News from the cult
May. 30th, 2006 12:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisOne of my little catch-up tasks of this past weekend was reading my way through a backlog of magazines, newsletters and other such material. Alas, I discovered I left one stack at home by mistake, but there was lots of square dancing material to sort through.
Directions. For the uninitiated, CALLERLAB is the largest association of square dance callers in North America; one of its activities is defining the calls we use & how we use them, and grouping the calls into levels. The Plus Committee works on refining the definitions at the Plus level, as well as consider other calls for addition or deletion from the Plus level list.
In this particular report, it was reported that there were suggestions to add a number of calls to the Plus level, although only one suggestion ("triple scoot") was in the format required for consideration by the committee. Unless a convincing argument is made, I prefer to keep this call in A1 list with the other triple calls, albeit primarily for aesthetics.
Among the proposed but failed changes were the addition of:
Half breed thru is a funny creature, currently residing in the A1 list. It doesn't fit very well into any level so while I can't see why we'd want to move it to Plus, it doesn't clash there any worse than it does at A1.
Interlocking diamonds lives in the C1 list. I could rationalize moving it into A1 or A2, but to Plus? Nope.
Motivate is in the A2 list. Move it to Plus? Patently insane, IMHO. I can see no logic for this whatsoever. Motivate already crashes the A2 squares often enough... moving it to Plus is a recipe for disaster.
Remake the thar? It's in the A2 list currently, along with the rest of the remake family. Moving it to Plus wouldn't be a big deal although the aesthetics of keeping the remake calls together as they are currently appeals strongly to me.
Rotary spin is a C1 call so while I have read through the definition and can visualize it, I can't say I've ever danced it. And looking at the definition, I don't see any compelling reason to move it to Plus. It's not hard but it is somewhat more complicated than most of the Plus calls: harder than any of the diamond calls, say, but easier than relay the deucey.
The tag family is split between the Mainstream and the Plus levels (3/4 tag at Plus, the rest in MS). I could be persuaded that unifying the lot in Plus has advantages but I can't see a compelling reason at the moment.
In other news, I've decided not to run for the VP position of the GCA. I think I could be competent, but I currently think I lack of the connections & skillset to be good at it (the job is mostly running the caller school). I might be braver about taking a leap of faith but I could only gain the experience required to do well at the job as on-the-job training once per year: that's too infrequent for useful reinforcement and feedback. Worse, it's the most visible GCA function for our newbie callers so it's critical that the job be done right with a minimum of mistakes and trauma.
At the moment, the potential conflicts between being both a board member of the GCA and of the 2009 convention corporation may preclude continuing in a GCA role in any fashion until 2010.
Directions. For the uninitiated, CALLERLAB is the largest association of square dance callers in North America; one of its activities is defining the calls we use & how we use them, and grouping the calls into levels. The Plus Committee works on refining the definitions at the Plus level, as well as consider other calls for addition or deletion from the Plus level list.
In this particular report, it was reported that there were suggestions to add a number of calls to the Plus level, although only one suggestion ("triple scoot") was in the format required for consideration by the committee. Unless a convincing argument is made, I prefer to keep this call in A1 list with the other triple calls, albeit primarily for aesthetics.
Among the proposed but failed changes were the addition of:
- half breed thru
- interlocking diamonds
- motivate
- remake the thar
- rotary spin
- the tag family.
Half breed thru is a funny creature, currently residing in the A1 list. It doesn't fit very well into any level so while I can't see why we'd want to move it to Plus, it doesn't clash there any worse than it does at A1.
Interlocking diamonds lives in the C1 list. I could rationalize moving it into A1 or A2, but to Plus? Nope.
Motivate is in the A2 list. Move it to Plus? Patently insane, IMHO. I can see no logic for this whatsoever. Motivate already crashes the A2 squares often enough... moving it to Plus is a recipe for disaster.
Remake the thar? It's in the A2 list currently, along with the rest of the remake family. Moving it to Plus wouldn't be a big deal although the aesthetics of keeping the remake calls together as they are currently appeals strongly to me.
