[Callers] New(?) dance, transitions?

[QuiAnn2]

Hi, Luke (and others)!

Jeremy Korr called this on Saturday night and I danced it as a Lady/Raven with a partner who was not a switcher so I can comment on it as a Lady dancer but not from the Gents/Larks perspective.

I generally liked the dance. The flow was good and it was nice to have different types of transitions. The promenade=>see saw=>1/2 was a very fun series. From the time that Jeremy described that series to me during the break until the time that he called it in the 2nd half, I was very much looking forward to trying it out, and it was great! The A1 N Rt Sh Round to a swing worked well coming out of the ladies’ allemande because we had to walk a couple of steps to get to our next N. It was good to have fuzzy timing there rather than a B&Sw, otherwise we would have had to take big steps or run a bit. 

Some areas for improvement are that it felt to me like the ladies were doing a lot of the work with the DSD and the allemande, which are both unassisted figures where you’re fighting against rotational pull as opposed to a chain which is all forward movement with an assist from the courtesy turn. I couldn’t switch roles to test it but a N lady (who knew this was a test dance) independently said to me “the ladies are doing a lot of work”. Also, both times the ladies approach each other (in the A2 and the B2), they are effectively coming out of a swing (if we can agree that LLF&B is neutral) and walking towards each other with the left shoulder leading so you had to think “Is this the DSD? Or is this the left allemande?"

Just brainstorming here but maybe replace the ladies allem with a ladies chain in the B2? I know this takes away from the “new transitions” idea that you had but I think the “gem” of this dance is the A2 & B1 and the rest is gravy to support it.

Jacqui Grennan


> On Mar 1, 2019, at 7:50 AM, Gregory Frock via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> Hi Luke,
> 
> I think this is a great accessible dance. Flow is fine, and I actually feel that getting too much "rightward" muscle memory is not a good thing. Symmetry is better for our bodies in the long run. So FWIW, thumbs up for me. And I will try it out at one of my next two gigs 3/8 or 3/13.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Greg
> 
> On Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 10:00 AM Luke Donforth via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net <mailto:callers at lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
> Hi all, 
> 
> I was thinking about standard transitions; and how similar flows could possibly be created while still adding variation to our dance diet. 
> 
> Chain-> (1x or 1/2) hey -> balance and swing works well; but gyre & swing doesn't work well there, because you've set up left shoulder at the end of the hey.
> 
> allemande left -> (1x or 1/2) hey -> (gyre &) swing works reasonably, because you've set up the other shoulder in the hey. 
> 
> What about coming into the hey from a Sea-Saw? For instance:
> 
> Contra/Improper
> 
> A1 -----------
> (16) Neighbor gyre and swing
> A2 -----------
> (8) Promenade across the Set
> (8) Ladies Sea-Saw 1.5x
> B1 -----------
> (8) 1/2 Hey, ladies passing partner right shoulders
> (8) Partner swing
> B2 -----------
> (8) Long lines, forward and back
> (8) Ladies allemande Left 1-1/2
> 
> I think that flows well, but I don't have dancers to play with at the moment. If anyone more used to dancing the traditional ladies roll wants to talk about muscle memory and flow, I'd appreciate it. Would the sea saw and left allemande just be too outside the realm of familiar to be fun?
> 
> Assuming this is a new composition that works, I'll call it Sinister Ravens.
> 
> Thanks for your thoughts.
> 
> 
> -- 
> Luke Donforth
> Luke.Donforth at gmail.com <mailto:Luke.Donev at gmail.com>
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