[Callers] Some history of Cross Trail Thru (was Re: Square through vs Cross-trail)

On Tue, Dec 31, 2013, Andrea Nettleton wrote: and on Dec 31, 2013, at 8:01 PM, Aahz Maruch replied: In my earlier message (Dec 29, 2013, at 10:58 PM), I (Jim Saxe) had written about Cross Trail Thru historically having involved a curving action. I also emphasized that I was omitting details. Here are some of the omitted details. * * * * * * * * * * The current CALLERLAB definition of "Cross Trail Thru" says: From facing couples: As one smooth motion, Pass Thru and Half Sashay. Ends in couples back-to-back. Note: When one hears "Cross Trail Thru To Your Corner; Allemande Left", the Cross Trail Thru is danced, as one smooth motion, Pass Thru and left-shoulder Partner Tag. [For those unfamiliar with the term "Partner Tag", the definition is From a couple or mini-wave, dancers turn to face each other and pass thru. (where a "couple" means a pair of dancers side by side facing the same direction, regardless of whether they are original partners, and even regardless of their gender roles). I'm only mentioning this to explain the note in the definition above. I can't think of any reason for a contra caller or a traditional square caller to utter the phrase "partner tag" to dancers, and I think there's ample reason to avoid it in favor of more descriptive terminology.] The main part of the definition above (excluding the special case "Cross Trail Thru To Your Corner; Allemande Left") is what Andrea and Aahz are referring to. However, the term "Cross Trail Thru" (or "Through") entered the square dance lexicon over sixty years ago (I've seen sources that date it to 1940 and others suggesting it's from a few years later), in an era when definitions were much less codified than they are in Modern Western Square Dancing (MWSD) today. It is also a term about which there has been a good deal of controversy over the years, with some callers insisting it should be defined to end with facing in original directions (as in the current CALLERLAB definition) and others saying that it involves a curving action or that the ending position depends on the next call. Additionally, some historic definitions also say that if dancers are already facing out, they can do the call without the initial "Pass Thru". There's also a version with an "active" and an "inactive" couple, where the actives cross diagonally through the inactives and the inactives essentially stay put. I think this last version may be what Jean Francis had in mind when writing (in a message posted Dec 29, 2013, at 7:18 PM): A cross trail forms an "x" pattern similar to the beginning of a 1/2 figure 8 One source I've found says that if the call is started from couples with ladies on the left of the gents, then it is still the ladies who cross in front. Most sources, if they mention varied gender arrangements at all, say that it is always the dancer originally on the right in each couple who crosses in front of the dancer originally on the left, regardless of gender. * * * * * * * * * * I could quote descriptions of Cross Trail Thru (and variant call names) as published in a variety of sources over the years, but to keep this message from becoming a good deal longer that it's already getting to be, I'll simply suggest that readers who want to get some sense of the controversy over the definition take a look at the following pages in old issues of _Sets In Order_ magazine: * Vol. IX, No. 5, May 1957, p. 11 [Note: "Pattison" is misspelled as "Patterson".] * Vol. XXIII, No. 5, May 1971, p. 15 * Vol. XXV, No. 6, June 1973, pp. 16-17 * Vol. XXIX, No. 10, October 1977. p. 15 The complete run of the magazine is available online at http://digitaldu.coalliance.org/fedora/repository/codu:59239 * * * * * * * * * * Based on the current CALLERLAB definitions document, it's clear which faction in this controversy won out in the MWSD world. My impression is that a significant number of the dissenters were not whole-heartedly won over to the prevailing view, but merely outvoted, and that discord over the call was a big part of what led to it being dropped from the Basic list 20 years ago and moved to Advanced. Given the nature of MWSD, I can see why many callers would prefer call definitions that leave dancers facing definitely parallel or definitely at right angles to original directions over definitions that involve smoothly curving turns and vague dependencies on subsequent calls. But "Cross Trail Through" dates from a time before the divide between MWSD and "traditional" SD was nearly as great as it is today, and the call has found its way into "traditional" side of the SD activity via callers who picked it up back in those days and more recent "traditional"-style callers who learned from them. And "traditional"-style callers haven't been driven by MWSD's need for precision about call definitions (including facing directions), nor have we felt obliged always to follow CALLERLAB's decisions about call definitions. * * * * * * * * * * An example of a dance sequence using "Cross Trail" in a way that could make a current MWSD caller (especially one who only got involved in SD within the past decade or two) have a cow is Dick Leger's singing call "Marianne". See http://www.ceder.net/recorddb/viewsingle.php4?RecordId=4599&SqlId=258026 for cue sheet; see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pf9Kt5t4QhM for the called version of Leger's 1957 recording; and see videos of the dance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TPk23ME75rA http://squaredancehistory.org/items/show/778 [This page says Leger claimed that "Marianne" was the best-selling square dance record of all time.] The callers in the videos--Tony Parkes and David Millstone--don't use Leger's exact call wordings, but I believe the choreography is the same as Leger intended. As another example, consider this fragment from the dance "Trailin' Star" by Jim York: ... [From lines of four, M1-W1-M4-W4 facing M3-W3-M2-W2 (reading L to R in each line):] Go forward and back and step it light Then cross trail thru--Gents star right Gals promenade till you hear me sing-- Reverse the Star--reverse the ring Pass her twice and don't be late, Gals step in behind your date It's a left hand up and star all eight ... (For the full dance, see SIO, Vol. VI, No. 5, May 1954, p. 21.) * * * * * * * * * * I think there are a couple points to be taken from all this that go beyond details about the history of "Cross Trail Thru". First, it's the general nature of things folkloric that the version of something you first encountered is not necessarily the one and only way it was back into the dim past. Second, if you have occasion to go searching for dance material in old books, magazines, etc., beware of assuming that familiar terms used by the authors have exactly the meanings that are familiar to you. It may take a bit of work to figure out the intended choreography. And if you find something you think you can use, it may take some work--and some good judgment--to decide whether and how to adjust the choreography and/or the call terminology to best suit your intended audience. --Jim