Calling for Ettseteras

[bjarvis]

Last night, I called a C1 square dance for the Ettseteras, justetthon's square dance group in College Park, MD, and I think it all went pretty well! We had two squares of dancers with a few extras, less than in prior dances but a fun crowd nonetheless.

This was a series of firsts for me:
- my first time calling more than a single tip of C1;
- my first time using a couples rotation to cycle dancers through squares;
- my first time calling a dance outside of our home clubs DC Lambda Squares and Chesapeake Squares.

As an additional treat, sfbearhoney is in town on work-related travel and we were delighted to have him join us for the evening.

I learned plenty at this dance...

• Yup, left-handed calls (even Plus and Advanced ones) still need to be used judiciously or at least carefully cued: a left-hand chain reaction didn't have the success I had hoped for, although we managed through.
  
• 'In your blocks: chase right' looks good on paper but folks can lose their orientation quickly; one person losing it is recoverable but two or more makes the square go boom.
  
• My stack of hard cards are harder than I suspected, although not by much. I need to build up my stack of medium-level cards so I can flip back to them effortlessly if the hard ones are a bit too challenging for a given floor.
  
• My stack of easy cards were well-liked. The cheer from the floor on the first 'right & left grand' of a tip is a good thing at any dance level.
  
• I still have a stack of cards which are yet to be road-tested. I wrote far more than I actually needed for this dance --over-preparation is always good.
  
• Most importantly, square dance figures work well if the caller actually reads his cards fully & correctly... thank god I was able to sight-resolve my way out of one snag!

Alas, I won't be back to dance with the Ettseteras for a while as we're commited to DC Lambda Squares' open house and Plus class for every Monday through to Labour Day in September.

Comments

[bearfuz.livejournal.com]

Yay you! And, hard or not, I bet you were easier on them than Ett is. Just sayin'.

Personally, I LIKE "In your blocks: Chase Right" because to be successful it requires each person to think ahead and visualize his/her goal spot. That sort of thing is good training. :-)

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I'm keeping the "blocks: chase right" figures but I'm moving them from my medium difficulty stack to the harder stack: it'll be easier to use or skip them on the fly, depending on the floor.

[allanh.livejournal.com]

I have superb luck with blocks and "Chase Right" *IF* I remember to pause and cue it something like:

"In your blocks - that's a hint, check who else is in your block NOW, please - [pause] - Chase Right."

Technically, yeah, I shouldn't HAVE to do that, but I'd rather cue it and have the dancers be successful than trust to blind luck and unknown skill.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, you'd think everyone would instantly seek their block-mates the moment they hear "in your blocks" but the explicit cuing does help.

It occurs to me that one of the problems with "IYB: Chase right" was that dancers were stopping after only a single box circulate instead of the two required. Since they can do this Plus call easily from waves, I'm guessing it's the formation and lack of touching hands in waves. Which is, of course, why it's Challenge and not Plus. :-)

[allanh.livejournal.com]

"If it were EASY, we wouldn't call it ..."

Never mind.