On Sun, May 19, 2013, Yoyo Zhou wrote: That sounds awfully similar to the Plus-level square dance call "Teacup Chain", do you have a reference so I can check? (If you don't get it today, I won't see it for a week.... ;-)

Aahz Maruch asked re Ron Buchanan's "Contra Corners Canon" (or "Country Corners Canon"--I've seen both spellings and don't know which one Ron prefers): and Yoyo Zhou replied: Also, CCC has pairs of "active" dancers always turning in the middle in between turning one corner person and turning the next corner person. In Teacup Chain, the ladies go into the middle after turning head gents but they go directly from the side gents to the head gents without going into the middle first. So CCC is not just TC rotated by 45 degrees and with some of the gender roles changed. I've seen "Country Corners Canon" work well and give a dancers a feeling of accomplishment when presented by a skilled teacher to a suitably skilled and attentive group of dancers, such as might be found at a workshop session at a dance camp. But I strenuously urge against trying to present a square of this complexity to any group of dancers until and unless you (the caller) have a proven track record of calling more moderately challenging squares to similar groups of dancers with good results. On page 59 of his book _Give-and-Take_, Larry Jennings relates an anecdote to which he gives the title "Ambitious Caller Meets Cocky Dancers." The dance sequence in the anecdote is not named, but from the description, I think it's almost certainly "Country Corners Canon." (I suggest that the identity of the caller in the story, if anyone happens to know it, had best be left unstated.) The scene Larry describes is not pretty: A few people found it exciting and rewarding to figure out such a difficult figure ... Others, finding it hopeless ..., just entered into a random walk and appeared to have a good time. However, there was an appreciable number who struggled to understand the figure and, when they could not, took on an air of resignation, and in fact, many of them went home. Unfortunately (in my opinion), when something of this sort occurs in a community where most of the dances are contras and where some of the dancers already have negative feelings about squares, I think many of those dancers are likely to interpret the incident as further indictment against squares in general. On the other hand, if an overly complex contra (say, one with surprising end effects, unusual out-of-minor set interactions etc.) fell apart, those same dancers would think only that that particular dance was too confusing, or that it was a poor choice for the occasion, or that the particular caller had taught and called the dance poorly. --Jim _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers