Thanks for the feedback, and for giving it a shot!
I'll look into teasing out those transitions and possibly putting them in
separate dances. I'm not a huge fan of chain->swing; although the gyre
there would make it more forgiving.
B2 could be "ladies chain->left hand star 1x" or "circle left 3 places,
balance, pass through". Both of those are pretty common transitions for B2.
A slightly more unusual sequence for B2 that shares the work a bit more
would be gents chain across (pull by left), gents start 1/2 hey by left
shoulder. I think that would require an extra large loop at the end of the
hey to flow into the gyre. Could just be a balance at the A1 though.
Not sure how I'd feel about two different half heys (one by rights in the
middle, one by lefts) in a dance that's already got unusual things going
on.
But thank you again all for kicking it around with me.
On Tue, Mar 5, 2019 at 1:46 AM QuiAnn2 <quiann2(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Hi, Luke (and others)!
Jeremy Korr called this on Saturday night and I danced it as a Lady/Raven
with a partner who was not a switcher so I can comment on it as a Lady
dancer but not from the Gents/Larks perspective.
I generally liked the dance. The flow was good and it was nice to have
different types of transitions. The promenade=>see saw=>1/2 was a very fun
series. From the time that Jeremy described that series to me during the
break until the time that he called it in the 2nd half, I was very much
looking forward to trying it out, and it was great! The A1 N Rt Sh Round to
a swing worked well coming out of the ladies’ allemande because we had to
walk a couple of steps to get to our next N. It was good to have fuzzy
timing there rather than a B&Sw, otherwise we would have had to take big
steps or run a bit.
Some areas for improvement are that it felt to me like the ladies were
doing a lot of the work with the DSD and the allemande, which are both
unassisted figures where you’re fighting against rotational pull as opposed
to a chain which is all forward movement with an assist from the courtesy
turn. I couldn’t switch roles to test it but a N lady (who knew this was a
test dance) independently said to me “the ladies are doing a lot of work”.
Also, both times the ladies approach each other (in the A2 and the B2),
they are effectively coming out of a swing (if we can agree that LLF&B is
neutral) and walking towards each other with the left shoulder leading so
you had to think “Is this the DSD? Or is this the left allemande?"
Just brainstorming here but maybe replace the ladies allem with a ladies
chain in the B2? I know this takes away from the “new transitions” idea
that you had but I think the “gem” of this dance is the A2 & B1 and the
rest is gravy to support it.
Jacqui Grennan
On Mar 1, 2019, at 7:50 AM, Gregory Frock via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi Luke,
I think this is a great accessible dance. Flow is fine, and I actually
feel that getting too much "rightward" muscle memory is not a good thing.
Symmetry is better for our bodies in the long run. So FWIW, thumbs up for
me. And I will try it out at one of my next two gigs 3/8 or 3/13.
Regards,
Greg
On Fri, Mar 1, 2019 at 10:00 AM Luke Donforth via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi all,
I was thinking about standard transitions; and how similar flows could
possibly be created while still adding variation to our dance diet.
Chain-> (1x or 1/2) hey -> balance and swing works well; but gyre & swing
doesn't work well there, because you've set up left shoulder at the end of
the hey.
allemande left -> (1x or 1/2) hey -> (gyre &) swing works reasonably,
because you've set up the other shoulder in the hey.
What about coming into the hey from a Sea-Saw? For instance:
Contra/Improper
A1 -----------
(16) Neighbor gyre and swing
A2 -----------
(8) Promenade across the Set
(8) Ladies Sea-Saw 1.5x
B1 -----------
(8) 1/2 Hey, ladies passing partner right shoulders
(8) Partner swing
B2 -----------
(8) Long lines, forward and back
(8) Ladies allemande Left 1-1/2
I think that flows well, but I don't have dancers to play with at the
moment. If anyone more used to dancing the traditional ladies roll wants to
talk about muscle memory and flow, I'd appreciate it. Would the sea saw and
left allemande just be too outside the realm of familiar to be fun?
Assuming this is a new composition that works, I'll call it Sinister
Ravens.
Thanks for your thoughts.
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
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Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>