I doubt this exists, but thought I’d ask:
I have seen on-line apps that demonstrate just one particular move (a ravens chain or whatever) showing how each dancer moves in that single call/move.
But has anyone yet programmed something that allows you to put in all the moves of a full contra dance, so you can see how all the dancers in a contra line interact?
I’m trying to figure out movements and end effects using a magnetic whiteboard, moving magnets around, but it is both painstakingly slow and I keep screwing it up.

I know the ideal way to figure out end effects and make sure a dance works before calling it is to get a few friends together to walk it thru, but short of getting that many contra dancers in a room (I have one friend who offers them pie as incentive, but I’m no pastry chef!), has anyone figured out a better system for visualizing dancer interactions and end effects other than magnets on a whiteboard?

Assuming an on-line simulator doesn’t exist, I’m about to go that magnet/whiteboard route, so if anyone cares to suggest the least mind-boggling way to set that up (Lark 1A, Raven 1A, Lark 2A, Raven 2A, etc?) do chime in! I need some way to label each dancer so that when they leave their minor set, and then, say, do a left diagonal ravens chain back to their partner I can tell if it really IS their own partner or if I’ve screwed up again. :-(

I find online videos can sometimes help me visualize the interactions in the middle of the line (if the videographer will hold still long enough for me to see a whole run-thru of the dance with one minor set), but I can almost never see end effects in those.

Thanks for any suggestions!
Becky Liddle, Toronto
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