Re: [Callers] Tampering with a classic again 3-33-33

A Number of Points: 1) Wm DSD 1.5 to progress works fine -- especially if you get the men in the action: they also need to know who to look for, and step in towards the woman coming at them. --- A thought that comes up for me on this point: I've noticed that, now that dances tend to be everyone active, and equal, we dancers have forgotten much about how to "manage" a dance. And we callers have not been effective at teaching it. That used to be the inactive's job. Now I don't even use the word "inactive," I call them ones & twos. So, it would help if we figure ways to remind dancers that they are responsible for keeping the distance a good distance, not too far, not so close as to crowd too much. And, it is everyone's role to help each other be where they need to be... 2) Teaching effectively often takes a "dance with a challenge" into a relatively "easy" dance. When I started calling I highlighted my cards with green for easy, orange for medium, and red for challenging. After about a year, many of those colors needed changing. Many "red" cards changed to orange or green, and a few "green" cards needed a color change up to orange or red. What was lacking was an understanding of how to teach, and, at times, a misjudgement on something I thought easy, but dancers didn't. Still, the better I got at the walk through, the easier "hard" dances became. Still got a lot to learn... 3) To contradict point 1: I modify dances all the time, as my perception of the need demands. So, even though I think a Wm DSD 1.5 might work fine, I might change it because it is a somewhat "ambiguous" figure, no direct connection on where you're going, along with the need to go farther than the normal 8-beat DSD usually expects -- the challenge callers are noting. If I do modify a dance, I'll call it a "minor variation of ...". 4) As brought up: Chorus Jig: originally a triple minor. Petronella -- according to The Country Dance Book (if I recall correctly) originally done only by the active couple. And, there are more Chestnuts that we no longer dance as they were danced. I recall when Ted Sanella came for Santa Barbara's Harvest Moon, we started Chorus Jig as a triple minor. Then he had couples waiting out at the top enter as a duple minor, so we got to feel the modern difference as we progressed through the dance. ~erik hoffman oakland, ca On 6/20/2013 4:08 PM, Richard Fischer wrote: