AI is invading our lives, but can sometimes be useful — for example, ChatGPT is pretty good at reformatting contra dances!

In Philly we have mostly multi-caller evenings, where the coordinator gets dance submissions from many callers (in many formats), creates a program, and sends out the result. Sometimes the program looks like a fruit salad of formats, but (OCD?) I like everything to be concise and uniform.

See example below, where ChatGPT unifies dances in 4 formats — Callers Box, one posted here, my website, and Bob Isaacs’ format. It took a few tries to refine the instructions (and I only tried this one output format), but in the end it’s a pretty amazing result from minimal instructions in plain English.

Rick

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My Instructions to ChatGPT

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Please reformat the contra dances below as follows:

Format dance headers as e.g. “Title (Author) Formation”

If formation is omitted, use “Duple Improper” 

Format part names as e.g. “A1:  ”.

Eliminate beat counts for figures (like “8”).

Put a part’s figures on one line, separated by commas, no period or spaces at the end.

And this is important — format as plain text, do not format as markdown.

Centrifugal Hey

by Gene Hubert

Permission: full   License: CC-BY-NC

FormationBase:	Duple Minor - Improper
Progression:	Single

Figures:

A1	(8) Neighbor allemande right 1 & 3/4 (8) Men allemande left 1 & 1/2
A2	(16) Hey (PR;WL;NR;ML;PR;WL;NR;ML)
B1	(16) Partner swing
B2	(8) Right and left through with partner (6) Circle left 3/4 (2) Pass through along (NR)

Stars are Aligned
by Lisa Sieverts
BECKET, CCW

1. LH Star

2. RH Star

3. P Do Si Do (on side)

4. P Swing

5. Whole Set Oval Left

6. Whole set Oval Right

7. F&B

8. LH Star, on to the next, partners moving along the line
   
   

Trip to Trillium                 Bob Isaacs                  Becket-L

 

A1.      8          Circle L ¾

            8          w/Partner weave the line past two                                          (1)

 

A2.      8          w/N3 square through three

            8          N2 swing

 

B1.      8          Robins chain to partner

            8          ½ hey (RR, N2L, LR, -)

 

B2.      4,12     Partner balance, swing

Fluidity

By Rick Mohr; September 2017

Contra, BecketCaller's Box

Level: Easy/Intermediate

A1:	3/4 Hey (larks pass left shoulders to start) (12) Robins allemande left (4)
A2:	Gypsy and swing neighbor (16)
B1:	Right and left through (8) Circle right (8)
B2:	(With next couple) Circle left 3/4 (6) Swing partner (10)

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Output from ChatGPT

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Centrifugal Hey (Gene Hubert) Duple Improper
A1: Neighbor allemande right 1 & 3/4, men allemande left 1 & 1/2
A2: Hey (PR, WL, NR, ML, PR, WL, NR, ML)
B1: Partner swing
B2: Right and left through with partner, circle left 3/4, pass through along (NR)

Stars are Aligned (Lisa Sieverts) Becket CCW
A1: Left-hand star, right-hand star
A2: Partner do-si-do, partner swing
B1: Whole set oval left, whole set oval right
B2: Forward and back, left-hand star on to the next, partners moving along the line

Trip to Trillium (Bob Isaacs) Becket Left
A1: Circle left 3/4, with partner weave the line past two
A2: With N3 square through three, N2 swing
B1: Robins chain to partner, half hey (RR, N2L, LR)
B2: Partner balance, swing

Fluidity (Rick Mohr; September 2017) Becket
A1: Three-quarter hey (larks pass left shoulders to start), robins allemande left
A2: Gypsy and swing neighbor
B1: Right and left through, circle right
B2: With next couple circle left 3/4, swing partner

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