Rotary spin is a C1 call so while I have read through the definition and can visualize it, I can't say I've ever danced it. And looking at the definition, I don't see any compelling reason to move it to Plus. It's not hard but it is somewhat more complicated than most of the Plus calls: harder than any of the diamond calls, say, but easier than relay the deucey.
The tag family is split between the Mainstream and the Plus levels (3/4 tag at Plus, the rest in MS). I could be persuaded that unifying the lot in Plus has advantages but I can't see a compelling reason at the moment.
In other news, I've decided not to run for the VP position of the GCA. I think I could be competent, but I currently think I lack of the connections & skillset to be good at it (the job is mostly running the caller school). I might be braver about taking a leap of faith but I could only gain the experience required to do well at the job as on-the-job training once per year: that's too infrequent for useful reinforcement and feedback. Worse, it's the most visible GCA function for our newbie callers so it's critical that the job be done right with a minimum of mistakes and trauma.
At the moment, the potential conflicts between being both a board member of the GCA and of the 2009 convention corporation may preclude continuing in a GCA role in any fashion until 2010.
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no subject
Date: 2006-05-30 06:06 pm (UTC)Remake the Thar makes more sense at a lower level, because you really only get thars at MS & Plus.
If you ever call Scootback from columns, people *will* triple scoot. It doesn't matter whether the call is on the level or not.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-30 06:19 pm (UTC)It is simple enough to be placed in MS, but the trend currently is to reduce the MS list for simplicity & marketing purposes rather than add extra calls.
Remake the Thar makes more sense at a lower level, because you really only get thars at MS & Plus.
Thars seem to be slowly fading from the scene. It might be more reasonable to simply drop the call entirely.
If you ever call Scootback from columns, people *will* triple scoot. It doesn't matter whether the call is on the level or not.
Hmmm... perhaps simply redefining the scoot back call itself might be the way to go, eliminating the need for a separate triple scoot. Scoot back should still stay at MS, IMHO.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-30 06:44 pm (UTC)The Mainstream list changes are so insignificant to make them not really worthwhile collectively, but I voted my thoughts in any case.
Triple Scoot has move around a couple of times in my history, as has Remake the Thar separately from just "Remake " In my mind, there is some argument for changing Triple Scoot to Grand Scoot Back, and the same for Triple Cross...Grand Follow Your Neighbor is already there in Advanced now (it used to be C1) although it could called Triple FYN I suppose. When I call Grand Walk and Dodge from Columns, it's pretty obvious what I mean. Grand used to be reserved for circle formation, but it's shifting. I also use Triple Weave sparingly, but it's NOL and might even be "illegal."
Half Breed Thru is really only useful for parity fixing, like Tim says. I DO use it on the fly to normalize, but I just as often screw it up if I'm in BBGG lines or the line. I hardly ever write any choreo with it. I think part of the discussion on that call was "political correctness"...hmmm.
no subject
Date: 2006-05-31 12:42 am (UTC)interlocking diamonds ... since APD Plus callers do teach facing diamonds at Plus, it would make a vague sort of sense to teach this as a variation on "vanilla" diamonds. However, like you, I'd rather see this go to A1 or A2. It seems silly to not teach it until C1.
remake the thar ... I kinda like the idea of moving this to Plus. It would be a nice, easy way to introduce Plus dancers to the differences between 1/4, 1/2, and 3/4, and would prepare them for all of the calls at A1/A2 and beyond involving 3/4 turns. (Actually, I wouldn't mind moving "Remake" to the Plus list in general.)
The "compound" (multi-part) calls (Motivate, Rotary Spin) just make no sense at all to move to Plus. I suspect someone decided it would be easier to train A&C dancers if more compound calls were introduced in Plus ... but I can't see how any of the compound calls listed would have a positive effect on Plus dancing.
Well ... I WOULD have voted for you for GCA VP if you'd run.