Re: [Callers] Diagonal R&L and Double Prog Becket (was Circle left 3/4)

On Jun 5, 2013, at 9:06 PM, Bill Baritompa wrote: [Note: I've heard and seen R&L through on the diagonal followed by R&L through with a new couple straight across is known as a "bucksaw". "Sawtooth" is something else. See below. --js] I think that what goes is that Aahz isn't the first person who ever managed not to notice that the bucksaw action achieves a double progression. Also you could dance the first (diagonal) R&L through in such a way that each couple doesn't advance up or down the set quite into the other couple's place, and then you could dance the second R&L through (or "right and left back") with the same couple, contriving to end up directly across from them, or very nearly so. I've heard or read somewhere that when "Becket Reel" was first introduced, many dancers were tempted to do just that, and it took callers some effort to get them to dance the second R&L with a new(er) couple across the set. However what Herbie Gaudreau (author of "Becket Reel) intended was indeed the double progression interpretation, and as far as I've seen, that's also the current standard interpretation of the bucksaw action today. "Fisher's Jig", as I've called it and as I've seen it danced is a double progression. You can see it done that way in this video with Beth Molaro calling at the University of Chicago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKfA94u91G0&feature=related If you watch carefully, you will see that after after doing the diagonal R&L through, dancers do the this second R&L through with a different couple. And later in the video when the camera zooms out so that you can see the tops of the sets, you can see that there's never a couple out at the top during the hey. The description of "Another Art and Nancy's Fancy" in Joseph Pimentel's book _The Cardinal Collection_ says that it's a double progression. From the choreography as given in _Dance All Night 2_ by Tom Hinds, I interpret it as a double progression. Tom doesn't say that it is, but he doesn't explicitly say that it's single progression either. I interpret the description at http://web.archive.org/web/20091021095357/http://geocities.com/barbkirchner… as double progression, though it could be made into a single if the B2 were changed to "..., same 4 circle L ...". From the description at http://www.merridancing.com/dances.htm#n3 the basic version (which doesn't have a bucksaw action) is a single progression dance. The alternate B2 "for more advanced dancers" looks like a double progression to me. I interpret the description at http://www.richgoss.com/rgdancecomp.html#n7.1 as double progression. bucksaw I'd say that the (currently) standard way to interpret these dance descriptions as written is as a double progression, but they could be modified to single progression versions. * * * * * * * * * * * * I said that "sawtooth" means something different from "bucksaw", so I guess I should say what it means. In most current contra choreography, when dancers are in couples (whether with partner or with neighbor) on the sides of the set, each couple is--at least in theory--directly across the set from a couple on the other side. "Sawtooth formation" is a name coined by Larry Jennings for a situation where, by design, each couple is directly across the set from the gap between two different couples on the other side. The most common case is for dancers to be together with their partners and for each couple to be across from the gap between the neighbors they were just dancing with and the neighbors they're about to dance with. For example, in Larry's dance "Give And Take I", the neighbor swing in B1 ends with dancers facing their respective partners across the set. In the eponymous give-and-take figure, dancers advance to the meet in the middle and men draw their partners back into a swing. The usual habit of experienced contra dancers would to adjust the position of the swings to put couples directly across from their current neighbors. Larry preferred instead that dancers swing approximately on the spots where the men began the give-and-take action, so that dancers are in "sawtooth" formation, with each couple being on a slight right diagonal from the neighbors they were just dancing with and on a slight left diagonal from the neighbors with whom they're about to start the next round. Larry discusses both the sawtooth formation and the revision of bucksaw-like sequences to single progressions in section V-12 of his book _Give-and-Take_. --Jim