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by Craig Shucker
Friday C-3A Dance Wayne provided an excellent exercise in C-3A concepts: (1) from interlocked tandem couple blocks with the lead beaus as the outermost dancers on the main diagonal -- Big Block 1/4 the Deucey (2) from right-hand parallel columns -- Single Polly Wolly (3) from a 2x4 formation with the ends as ends of right-hand columns and the centers as centers of left-hand ocean waves -- Own the Ends, Single Checkmate by Crossover Circulate (4) from parallel ocean waves -- Stable Counter Rotate (5) from a formation formed from outfacing lines and having all the beaus Fold (to face the belles with no adjustments) -- Split Phantom Columns Cross Chain & Roll (6) from outfacing lines -- Split Phantom Lines Grand Swing & Mix (7) from eight chain thru -- Split Phantom Lines Plan Ahead (8) from outside parallel infacing lines in a 4x4 matrix -- Split Phantom Lines Hocus Pocus (9) from right-hand parallel columns -- Split Phantom Ocean Waves Scoot & Fancy (10) from parallel ocean waves -- Split Phantom Columns 3 by 1 Checkmate (11) from parallel right-hand ocean waves -- Initially Cross Concentric, Tally Ho (12) from a tidal wave -- Split Phantom
Diamonds Exchange the Diamonds (actually C-3B, but the dancers executed
it successfully). The following sequence was quite unusual and required
more than one look: from parallel right-hand two-faced lines with boys
as the lead ends and the trailing centers -- Split Phantom Columns Single
Turn to a Line; each distorted line of four Here Comes the Judge; Girls
Left Loop 4.
Top | A-2 Workshop and Dance | C-1 dance | C-2 dance | C-3A dance Saturday A-2 Workshop and Dance Because Sandi and I were scheduled to be away on vacation during the Saturday and Sunday sessions, in my last article I had asked for volunteers to take notes on these sessions for me. It was not surprising to me that I had very few takers. Most dancers have enough problems remembering what they did in the last sequence. It is a lot harder to remember interesting calls and their starting formations for a whole tip. However, Roger Byelick and Connie Thousand stepped forward to take on the task for the A-2 and C-1 sessions. I think they did a fantastic job, especially considering that they are fairly new to the C-1 level. In the lists that they provided below, my comments are in square brackets. Since there was no specification as to which calls were called at which Saturday A-2 session, I have presented them all in one list. I assume most of these were presented in the workshop session: (1) from parallel infacing lines and parallel outfacing lines -- Linear Cycle; Walk & Dodge (2) from parallel outfacing lines -- Split Transfer; Scoot Back; Follow Your Neighbor [very questionable] (3) from parallel infacing lines, parallel outfacing lines, and parallel right-hand ocean waves -- each box do the center's part of Cast a Shadow (4) from twin diamonds -- Acey Deucey (5) from eight chain thru -- Mix [not proper - Cross Run requires that active dancers be facing perpendicular to the 1x4 formation in which they are located] (6) from parallel left-hand ocean waves -- Trail & Peel (7) from eight chain thru -- Reverse [or Mirror] Recycle (8) from several applicable starting formations other than right or left 1/4 Tag -- Chain Reaction (9) from a static square -- All 8 Wheel Thru (10) from a right-hand mini-wave static
square -- All 8 Scoot & Weave.
Sunday C-1 dance Wayne concentrated on calls from unfamiliar formations and on concepts: (1) from right-hand diamonds -- Step & Fold (2) from a galaxy -- Concentric Circulate (3) from a formation formed from and eight chain thru and having all the beaus Quarter In -- Stretch Wheel Thru (4) from a left-hand thar -- Swing the Fractions (5) from a thar -- All 8 Flip the Line (6) from a right-hand mini-wave static square -- All 8 Cross Your Neighbor (7) from crossed single eight chain thru -- All 8 Pass & Roll (8) from a formation formed from a left-hand 1/4 Tag and having the centers Switch to a Diamond -- Plenty (9) from a formation formed from a left-hand 1/4 Tag and having the outside belles Quarter In -- Plenty , interrupt before the Split Circulates with a Split Counter Rotate, and the new centers omit the last part (10) from right-hand twin diamonds -- Plenty [wanted ends to go as they are - a change in the definition has recently been approved to require that the caller specify that ends go as they are, if that is what is intended] (11) from 8 chain thru -- Magic Star Thru [not proper - using two right hands and two left hands make the call impossible to execute]. Wayne called several stretch calls from various formations. Some dancers questioned that only the new very center two dancers stretch the call if the ending formation is twin diamonds, but Wayne was correct. However, Wayne used the concept incorrectly in several instances: (1) from a right-hand 3/4 tag -- Stretch Little (2) from parallel outfacing lines -- Stretch Regroup (3) from phantom waves -- Stretch Switch the Wave (4) from a static square -- Stretch All 4 Couples Pass the Ocean. Here are the rules that determine whether
the Stretch Concept is being used correctly. The Stretch Concept
requires that starting formation consist of two sets of dancers, one on
each side of the flagpole center of the set, such that once the call is
executed and the "Stretch" is applied at least one dancer from each
set ends on the opposite side of the flagpole from the other dancers in
their original set. This means that "Stretch" cannot be applied
to 6- and 8-dancer calls; "Stretch" can be applied to 3- and 4-dancer
calls only if the above requirement is met; and "Stretch" can always be
applied to 1- and 2- dancer calls. The only dancers that can
"Stretch" a call are those who end completely between the flagpole centers
of each split formation of the new formation. The "Stretch" is always
executed along the long axis of the new formation. Note that there
are "Stretch" calls that are proper to call, but the execution is so awkward
that the call should be avoided.
Sunday C-2 Dance Unfortunately, unusual circumstances prevented my volunteer for taking C-2 notes to do so. However, I did get some notes from other dancers regarding the Sunday C-2 session. Ralph Simon noted that Wayne used a lot of Exchange the Diamonds, Unwraps, Relocates, and Once Removeds. Robert Harris had a few comments regarding some unusual calls that Wayne presented which Robert felt were incorrect. I agree with Robert's assessments. The following two paragraphs are Robert's words except for the starting formations which I modified to be more descriptive. From parallelogram right-hand two-faced lines with the overlapping dancers facing in, he called "Fascinate", which resulted in offset 1/4 tags where he incorrectly wanted a 33% offset at the end (a 16 matrix with a real box in the middle). I think it should be an 18 matrix, but this is an impractical formation for the most part, except to do an easy call which gets you quickly back into a parallelogram (like each single 1/4 tag do a Scoot & Weave). From parallel right-hand waves with
boys facing out and girls facing in, have everyone Truck twice, and you
have totally offset waves. From there he called "Split Counter Rotate",
and he expected something equivalent to "Split Phantom Boxes Counter Rotate",
which results in a "O". He explained this by saying that one should Counter
Rotate in his own split group. But I objected and I told him that Split
Counter Rotate was always a 4-person call, not an 8-person call as he required.
I asked him to name any other example of Split Counter Rotate being anything
but a 4-person call, but he couldn't.
PS: Dancers, when you first got into square dancing did you have any idea it could be this complicated? Top | A-2 Workshop and Dance | C-1 dance | C-2 dance | C-3A dance | Page updated: Aug 16, 2004 |