Hey, Claire!

I don't have any prewritten  choreographies to offer at present.

I'm enjoying the magnetic pool noodles thought, and appreciate your ingenuinity in coming up with a way to, basically, make everyone's arms extra long and not have to touch something other people touch.  

(I can't build this myself, but what I really think we'd want is a stick with strong electromagnets on one end and a handle on the other that you can squeeze to turn the magnet on an off.  Then you can get an attachment at the end strong enough to share some weight across but that you can break easily for moving on to the next person.  Or maybe something with the mechanism of one of those grabbers with a coupler at the other end, so you squeeze the handle and something mechanically grabs at the other end.  Of course these need to be light and have no eye-threatening sharp edges.)

Thinking further about this idea of distancing but with props - I initially had the same thought that Donna did about sword dancing, but remembered from doing longsword that those swords are between 2.5 and 3.5 feet and dancers hold their own sword by the handle and someone else's sword by the "point" (it's not sharp).  The set is very elastic; in some longsword figures the two people on one sword tuck in next to each other behind the sword so are a foot or less apart; in others (circles) the arms get quite stretched out so the people's heads are over six feet apart.  I don't think longsword choreography has too much to offer for distance contra but we can take a lesson from it.

In most longsword where the music goes at a reasonable clip and the circles get big, you really have to do a dance run to get the circles to go around.  Bigger circle, more ground to cover.  If you make the circle contract, you get closer to your neighbors.

I haven't measured this, but if people hold hands and make Ws with their arms I think the bodies are three feet apart and if we claim the bodies are 20 inches across we have (20+36)*4/12 = an almost 19-foot circumference, and you may have enough connectioni beween hands to drive the circle.  If we're extending everybody's arms by three feet with pool noodles (which we have to keep the outstretched hands six feet apart from each other) then the bodies are 9 feet apart
(W arm shape plus six feet noodle) so (20+108)*4/12 = a 42-foot circumference. I assumed either a  two-hand-turn or crossed-hand-turn and I think the goal is to keep the mouths/noses/eyes six feet apart so let's make those pool noodles a foot and a half long so that you get person->arm(18 inches)->noodle(18 inches)->noodle(18 inches0->arm(18 inches) person.  Then I think you've got about a 30-foot circumference (20+72)*4/12.  The distance you have to cover to turn that circle is 150% of the distance to turn an undistanced contra circle, so you're going to need either more time or bigger steps to cover that ground. 

I think this is okay for a circle left / circle right that just goes as far as as it can in the time and then comes back the same distance, but if you want to do CL 3/4 and swing or CL 3/4 and pass through - things where you need to get a  particular place in a particular amount of time -  you either need bigger steps or more music or relaxed enough timing.

CL-> swing transition is least hassle if you keep the hand you've got with whoever you're swinging and take the other hand in a two-hand-turn style thing which lets you keep arm-noodle-noodle-arm distance.   I think that's going to be really awkward to get into, though; in the circle you're connected by one right hand one left hand; if both dancers are right-handed (statistically likely) one of them is going to have to use their non-dominant hand to "dock" their noodle with the other dancer's noodle *while turning right to face them* and I don't think that's going to be reliably smooth.

I think we'd probably be better off making every swing a balance & swing, with the balance time allowing for docking.

Other thoughts about figures - courtesy turns as we know them would shrink the space to less than six feet if we keep 18inch noodles - whoever's hand is behind their back loses the 18" of arm and the width of their body from the length of the noodle.  I think you can just convert them to allemandes and retain distancing.  Over in English we've been doing the "open chain" for years (usually in waltz time);  substitute that for chain and courtesy turn and you can keep up.

Shoulder-round figures need to be much bigger than they're done at non-distance contras.  This is entirely feasible (English shoulder rounds are can be the width of the set) but it's not what people are used to.

I'm thinking about Rory O'More wave balance and spin by, and in addition to having to cover more ground to spin past (doable; we probably cover enough ground in, say "Pirate's Life For Me" when we spin past two), I think there's a good chance of whacking somebody with a pool noodle if you bring your hands down and up again.  This would need experiment, but maybe if you're spinning you need to bring your noodles up vertically so they touch over your head while you're spinning.

As best as I can picture, twirling under the noodle handhold is a non-starter.  It shrinks the distance between the people holding "hands" both because the hands have to go up  and because the twirl brings the twirler in under the arch.  I think if you want to twirl you need to break the connection and twirl yourself in your own track.

This is fun to think about but I probably shouldn't spend any more time on it now.

-- Alan



From: Claire Takemori via Trad Callers <tradcallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 19, 2020 10:32 PM
To: tradcallers@lists.sharedweight.net <tradcallers@lists.sharedweight.net>; contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Cc: Claire Takemori <cht@mac.com>
Subject: [TradCallers] Distance "contra" dance choreo?
 
Hello Callers !

Wondering if anyone has written some “contra” dances that maintain 6 feet distance?  

I’m imagining trying (narrow)pool noodles to use as spacers (outdoors).  Maybe cut to 3 foot lengths with magnets at the ends to clack & connect to the next noodle.

I know someone doing Intl Folk with ribbons and they were shared by accident, and are obviously too flexible to help keep distance.

I can also see it being more like solo dancing with “contra” moves in HUGE figures (more aerobic?) or maybe something totally different? 

If you’d like to chat about choreo ideas for distanced outdoor (masks, gloves, etc) “contra” dances, please email me.

I believe there will be intermediate stages of coming back to dance and we can try when County and State Health limitations allow (Mine just opened up for out door gatherings last week).


(I’m very aware of the issues, the research about covid, and our State and County Health regulations.) I’m looking for conversation about what coming back to dancing might look like, and choreography to support this that is fun.

Thanks for your on-topic replies. 

Best,
Claire Takemori (CA)
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