Re: [Callers] Heys for new dancers

On Feb 20, 2012, at 8:23 AM, Greg McKenzie wrote: ... I believe I agree with Greg's point, at least to the extent that I understand it correctly. For those of us who think of a hey in terms of weaving across the set, passing alternating shoulders with whomever we meet, differences in who starts by which shoulder and where (in the middle or at the ends) have little effect on the perceived difficulty of a hey. Such differences may be more significant for people who (whether by prior inclination or by teaching) think in terms like right in the middle; left on the outside or right with same sex; left with opposite sex etc., and some hey variations that seem innocuous to us may produce a feeling that something isn't quite right, perhaps leading a dancer either to attempt to "fix" what isn't broken or simply to stop moving. So I think we callers should try to help dancers--or help them to help each other--to think about heys in terms that apply to heys generally ("pass alternating shoulders"; "when you run out of people to pass, and turn around, pass by whichever shoulder the person coming toward tries to offer"; "if approaching dancers looks more confident than you feel, trust them") rather than in terms of passing a particular person in a particular place by a particular shoulder (e.g., "neighbors pass on the outside by the left"). However, if a dancer asks a specific question such as "Do we pass by right or left shoulders in the middle?" during a walk-through, I don't think the caller should refuse to answer in the dancer's terms. This, I believe, would create the impression that the caller either didn't actually know the answer or was disrespecting the dancer or both, thereby raising the dancer's affective filter and making it harder, rather than easier, for the caller then to help the dancer learn a different way to think about things. * * * * * * * * * * * * Regarding which specific forms of hey are, in fact, the most common, I think that both my personal experience and examination of published dance collections support the following claims about straight heys for four in contemporary contradancing: * The single most common way to start is by women passing right shoulders in the middle. * The second most common way to start is by men passing left shoulders in the middle. * Heys that start with dancers passing in the middle are significantly more common than heys that start with dancers passing at the ends (largely, perhaps entirely, as a consequence of the preceding two points). * Heys where same-sex (or same-gender-role) dancers pass in the middle are *far* more common than heys where partners or neighbors pass in the middle. By these measures, the hey in "Flirtation Reel" is indeed atypical. Nonetheless, I believe Beth when she say she's used "Flirtation Reel" successfully to introduce the hey. Other notable dances with heys where partners meet in the center include "Bonny Jean" (the dance generally credited with kicking off the adaptation of heys for four into American contras) and "Dancing Sailors". * * * * * * * * * * * * For more details of evidence in support of the statistical claims listed above, read on. If such stuff bores you, stop now. Back in 1995, the question came up on the rec.folk-dancing usenet newsgroup (then a thriving discussion forum, now a wasteland of event announcements and spam) as to whether most heys for four have dancers passing by right or left shoulders in the middle. I skimmmed through fifteen books of dances that I had handy looking for all the heys and tallied some statistics, which I posted in a message on November 28, 1995. I append the complete message below, but here's a quick summary. Out of 144 heys, I counted: 94 with dancers passing right shoulders in the middle vs. 50 with dancers passing left shoulders in the middle 113 starting with dancers passing in the middle (of which 65 started with W passing R shoulders in the middle) vs. 31 starting with dancers passing at the ends In my 1995 tally, I didn't record full statistics about which pairs of dancers pass in the middle. However, I've just skimmed through a one-page snapshot of the dances from the American Country Dances On-Line database formerly maintained by Russell Owen. Out of 78 straight heys for four, I counted: 53 with dancers passing right shoulders in the middle vs. 25 with dancers passing left shoulders in the middle 62 starting with dancers passing in the middle (including 35 starting with W passing R shoulders in the middle, 11 starting with M passing L shoulders in the middle, and 16 others: WL(6), MR(6), #1R(4) ) vs. 16 starting with dancers passing at the ends 71 with same-sex dancers passing in the middle vs. 7 with partners passing in the middle and 0 with neighbors passing in the middle Looking at various other sources, including several RPDLW syllabi (which show dances actually called at the weekends), I find similar trends. Of course, sources that feature dances written by a single choreographer may have particular kinds of heys (or other particular figures and transitions) substantially under- or over-represented compared to their general rate of use. --Jim Below is my Nov. 1995 posting to rec.folk-dancing regarding frequency of heys with left-shoulder vs. right-shoulder passes in the middle. It includes a tabulation that will look best in a fixed-pitch font.