[Callers] Spilled Milk analysis (was Re: Do you add a 'do anything' move into a contra? OR other playful strategies? :) )

Colin Hume wrote, regarding the dance No Use Crying Over Spilled Milk, by Chris Weiler: I did such an analysis several years ago, after doing the dance in the womens's/robin's role and, I'll confess, having a similar experience of getting stuck at an end for multiple rounds. I ended up diagramming about five rounds of the dance to be sure I really understood the end effects. I won't give full details here because people who'd have the patience to study a fully detailed explanation would also have the patience to work it out for themselves. But here's a high-level summary. It's still pretty wordy, and anyone who doesn't have the patience for it can of course feel free to skip the rest of this message. The dance is a single progression for the women/robins and a triple (not double, as I've heard someone say) progression for the men/larks, making it a mixer. Here's s sketch of what's supposed to happen as you approach and reach an end of the set if you're dancing as a robin. [Note: Henceforth, I'll use the gender-neutral role names, and the word "you" will refer to the experience of someone in the robin role.] As you progress along the set, you will encounter various larks, some progressing in the same direction as you are (but more quickly), and some progressing in the opposite direction. You will swing as a "partner" with each lark who catches up to you as they progress in your same direction, and you'll swing as a neighbor with just half of the larks you meet as they progress in the opposite direction. (You'll allemande left with the other half.) After you swing any particular lark as a "partner," they will continue progressing along the set ahead of you, then reach the end and start progressing back towards you. When you meet again, you might swing as neighbors. As you move closer to the end of the set, the time between swinging someone as a "partner" and swinging them again as a neighbor (if you do) will grow shorter and shorter. Eventually, you'll swing with some lark as "partner" on one side of the set and then swing that same person again as "neighbor" at the very end of the set just a few seconds later. Then there will be another lark with whom you swing at the very end of the set, but as a "partner", and with whom you never swing as a "neighbor" (or at least not until you meet again near the other end of the set). And then there will start being larks with whom you swing first as neighbors and then as "partners", with the intervals between two swings with the same person now growing longer and longer as you progress away from the end of the set. During the time that your two swings with the same person are first as "partners" and then as neighbors, those swings will be happen on opposite sides of the set (except in the one case where the second swing is at the very top of the set). Let's say that the first swing (as "partners") happens near the "kitchen" wall and that the second swing (as neighbors) happens near the "clock" wall. After you turn around at the end of the set and start meeting people with whom you swing first as neighbors and then as partners, your "partner" swings will now be near the clock wall and your neighbor swings will now be near the kitchen wall. That means that the _first_ of your two swings with the same person will still be near the kitchen wall, and the _second_ will still be near the clock wall, *just as they were before.* Also, since the dance is a mixer, the "partner" swings don't feel very different from the neighbor swings. The result of all this is that when you've reached an end of the set and are just about starting to progress in the opposite direction, you can get a strong sense of déjà vu. It can feel like you've gotten stuck at the end, and you can be tempted to "fix" things somehow. Whatever you do to "fix" things may then prevent you from progressing normally. Effectively you will have traded places with the robin who had been following you along the set, allowing them to reverse direction a little early and to start progressing the other way just ahead of you. Also, you may have set yourself up to get the same déjà vu experience all over again, and then to try to "fix" things again, leaving yourself stuck at the end for another round. And since the dance is a mixer, the other dancers are unlikely to notice that anytihng is going wrong, as they would if you inadvertently stole someone's partner in a dance that wasn't a mixer. Whew! There you have it. Feel free to ask questions if I haven't confused you enough and you need me to confuse you more. Cheers, --Jim