New subject: Fwd: Re: Boomerang

31 Mar 2016

Laurie,
    Jim makes good points.  Think of the "pass through, circle left,
pass through" as one extended 16 beat figure rather than trying to break 
it into 2 8 beat figures with the circle crossing the middle of the 
phrase.  When I'm calling this dance the 2nd half of the dance goes
something like this (as best I can recall sitting at my computer).

(starting on the last 2 beats of the previous phrase)
pass through, (pause for a beat), turn alone, circle left, (pause for a
few beats), pass through, (pause for a beat or so), balance and swing

    The "turn alone, circle left" goes very quickly, taking maybe only 2
beats.  The rest tends to be slower, one word per beat.  Writing this
out may not be the best way to convey my meaning, but hopefully it gives 
you some idea.

Jonathan
-----
Jonathan Sivier
Caller of Contra, Square, English and Early American Dances
jsivier AT illinois DOT edu
Dance Page: http://www.sivier.me/dance_leader.html
-----
Q: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
A: It depends on what dance you call!

On 3/31/2016 12:34 AM, James Saxe via Callers wrote:
...
  On Mar 30, 2016, at 9:35 PM, Laur via Callers
&lt;callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote:

  I am not comfortable with the timing in
Boomerang. Am I off or .. is there something I'm missing???

 I've tried (with my imaginary friends) several theories but - always the timing
isn't quite there.

 Laurie
 West MI 
 Laurie,

 You don't say what part of the dance you're uncomfortable with, but
 I'm going to guess that it's the B1 part.  The timing as given by
 Gene Hubert in _Dizzy Dances, Volume II_ is:

      Pass thru ACROSS the set and turn alone(4).
      Circle left, go all the way around(8).
      Pass thru ALONG the set to meet your partner(4).

 The timing is a bit unusual in that the circle crosses the middle
 of the phrase, but I don't think there's anything wrong with it.
 Dancers who aren't used to circling all the way around in 8 beats
 can make up time on the pass thru (or pull thru) along and on the
 forward part of the subsequent balance.  On the other hand, if the
 dancers can easily circle once in 8 beats and if they think that 4
 beats for pass thru along is a bit leisurely, they can try rearing
 back at the end of the circle, or even add a spin during the pass
 thru.

 You can see a video of _Boomerang_ here:

       https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj49YHAMGnk

 (Thanks to Chris Page for supplying the title in a comment, so that
 the video was easy to find.)  If you study the video, you'll see
 many examples of dancers managing to meet their partners just in
 time for the balance at the start of the B2 music--and also a few
 examples of dancers being either early or late.  Beware that there
 are a number of places where the video cuts to a different camera
 angle and the new cut doesn't pick up at the same place in the tune
 as the previous cut ended.

 I hope some of this is helpful.

 Cheers,
 --Jim 