This Weekend in Square Dancing

Friday night & Saturday daytime, we were attending Bill Harrison's C1 concept weekend in Columbia, MD, and we had a great time.

Friday evening's two hour session was just regular C1 dancing, getting us warmed up for the fun on Saturday. We had two squares with an extra couple: more were pre-registered but were traveling or had other commitments during that particular bloc.

We began the workshop portion Saturday morning at 10am by working three squares of dancers with the "magic" concept.

For the uninitiated, a magic column is easiest described a column of dancers where the tops of the column are of a particular handedness (eg right-handed) while the center four are the opposite handed (eg left-handed). For dancer #4 in the bottom of a column to circulate, he/she would step forward and to the opposite side of the column to spot #3 on the first circulate, forward one spot to #2 on the second circulate and forward & across to #1 at the top of the column on the third circulate. Once at the top, the circulate would look like any regular column circulate: he/she flips over into the #4 position where their partner was previously standing.

Bill took us through the magic circulates we know & love, then extended it a little into relatively common magic calls such as magic transfer the column.

After a break, he pushed us further by putting us into a eight-chain-thru position then calling for a magic circulate. Fortunately, we saw it relatively easily: the circulates would be a pass thru but since we had to land on the opposite side of the column, we needed to sashay, effectively making it a cross-trail thru. Once we were in a trade by position, a magic trade by is just a cute gimmick since the centers just do a pass thru while the outsides trade, just like a regular trade by.

The real fun began when Bill pushed us through magic touch 1/4, magic right & left thru, magic rotary spin, magic cross chain thru, magic cross chain & roll, magic pass & roll, etc.. It took a little practice to see the usefulness of a right-hand star to allow easier flow for the cross trail thru action but we eventually got the knack.

Just before lunch, Bill threw one more idea at us: magic waves. From parallel ocean waves, the ends of a wave work with the centers of the opposite wave. Oy!

We didn't do a lot of extra work on magic waves but we did go through magic swing thru and magic swing. Neat stuff!

cuyahogarvr, Abe Feldman, Michael Martin & I went to a great indian restaurant in the area: the Akbar Restaurant at 9400 Snowden River Parkway. Fantastic! The weekend lunch buffet was hot, fresh and tasty, for about $11/person. I'll definitely go back again for more.

The afternoon block was taken up with the "but" concept. In general, the "but" concept allows the caller to replace the centers' final part of a call with another call (eg. chain reaction but 2/3 recycle, load the boat but left swing thru, percolate but flip back, etc.).

As always, the trickiest part is identifying the precise beginning & end of a last portion of a call for replacement. Some calls end for the centers with a cast off 3/4 but it's not always so obvious or easy.

The afternoon block ended with a C2 hour and we acquitted ourselves pretty darn well if I do say so myself. Good times!

There was an evening block on Saturday but we had already committed to attending the DC Lambda Squares' monthly community dance in Silver Spring, MD, so we skipped out at the dinner break. I'm told we missed a quick teach on magic in roll circulate... we'll pick that up another time.

The DCLS dance was well attended but nearly a disaster: the school staff were late to unlock & open the gym for our dance! callerdayle called Mainstream through C1 for a floor varying from one to three squares at a time. Lots of folks brought dishes for the pot luck dinner... I ate far too much but it was so delicious that I couldn't resist.

cuyahogarvr and I slipped out a little early as we were dragging pretty badly from such a long day of activity.

I tried to sleep in a little Sunday morning but it didn't work out too well because of work-related pager activity. Oh, well.

In the afternoon, I attended a caller clinic sponsored by the National Capital Area Square Dance Leaders Association with special guest Deborah Carroll Jones. Her presentation largely centered on care & maintenance of one's voice, along with proper breathing for square dance calling. Summarizing it all in a few words: warm up properly, relax frequently and don't strain your voice with shouting, whispering, coughing, smoking, dehydrating medications (mint, methol, eucalyptus oil), foods which coat (dairy), or dryness. Of course, there was much more than that in Deborah's talk but I won't get into anatomy and personal anecdotes here.

The week upcoming is full of square dance fun too: on Monday we're dancing C1 with the Ettseteras, on Tuesday kent4str is calling an open house for the DC Lambda Squares while I'm calling an open house for the Chesapeake Squares, and on Thursday John Marshall will be calling A2 & C1 for the DC Lambda Squares. Next Friday through Sunday, we'll be attending Bill Harrison & John Marshall's C2 weekend in York, PA --there will be pie.

