27 Jan
2025
27 Jan
'25
12:50 p.m.
Jeff, what do you mean by zias?
One issue I have with sicilian circles is that I always need more time than
I think it should to set it up. That keeps me from incorporating them more
in my program. I have tried asking dancers to line up for a contra dance
and then ask them to bend the line to make a circle of small groups of 4.
Dancers have a hard time understanding that. They eventually get it but it
takes a long time. Ideas on how to set it up for dancers who are not
familiar with the formation?
Claire Baffaut
On Mon, Jan 27, 2025 at 6:10 AM Jeff Kaufman via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Another thing to keep in mind about Sicilian Circles
is that they use the
rectangular space of a typical hall much less efficiently than contra sets,
so if you're planning to call an interesting dance this way you may show up
and find the hall is too crowded for it to be workable. Also an issue with
Zias.
Jeff
On Sun, Jan 26, 2025 at 1:12 AM Robert Matson via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
--
*Claire Baffaut*
Our dances are generally beginner-heavy. Our
priority is to get people
dancing and enjoying moving to the music as quickly as possibly. We often
do Sicilian Circles. Our participants like them fine. We've never seen
anything to make us think that the curvature of the lines causes an issue.
We've sometimes reformed simple contras as Sicilian Circles to make them
even easier to dance since any kind of end effect, even the simplest, can
confuse beginners.
For our purposes, I like this idea of taking a dance with a challenging
end effect and dancing it as a Sicilian Circle. Thanks for the good idea.
Rob
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Robert Matson
Cell: (917) 626-2675
On Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 12:58 PM Michael Fuerst via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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Rick: Can you provide the names of four or five
dances that you feel
have complicated enough end effects that you might want to call them as a
Sicilian circle?
On Sat, Jan 25, 2025 at 9:45 AM Rick Mohr via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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Many good contras where you leave the minor set
aren’t too hard, but
have challenging end effects. One could eliminate the end effects using a
Sicilian circle. I haven't tried it, but wonder whether disorientation from
the curved set would offset the advantages.
If you’ve actually tried it, how did it go?
Rick
(...ignoring for the moment that Sicilian circles don't fit every hall
or size of group...)
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