Calls & Concepts - October 2008
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Featuring: Barry Clasper |-bio
My plan was to workshop the Ocean Wave Rule, and then if I had time work on calls that can be called Grand.  However, on arriving, I discovered that in the August 2008 workshop (click here), Tim Ploch had stolen my first idea!  How rude!  So, I quickly reviewed the Ocean Wave Rule and spent a tip or so exercising applications such as Double Pass Thru from a 3/4 Tag, Eight Chain n from Waves, Box the Gnat from Waves, and Load the Boat from Tidal Waves.  Then I moved on to the Grand concept.

At A2 the dancers have been exposed to four Grand calls:  Swing Thru, 1/4 Thru, 3/4 Thru, and Follow Your Neighbor.  The idea behind Grand is to expand a call that would normally be done in two independent groups of four into a call involving the interaction of all 8 dancers.  This is accomplished by having the centermost dancers work with the dancers on the other side of the square when the dance action of the call permits it. Thus, from a Tidal Wave, Grand Swing Thru involves having six centers swing half left after the initial swing half right.  In other words, in
a Grand Swing Thru, after the first swing half, the very center two people, who would be inactive for the second part of a normal Swing Thru, trade with each other as if they were centers of the center wave rather than ends of the waves on each side.  Similarly, in Grand Follow Your Neighbor, the #3 people in the column, who normally would behave as outfacers in their box of four instead work with each other as if they were infacers in the center box.

The principles implicit in these two calls (Grand Swing Thru and Grand Follow Your Neighbor) can be generalized to a number of other calls available at A2.  The remainder of my workshop exposed the dancers to the following:

From Columns: 

- (and) Grand Cross (i.e. from facing lines, Touch 1/4 and Grand Cross - equivalent to Touch 1/4 and Triple Cross 

- Grand Walk and Dodge (i.e. #1 in the column is the only dodger, everyone else
walks - this application of the Grand concept is not to be confused with an obsolete C4 call of the same name that has a different action) 

- Grand Scoot And Weave (i.e. equivalent to Triple Scoot and Grand 1/4 Thru) * Grand Pass and Roll (very difficult because it also incorporates the Ocean Wave Rule.  Dance action amounts to a Triple Scoot followed by a Column Circulate) 

From RH 1/4 Box (i.e. formation obtained by Heads Touch 1/4 from a static square): 

- Grand Wheel Thru (i.e. End Belle does 1/4 right, all others are wheelers) 

From Eight Chain: 

- Grand Square Chain Thru (i.e. The Left Swing Thru becomes a Grand Left Swing Thru) 

From Tidal Wave: 

- Grand Switch  (This is most easily thought of as a Swing followed by Center 6 Slither.  This is technically a C4 call but it follows logically from the preceding material). 

- Grand Switch to a Diamond (amounts to Hinge and 1/2 Column Circulate) 

Back | Page updated Nov 10, 2008