3 Jan
2013
3 Jan
'13
6:44 p.m.
On 1/3/2013 12:32 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote:
On 1/3/2013 8:21 AM, Aahz Maruch wrote:
In fairness to at least one hot-dogger, there was a guy in the same role
as me for one of
the second-half contras, one couple ahead - a guy who has always struck
me as the essence of smug
hot-doggery, incidentally. This had a ladies chain and face new
neighbor progression. This person -
who I did seeing doing dips (always supporting the head) and lifts - was
very carefully managing
all the neighbor ladies through this progression, placing them - if they
seemed confused enough to
need to be placed, and many were - in the right place, facing the right
direction, at the right time.
I'd been bracing myself for a whole dance's worth of having to catch
dizzy women for the swing, and
instead, specifically because of this guys' being responsible about it,
all the transitions worked.
On Thu, Jan 03, 2013, Alan Winston wrote:
I'm one of them. It's possible to flourish
responsibly, but that is
often not the case. At the Berkeley dance last night I saw a couple of
overenthusiastic dippers/lifters smack people in adjacent lines with
parts of their partners, and more than once heard a surprised partner or
neighbor shriek as she was dipped or lifted in ways she wasn't prepared
for. I don't think you need this for the argument;
there were flourishes
when I started contra dancing in 1985 (but we called the people who
did them "hot-doggers" and complained about them).
Which "we"
are you talking about? You really don't want folks getting airborne in
a crowded hall.
It's just not cool.
Hear, hear!
I've danced many times with partners who
decided
that I was by god going to twirl 4 or 5 times, and it turned into a bit
of a battle to keep my arm (and the speed) down. I've also danced with
women who were weirdly insistent on getting twirled, a lot, all the
time. When I dance the gent's part I'm pretty basic. I get my partners
where they need to be, on time and facing the right way, but I don't do
anything fancy. Flourishes can be really fun to do and cool to watch,
but only if the folks doing them are exceptionally careful with their
awareness of the dancers around them, and respectful of whether the
folks they're dancing with _want_ to do the fancy stuff.
OK, I'm done ranting now.
I'm probably not, but I won't do it more in this reply.
-- Alan