Re: [Callers] Person of the Pond

On Feb 29, 2012, at 12:38 PM, Bill Baritompa wrote, concerning my dance "Person of the Pond": I think of it as ending with the 1's near each other ready to balance and swing in the middle of the set. See further comments at the end of this message. When I say "second corner positions" I'm indeed using English country dance (ECD) terminology. Note that I'm referring to the persons who are *currently* in second corner positions, regardless of where they were at the start of the dance. Yes, I mean the right hand person in each casting pair from phrase 6. (That amounts to the same thing as saying "those now in second corner positions". I said it two ways in hope of minimizing the likelihood of misinterpretation.) Think about what happens in "Lady of the Lake." 1&2. Balance and swing neighbor 3&4. 1s balance and swing 5&6. 1s go down the center, turn alone, come up the center, and cast off (assisted) 7&8. W chain over and back For W1, there's a natural forward flow from the cast into the chain. For W2, there's a reversal of direction. Several generations of dancers have somehow managed to cope with this. Provided the dancers know what they're doing it's no more difficult or awkward a reversal than occurs in many other perfectly workable transitions such as "long lines go forward and back; star right." I think it may work best with 7&8 smoothed out over 16 beats. I might nonetheless prompt it the first few times as if the roll-away were ended on beat 8, lest dancers fall into the habit of starting it on beat 9. Further comments: This dance was inspired in part by reflections after I attended my first "gender-free contra" session one year at the New England Folk Festival. Since there may be some list readers who aren't familiar with these, here's how it worked: There was a supply of large orange ribbons that dancers could tie on their arms as role markers. The dances were typical contras of the time (circa 1990), but instead of directing calls to "men"/"gents" and "women"/"ladies", the caller referred to "arm bands" (dancing the traditional gent's role) and "bare arms" (dancing the traditional ladies' role). It occurred to me that it might be interesting to compose some dances that were more inherently gender-role-free and that wouldn't rely on arm-bands or on people remembering a gender role or the choreographic equivalent. In contemporary contra dancing, the choreography, including the progression, often depends on dancers ending swings with the correct dancer (whether referred to as a "lady" or as a "bare-arm") on the right. I wanted to avoid this dependency somehow, but not at the cost of excluding neighbor swings. In "Person of the Pond," the dancers don't need to remember who should end the neighbor swing on which side of their neighbor, but only to leave the 1s ready to balance and swing in the middle. For the partner swing, it doesn't matter which side you end on because the possibility of switching sides with your partner is officially part of the dance (and of course it's assumed that dancers will be happy to dance with whatever neighbors they encounter). Finally, I'd like to call attention to the timing of the B1 part (phrases 5&6). When "Lady of the Lake" is danced in the style of the late 20th and early 21st century, the neighbor swing ends with dancers in progressed position, with ladies to the right of their neighbors and gents to the left of their neighbors as they face across the set. This means that the 1s start their trip down the center after swinging below their 2s. If the timing is 5&6. 1s go down the center (6), turn alone (2), come up the center (4), and cast off (4) then the 1s have 4 steps to come up the center a bit farther than they went down in 6 steps. So dancers need to be aware of taking small steps and not going too far down the hall, lest they be rushed or late coming back up and casting off. In the mid-19th century, the "balance" would probably have been some kind of eight-beat action and the "swing" (or "turn" as it might have been called) would likely have been a two-hand turn once around, ending with dancers back where they started. Thus, the 1s would have started down the center from slightly above their 2s, making for easier timing. (I believe it was Ralph Sweet who first called my attention to this.) I don't recall where the partner swing in "Person of the Pond" has tended to happen when I've called it. (Perhaps with the 1s directly between their own 2s?) In any case, there's no need for the dancers to make a point of ending the neighbor swing in progressed position. I hope this answers Bill's questions. --Jim