<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Interesting. I’ve received multiple direct emails from people saying variously that:<div><br></div><div> - my comment was off-topic because Maia requested responses to be about whether to announce it or not</div><div> and not about the merits or not of shadow swings</div><div><br></div><div> - my comment misses the point because some people have had (or fear they might have) an unpleasant</div><div> shadow interaction, so the Caller needs to accommodate that fear</div><div><br></div><div>I repeat. Wow. Perhaps I was a little too subtle in what I wrote.</div><div><br></div><div>But no one listens to the Caller anyway…</div><div><br></div><div><b>To state it more clearly: </b> I think it is a mistake to announce something like "the next dance has a shadow swing,</div><div>and your shadow is the person in the next hands-4 facing you (or in the hands-4 behind you looking at your back),</div><div>so check them out and if it’s someone you don’t want to encounter for 4 seconds each time through the music,</div><div>ask the other couple in your hands-4 if they would agree to circle left 1/2 before the dance starts”.</div><div><br></div><div><b>Doing so would broadcast an entirely incorrect and inappropriate message about the dance community.</b></div><div><br></div><div>In my experience, people who don’t want to encounter another individual as a shadow, or even as a neighbor,</div><div>tend to take care to line up in a different set from their Ex, or that “creeper”, even if there is no shadow in the</div><div>particular dance.</div><div><br></div><div>If there’s only 1 set, that’s a problem, eh? If there is a creeper in each set, that’s a problem also. Again, that’s</div><div>something the community needs to treat, and <b>there’s really nothing the caller that evening can do even</b></div><div><b>with the power of the bully pulpit.</b></div><div><br></div><div>The most the caller can do in such cases is exert a gentle nudge on the side of that asteroid, and perhaps over</div><div>time, given enough nudges, the asteroid’s path will change.</div><div><br></div><div>Maybe say things like “contra dancers are very courteous and friendly people” will, over time, encourage people</div><div>to live up to that description. Sometimes saying “swing with your shadow in such a way that they’ll look forward</div><div>to coming back to you next time through the music” also might, over time, instill a more positive image to exhibit.</div><div><br></div><div>As much as callers might like to think that they guide and even control the dance community, it just ain’t so.</div><div>All we can do is suggest. And as has been said before, no one listens to the Caller.</div><div><br></div><div>-Eric<br><div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div>On Sep 9, 2015, at 6:39 AM, Eric Black via Callers <<a href="mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net">callers@lists.sharedweight.net</a>> wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space;">Wow. ISTM [It Seems To Me] that this is far more responsibility for controlling social interpersonal interactions than the programmer and/or caller at the mic should have to worry about, even though we do worry about such things.<div><br></div><div>Sorry I don’t have opportunity to participate on this email list more often. That Pesky Day Job [PDJ] and all…</div><div><br></div><div>Short response: Don’t point out shadow partner interaction; the dancers need to be adult about it, no one listens to the Caller anyway, let alone anything said while they’re still lining up.</div><div><br></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>