Re: [Callers] Shadow swings - Contra Callers

24 Jan 2008

I believe shadow swings should be limited to dance weekends or workshops,
and even then only rarely. While keeping in mind Cary Ravitz's rationale
that you don't choose your shadow, your chances of having a very pleasant
interaction with a shadow are very much higher at a dance weekend. Of
course, not all weekends are made the same.

As a dancer I sometimes replace certain interactions (such as shadow
allemande right once and a half) with a shadow swing when it's someone I
enjoy swinging with. If my shadow is a beginner or a so-so swinger, I dance
the figure as called.

And I like Mark Galipeau's suggestion that the caller can change shadow
interaction to a swing on the last iteration of the dance, but only if that
would not confuse the dancers.

--Jerome

On Jan 24, 2008 11:00 AM, &lt;callers-request(a)sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

...

 Date: Wed, 23 Jan 2008 16:25:25 -0500
 From: J L Korr &lt;jeremykorr(a)hotmail.com&gt;
 Subject: [Callers] Shadow swings

 During the same open mike session, I enjoyed dancing Nils Fredland's "Head
 of the Bed" to Dave Eisenstatter's calling, and it got me thinking. I've
 called dances with shadow swings infrequently, because in the back of my
 head I think about the following excerpt from Cary Ravitz's notes on contra
 choreography: "Watch out for excessive trail buddy interaction. People don't
 choose their trail buddy and they are stuck with them for the entire dance.
 . . . Trail buddy swings are not allowed."

 However, Cary also emphasizes that those are his personal preferences, and
 others' preferences may vary. So I'd appreciate others' thoughts on this --
 are shadow swings as strongly negative an issue for you as they are for
 Cary? Clearly they were not an issue for Nils when writing "Head of the Bed"
 or Seth T. when writing "Meg's a Dancing Fool," for instance.

 Thanks,
 Jeremy

-- 
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
660-528-0714
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com