Richard,
My bad. That was suggested (by Luke D?), as a triplet-esque solution, whereby smaller sets, run shorter, limited the potential for problems.
If the problem is dancers who are new, or easily confused, short sets can increase the confusion as you get turned around that much faster, with fewer dancers in the middle to reinforce the pattern of the dance. If the problem is a very uncomfortable swing or strong aversion to the shadow, I personally would prefer a long set, but alternate choreography to the swing, suggested by the caller.
I definitely think that a shadow becomes an anchor, so suggesting line swapping will remove what, for some, will make a confusing dance doable at all. If I were calling, that is one thing I wouldn't choose.
Thanks for the new/missing from summary suggestion.
Andrea
Sent from my iOnlypretendtomultitask
Here's a suggestion I don't think I've seen in this discussion. If you want to call a dance with a shadow swing, how about save it for time when you can have several shorter sets, and remind couples they can join other sets when they reach the top or the bottom, to get an opportunity to dance with a bigger variety of people. (And of course remind dancers they may have the surprise of a new shadow.)
Richard
On Sep 8, 2015, at 11:06 AM, Maia McCormick via Callers wrote:
Hey all,
First, a disclaimer: Some people on this listserv thing shadow swings are problematic. Some don't see any issue with them. This is NOT the conversation I want to have in this thread; I ask that you respond to the question I'm asking and do not debate my premise--at least not in this particular thread. This should help keep this thread on track and hopefully reduce excess noise and go-nowhere discussions on this listserv. Thanks!
Anyway, the actual question I wanted to ask (whew!)--
There do exist some really fabulous shadow-swing dances that I would love to be able to call, as long as I could do so without putting anyone in an uncomfortable position. Do folks have ideas for ways to mitigate the potential harms of shadow swing dances? I was considering, at the beginning of the dance, having dancers identify their shadow and mentioning, "this will be a shadow swing dance, so if you need to make any changes, do so now" (or something like that)--haven't gotten the wording down-pat, but the idea is giving dancers advance warning of a shadow swing so they can move (thereby changing their shadow) if they need to. Any thoughts on this method? Suggestions of others?
Cheers.
Maia
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