Re: [Callers] [trad-dance-callers] Questions on dance style.

Notion #1 in contra dancing (IMHO) is: Be on time for the next figure. Sometimes, in order to actually accomplish this, it's necessary to skip the current figure. This in turn requires that a dancer can imagine the end point of the figure they are skipping, so they can be in the right place for that next figure. So the involved skills are: 1. Realizing in the first place that the current figure will make me quite late if I attempt to complete it, 2. Imagining where I need to be at the beginning of the next figure, and 3. Providing gentle help to confused people in the neighborhood about where they will need to be. Note that each of these 3 skills is quite worthwhile in its own right. While there isn't necessarily a particular dance that teaches these skills well, any breakdown in any dance provides an opportunity to exercise these three skills. So it's worth discussing occasionally to keep planting the seed of the idea. If I had to choose a dance for this purpose, it might be: The New Moan Hey Duple and Improper A1: Circle left; Swing Neighbor A2: Circle left 3/4; Swing Partner B1: Men allemande left 1-1/2; Maintaining left-hand hold, scoop up Neighbor, 'Star' promenade 1/2 way, Cast around with the Women moving forward about 1-1/4 until the Women are facing across B2: Hey for 4, start w/ Women passing right shoulder Sometimes the men get their allemande started late. If they are aware they are running late, they can simply allemande half way and scoop up their neighbors. Or if the women notice that the men are running late they can slide in beside their neighbor guy at their half-way point. It's not unusual for the star promenade to arrive too late for the cast around figure. Executing the cast makes the hey for 4 start late. While it's fun to do the cast, it's more important to start the hey on the phrase. So, enjoy a hip-bump or two, and be on time starting the hey in B2. Roger On Fri, 26 Dec 2008 11:10:16 -0800 (PST), Dave Colestock &lt;contradancerdave(a)yahoo.com&gt; wrote: improve <stuff deleted>