Interesting. I’ve received multiple direct emails from people saying variously that:
- my comment was off-topic because Maia requested responses to be about whether to announce it or not
and not about the merits or not of shadow swings
- my comment misses the point because some people have had (or fear they might have) an unpleasant
shadow interaction, so the Caller needs to accommodate that fear
I repeat. Wow. Perhaps I was a little too subtle in what I wrote.
But no one listens to the Caller anyway…
To state it more clearly: I think it is a mistake to announce something like "the next dance has a shadow swing,
and your shadow is the person in the next hands-4 facing you (or in the hands-4 behind you looking at your back),
so check them out and if it’s someone you don’t want to encounter for 4 seconds each time through the music,
ask the other couple in your hands-4 if they would agree to circle left 1/2 before the dance starts”.
Doing so would broadcast an entirely incorrect and inappropriate message about the dance community.
In my experience, people who don’t want to encounter another individual as a shadow, or even as a neighbor,
tend to take care to line up in a different set from their Ex, or that “creeper”, even if there is no shadow in the
particular dance.
If there’s only 1 set, that’s a problem, eh? If there is a creeper in each set, that’s a problem also. Again, that’s
something the community needs to treat, and there’s really nothing the caller that evening can do even
with the power of the bully pulpit.
The most the caller can do in such cases is exert a gentle nudge on the side of that asteroid, and perhaps over
time, given enough nudges, the asteroid’s path will change.
Maybe say things like “contra dancers are very courteous and friendly people” will, over time, encourage people
to live up to that description. Sometimes saying “swing with your shadow in such a way that they’ll look forward
to coming back to you next time through the music” also might, over time, instill a more positive image to exhibit.
As much as callers might like to think that they guide and even control the dance community, it just ain’t so.
All we can do is suggest. And as has been said before, no one listens to the Caller.
-Eric
Wow. ISTM [It Seems To Me] that this is far more responsibility for controlling social interpersonal interactions than the programmer and/or caller at the mic should have to worry about, even though we do worry about such things.
Sorry I don’t have opportunity to participate on this email list more often. That Pesky Day Job [PDJ] and all…
Short response: Don’t point out shadow partner interaction; the dancers need to be adult about it, no one listens to the Caller anyway, let alone anything said while they’re still lining up.