I've actually seen a caller...encourage the chaos.  Gents allemande once 
and a half.  Now with your partner, allemande some number of times.  Go 
make a LHS with someone (it's ok if it's a 5 person star, or a 3 person 
star, as long as it KEEPS MOVING it'll get you back to your partner for 
a swing).  I don't go quite that far, but do tell people that the trick 
is to not worry about the star being *correct* but to *keep moving* and 
come back and swing your partner.  Even if they followed you into the 
same star, or starred with people in the next set, as long as they 
*don't stop moving* (or try to stop and fox things) it'll still work.
Yes, it can verge on chaos, but it also is an amazingly resilient dance.
Jack
On 2/6/2011 9:51 AM, Dale Wilson wrote:
  On Tue, Feb 1, 2011 at 1:30
PM,<richgoss(a)comcast.net>  wrote:
  So is this coming weekend going to be "Warm
Pig" weekend?
 I'd be curious how many times it gets called this weekend.  I like the bit about
encouraging folks to play around with the stars. 
 I called it last night and it
worked with my revised instructions, but
 the "widespread moment of confusion" was still there -- I'd say it was
 verging on a moment of total chaos.
 There were three people stars.   There were six people stars.   There
 were people starring themselves.   I kept calling through the entire
 dance -- with particular emphasis on the swing after the star.
 Fortunately the dancers seem to find that a lot more fun than I
 expected them to (what do I know?)  I got several unsolicited positive
 comments from the crowd. I think they were intentionally playing with
 the chaos.   This one's going into my repertoire to be called when the
 time is right.
 Dale
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