[Callers] Re: Putting a square in a contra medley

Okay. It's time to tell an embarrassing story on myself. Another caller and I once concocted an unusual medley for use at the transition between our sets at an all-night dance: We would begin with one of those four-face-four dances in which the dancers briefly get into square formation, then medley into another four-face-four also featuring a temporary square, then keep the dancers in squares for a while, and finally turn each column of squares into a duple-minor contra set. We carefully worked out all the details, such as being sure that the square dance wouldn't have a promenade with an ambiguous ending position, and figuring out how to make the dancers have the same direction of progression in the final duple improper dance as they had had before the transition from four-face-four to squares. At the actual event, the other caller got the dancers lined up four facing four, making sure that there were an even number of foursomes in each set (so that nobody would be left out when we switched into the square dance) and that they were well spaced along the length of the hall (so that the eventual duple improper sets wouldn't be too crowded), walked them through the first dance, and cued the band to start playing. All went well as we medleyed into the second four-face-four dance and then into the square dance. As the time approached for the final transition from squares to duple improper contra lines, I was at the microphone. I maneuvered the dancers into lines at the sides and had them go forward and back. OK so far. Then I had them make ``long contra lines'' and go forward and back again. There were audible ``Oh''s from the floor as some of the dancers anticipated what was supposed to happen next. The final step of the transition was a fairly ordinary contemporary contradance ending, something like Women [the term then in use] chain [to original partner] Circle left 3/4; pass through [along the set] that would leave the dancers ready to balance and swing the next in line as the band kicked into the final tune of their set. [Before you read the rest of this message, I invite you to guess what went wrong.] . . . . . . . . Within two seconds after uttering the words "Circle left" I saw to my dismay that about half the dancers were in circles of four as I'd intended, but the other half were in circles of eight! It was beyond whatever presence of mind I could muster at that hour of the morning to find a way to recover, and I eventually just signaled the band to go out as the floor dissolved into chaos. (Sigh!) Addendum 1: At another event several years later, I did manage to call the same medley without having it dissolve into chaos, this time using timely and emphatic calls that left no doubt about which groups of FOUR dancers were to form the circles. Addendum 2: I've sometimes seen callers new to calling squares create some confusion with a much less spectacular build-up than in my story above, simply by calling a sequence like Head couples go forward and back. Circle left. without being explicit about whether the call "Circle left" was directed to the heads or to all eight dancers. --Jim Santa Clara, CA