[Callers] "pick her up"

[Ron Blechner]

Thanks for all of the perspectives, so far.

It's not necessarily easy to determine if dancers are giving proper weight.

The butterfly whirl is one of those moves especially where bad weight is
common, and the move can be really uncomfortable:

- the person coming out of the allemande scoops at the waist, rather than
shoulderblades - the arm is below center of mass, and can cause lower back
pain. And really, I don't think hands belong on waists in any contra move.

- the person getting scooped up puts hand on top of shoulder / doesn't
connect with their arm at all. This is probably the most frequent issue I
see / experience dancing. And I believe it's exacerbated by the "gents do
the thing to ladies" framing of prompting. And it's why I very much agree
with those who've replied emphasizing the use of neighbor/partner.

- as mentioned by others, the person getting scooped not moving forward,
and relying on the allemanding person to drag them along. Again, the "gents
do the thing to ladies" exacerbates this, in my opinion.

And these above difficulties aren't always easy to spot from the stage.

So I like the "scoop" as a descriptor of the motion, but I am not really
sure if it's the best descriptor of the *connection* between dancers and
the shared weight. It's probably fine with a clear walk through - I'll
often pause and emphasize connecting at shoulderblades and moving together
as a unit.

I wish there was something slightly better that worked for both, but all of
this discussion has been really good to reevaluate my teaching on these.

Thanks,
Ron Blechner

On Nov 28, 2017 11:36 AM, "Dale Wilson" <dale.wilson at gmail.com> wrote:

> If the dancers do the right thing (and have fun) when I say the words then
> I'm calling it correctly.
> If the dancers are confused or not having fun, then I am not calling it
> correctly.
> If I can use fewer words to call it correctly then I try to do so.
>
> Sometimes my words are directed to the active couples, sometimes to the
> inactives, sometimes to the gents, sometimes to the ladies, and of course
> sometimes they apply to everybody.
> Always they are intended to help the dancers enjoy themselves.
>
> Getting back to the original question.
>
> If I were to call "pick up your neighbor" and I observed the people
> standing still somehow trying to "pick up" the person passing by in the
> allemande, then I would change the words I use.  Until then, I use the
> words that I "always" use and that the experienced dancers are used to
> hearing.
>
> And as for "courtesy turn", those two words are sufficient.  There is no
> need  (and usually no time) to mention that one dancer is the turner and
> the other the turnee.
>
> Dale
>
>
>
>
> --
> There are only two hard things in computer science: cache invalidation,
> naming things, and off-by-one errors.
>
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