Thanks for your input. See comments below.

-Don

On Mon, Mar 30, 2015 at 7:10 PM, Yoyo Zhou <yozhov@gmail.com> wrote:

Don, it sounds like your zig-zag into 5/8 hey is a lot like a dance I
wrote last year with Lindsey Dono.

Nice to hear there's more that one dance appreciating this move. :)

However, your notes are insufficiently clear on this - until I saw
Aahz's email I did not realize yours has just about the same setup,
because it has a zig-zag-zig (because you didn't write the last zig
left to face N#3 into it).

I'm not sure how much more clear I could have been, should you look back to the original:

[A2]:
(4,4) CIRCLE LEFT 1/2, Ladies lead P ZIG LEFT [past CURRENT Ns]
(4) ZAG RIGHT [passing NEXT Ns, to face 3rd Ns] and SEPARATE from P

"to face 3rd N(eighbor)s"

I think it's conventional for a zig to
refer to motion in one direction and zag to motion in the other, so
you need a zigzag to pass one neighbor. For example, see Rick Mohr's
notes on his dance Leave the Wine:
http://rickmohr.net/Contra/Dances.asp#LeaveTheWine

As mentioned in a prior post, I assert it appears there is no "convention" as regards Zig-Zags (I'd link to the prior thread on this, but the archives appear to have gone poof again). Reasonable people will apparently have different interpretations/language (does it always start with a "zig"? is the following move always a "zag"? is a zig always leftwards? how many beats?). This is an area to then be cautious of and provide sufficient detail so folks can clearly understand the intent.

[snip]

Ok, the actual question you posed: how do you teach this entry into
the hey? You face N3 and make sure they are the focus of attention.
Then, for teaching purposes, ladies take a step left, out of the set.
(Now everyone is in a clear position, though you might add, gents take
a step forward between your neighbors.) These gents pass left to start
a hey across, pass partner right, ladies pass left, etc. When you meet
your partner again, swing.

Thanks. This looks much like the temporary wave approach but without the complication of taking and dropping hands - nice.

Finally, some meta-commentary. The more new and unfamiliar pieces you
have in a dance, the harder it is for dancers to learn each one of
them, because they have more stuff to try to remember, and they are
more likely to end up confused and unconfident that they're doing the
right thing. End effects don't help matters. I believe you're correct
that you come in in A2 on the zig zag with ladies on the left, but
also you want to be crossed-over when you come in for A1. This is just
to say that this new transition would be easier for dancers to learn
in a simpler context, so if I were going to teach this hey, I would
teach it in a different dance.

Agree, I think. To be clear, I'd never consider having this be the first hey in a program at any regular dance - my question was more about how to teach this particular hey's entry, presumably following having set a firm foundation through another dance (something more like Centrifugal Hey, etc.).

By the way, here's the dance I mentioned:

Life Is Short; Dance Often
Lindsey Dono, Yoyo Zhou
November 11, 2014
becket left

A1: circle left 1; ladies chain to N1
A2: mad robin around N1; circle right 1
B1: (~4) with P, zag right, zig left to face N2; (~12) ~3/4 hey, gents pass left
B2: P balance, swing

(You come in from the ends in B1 with the lady on the left.
I was concerned about the timing of B1, of course, with the balance at
B2, but it worked really well in practice.)

(P.S. In a Becket dance that ends this way, you get the benefit of
being able to start the teaching with a swing at home to identify
where to swing your partner.)

Yoyo Zhou

Thanks for sharing this!