sure that was "Trip to Peterborough" by Rick Mohr:
http://rickmohr.net/Contra/Dances.asp#TripToPeterborough
(I think it was Mary calling, but I'm not sure.)

Note that Rick doesn't specify which way to balance, so people are likely to 
default to R,L. And in both of the videos on that page, the men indeed 
balance R,L.
> I thought that balancing left felt fine.  It didn't seem to be too
> unidiomatic, and it did make the allemande left better.  Some parts of
> the line were a little shakier on the left-first method but overall it
> worked quite well.

I agree. (Though for me, it took a bit more attention than R,L would have.)

-Michael