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C1 Concepts Weekend
Sep. 18th, 2011 12:13 pmThis Friday & Saturday, we attended a C1 square dance concepts weekend, an annual event by local caller Bill Harrison.
The Friday evening began with nearly three squares; we danced a lot of C1 as Bill tested ideas and occasionally workshopped problem calls and sequences.
Saturday morning, he introduced us to the "echo" meta-concept: one dances the call with the stated concept, then repeats the call without the concept applied. For example, from columns "echo (meta-concept) in tandem (concept) quarter thru (call)": The dancers would do the call "quarter thru" in tandem, then repeat the call as individual dancers. This was enormous fun... it was simple enough we could all understand it nearly immediately but added just enough complexity to give us a sense of challenge without being too onerous.
After lunch, he gave us the "twisted" concept, which proved to be a little more difficult. The idea is that when a call is given as "twisted," the dancers doing the first part of the call with either a pass thru or touching hands must first rotate their positions 1/4 clockwise, then execute the call. So facing couples given the call "twisted touch 1/4" must rotate as facing individuals 1/4 clockwise, then do the touch 1/4; in this instance, it'll look like a "touch 1/2."
This concept proved to be much harder. While dancers were getting the hang of looking directly at the person with whom they're executing the call and rotating precisely, the square as a whole typically didn't breath in to make the entire formation. In some instances, our tandems were spread out so far that we couldn't see the required columns or other formations in order to do the regular calls successfully, such as a "pass and roll."
We wrapped up the afternoon with an hour of C2 dancing and skipped the evening C1 dance because of a schedule conflict. In all, it was a great time and we're planning to sign up for next year's weekend, Oct 21-22.
The Friday evening began with nearly three squares; we danced a lot of C1 as Bill tested ideas and occasionally workshopped problem calls and sequences.
Saturday morning, he introduced us to the "echo" meta-concept: one dances the call with the stated concept, then repeats the call without the concept applied. For example, from columns "echo (meta-concept) in tandem (concept) quarter thru (call)": The dancers would do the call "quarter thru" in tandem, then repeat the call as individual dancers. This was enormous fun... it was simple enough we could all understand it nearly immediately but added just enough complexity to give us a sense of challenge without being too onerous.
After lunch, he gave us the "twisted" concept, which proved to be a little more difficult. The idea is that when a call is given as "twisted," the dancers doing the first part of the call with either a pass thru or touching hands must first rotate their positions 1/4 clockwise, then execute the call. So facing couples given the call "twisted touch 1/4" must rotate as facing individuals 1/4 clockwise, then do the touch 1/4; in this instance, it'll look like a "touch 1/2."
This concept proved to be much harder. While dancers were getting the hang of looking directly at the person with whom they're executing the call and rotating precisely, the square as a whole typically didn't breath in to make the entire formation. In some instances, our tandems were spread out so far that we couldn't see the required columns or other formations in order to do the regular calls successfully, such as a "pass and roll."
We wrapped up the afternoon with an hour of C2 dancing and skipped the evening C1 dance because of a schedule conflict. In all, it was a great time and we're planning to sign up for next year's weekend, Oct 21-22.