This Weekend in Square Dancing

Friday night & Saturday daytime, we were attending Bill Harrison's C1 concept weekend in Columbia, MD, and we had a great time.

Friday evening's two hour session was just regular C1 dancing, getting us warmed up for the fun on Saturday. We had two squares with an extra couple: more were pre-registered but were traveling or had other commitments during that particular bloc.

We began the workshop portion Saturday morning at 10am by working three squares of dancers with the "magic" concept.

For the uninitiated, a magic column is easiest described a column of dancers where the tops of the column are of a particular handedness (eg right-handed) while the center four are the opposite handed (eg left-handed). For dancer #4 in the bottom of a column to circulate, he/she would step forward and to the opposite side of the column to spot #3 on the first circulate, forward one spot to #2 on the second circulate and forward & across to #1 at the top of the column on the third circulate. Once at the top, the circulate would look like any regular column circulate: he/she flips over into the #4 position where their partner was previously standing.

Bill took us through the magic circulates we know & love, then extended it a little into relatively common magic calls such as magic transfer the column.

After a break, he pushed us further by putting us into a eight-chain-thru position then calling for a magic circulate. Fortunately, we saw it relatively easily: the circulates would be a pass thru but since we had to land on the opposite side of the column, we needed to sashay, effectively making it a cross-trail thru. Once we were in a trade by position, a magic trade by is just a cute gimmick since the centers just do a pass thru while the outsides trade, just like a regular trade by.

The real fun began when Bill pushed us through magic touch 1/4, magic right & left thru, magic rotary spin, magic cross chain thru, magic cross chain & roll, magic pass & roll, etc.. It took a little practice to see the usefulness of a right-hand star to allow easier flow for the cross trail thru action but we eventually got the knack.

Just before lunch, Bill threw one more idea at us: magic waves. From parallel ocean waves, the ends of a wave work with the centers of the opposite wave. Oy!

We didn't do a lot of extra work on magic waves but we did go through magic swing thru and magic swing. Neat stuff!

cuyahogarvr, Abe Feldman, Michael Martin & I went to a great indian restaurant in the area: the Akbar Restaurant at 9400 Snowden River Parkway. Fantastic! The weekend lunch buffet was hot, fresh and tasty, for about $11/person. I'll definitely go back again for more.

The afternoon block was taken up with the "but" concept. In general, the "but" concept allows the caller to replace the centers' final part of a call with another call (eg. chain reaction but 2/3 recycle, load the boat but left swing thru, percolate but flip back, etc.).

As always, the trickiest part is identifying the precise beginning & end of a last portion of a call for replacement. Some calls end for the centers with a cast off 3/4 but it's not always so obvious or easy.

The afternoon block ended with a C2 hour and we acquitted ourselves pretty darn well if I do say so myself. Good times!

There was an evening block on Saturday but we had already committed to attending the DC Lambda Squares' monthly community dance in Silver Spring, MD, so we skipped out at the dinner break. I'm told we missed a quick teach on magic in roll circulate... we'll pick that up another time.

The DCLS dance was well attended but nearly a disaster: the school staff were late to unlock & open the gym for our dance! callerdayle called Mainstream through C1 for a floor varying from one to three squares at a time. Lots of folks brought dishes for the pot luck dinner... I ate far too much but it was so delicious that I couldn't resist.

cuyahogarvr and I slipped out a little early as we were dragging pretty badly from such a long day of activity.

I tried to sleep in a little Sunday morning but it didn't work out too well because of work-related pager activity. Oh, well.

In the afternoon, I attended a caller clinic sponsored by the National Capital Area Square Dance Leaders Association with special guest Deborah Carroll Jones. Her presentation largely centered on care & maintenance of one's voice, along with proper breathing for square dance calling. Summarizing it all in a few words: warm up properly, relax frequently and don't strain your voice with shouting, whispering, coughing, smoking, dehydrating medications (mint, methol, eucalyptus oil), foods which coat (dairy), or dryness. Of course, there was much more than that in Deborah's talk but I won't get into anatomy and personal anecdotes here.

The week upcoming is full of square dance fun too: on Monday we're dancing C1 with the Ettseteras, on Tuesday kent4str is calling an open house for the DC Lambda Squares while I'm calling an open house for the Chesapeake Squares, and on Thursday John Marshall will be calling A2 & C1 for the DC Lambda Squares. Next Friday through Sunday, we'll be attending Bill Harrison & John Marshall's C2 weekend in York, PA --there will be pie.