Would someone please explain why moving your right foot out to your right
and following it by moving your body and left foot is only half a sashay?
Seems like a full sashay to me. Half a sashay would be like, taking a wide
stance and stopping. In ballet, a chasse' is walking by moving one foot
out and following it up with the other, never crossing them. Based on some
limited reading, I don't think it's counted (as in, chasse' three times),
but rather refers to the style of walking, say as opposed to jogging. I
could be mistaken.
"Roll away with a half sashay!" sure rolls off the tongue nicely, though...
--jh--
I was chatting with a caller mentee about language that gives one dancer
more agency than another, and how to make such choices more neutral (i.e.,
all dancers should have agency).
For example, "larks/gents, raise your partners hand" to initiate a
California twirl. Rather, use "partners, raise your joined hands..."
What other examples have y'all heard in the wild of best (and worst)
practices?
Thanks!
— Jerome Grisanti
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power
and magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Sorry that I'm late to the game on this email thread... summertime with a
kiddo around means a lot less time for fun emails. :)
I wanted to chime in on a few easy contras for when you have a loooot of
beginners.
Apologies if they've been mentioned already.
Emily in Ottawa
Festival Reel by Will Mentor
Becket
A1: Slice L --- LLFB
A2: LH Star --- RH Star
B1: Larks DSD --- Robins DSD
B2: P Bal & Swing
Quandranella by Claire Takimori
Becket
A1: Bal & petronella --- Bal & petronella
A2: Bal & petronella --- Bal & petronella
B1: Partner Bal & Swing
B2: LLFB ---- (Call early!) Slide L and Circle L with new Ns (ORRRRR just
slide left take hands and be ready to start again... depending on the
crowd)
F&T Reel by Chris Ricciotti
A1: Circle LEFT--- Circle RIGHT (end this with 2s break hands to all face
down)
A2 Down the hall (1s in middle). 1s arch/2s through… come up 2X2 with 2s
in lead.
B1 P DSD –- LLFB
B2 2s swing ---1s swing
My Becket for Beginners
Lisa Sieverts as modified by Emily Addison
BECKET
A1: Circle LEFT ---Circle RIGHT
A2: Bal & petronella turn --- Bal & petronella turn
B1: Bal, pass thru ACROSS the set & P swing on the side
B2: Forward and Back ---- Slice Left Forward and Back to new neighbors
AI is invading our lives, but can sometimes be useful — for example,
ChatGPT is pretty good at reformatting contra dances!
In Philly we have mostly multi-caller evenings, where the coordinator gets
dance submissions from many callers (in many formats), creates a program,
and sends out the result. Sometimes the program looks like a fruit salad of
formats, but (OCD?) I like everything to be concise and uniform.
See example below, where ChatGPT unifies dances in 4 formats — Callers Box,
one posted here, my website, and Bob Isaacs’ format. It took a few tries to
refine the instructions (and I only tried this one output format), but in
the end it’s a pretty amazing result from minimal instructions in plain
English.
Rick
=========================
My Instructions to ChatGPT
=========================
Please reformat the contra dances below as follows:
Format dance headers as e.g. “Title (Author) Formation”
If formation is omitted, use “Duple Improper”
Format part names as e.g. “A1: ”.
Eliminate beat counts for figures (like “8”).
Put a part’s figures on one line, separated by commas, no period or spaces
at the end.
And this is important — format as plain text, do not format as markdown.
Centrifugal Hey
by Gene Hubert
Permission: full License: CC-BY-NC
FormationBase: Duple Minor
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#duple-minor>
- Improper
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#improper>
Progression: Single
Figures:
A1
(8) Neighbor allemande
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#allemande>
right
1 & 3/4
(8) Men <https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#men>
allemande
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#allemande> left
1 & 1/2
A2
(16) Hey
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#hey>
(PR;WL;NR;ML;PR;WL;NR;ML)
B1
(16) Partner swing
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#swing>
B2
(8) Right and left through
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#right-and-le…>
with
partner
(6) Circle left
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#circle-left-…>
3/4
(2) Pass through
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#pass-through>
along
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/Glossary.htm#across-along>
(NR)
Stars are Aligned
by Lisa Sieverts
BECKET, CCW
1.
LH Star
2.
RH Star
3.
P Do Si Do (on side)
4.
P Swing
5.
Whole Set Oval Left
6.
Whole set Oval Right
7.
F&B
8.
LH Star, on to the next, partners moving along the line
*Trip to Trillium* Bob Isaacs Becket-L
A1. 8 Circle L ¾
8 w/Partner weave the line past
two (1)
A2. 8 w/N3 square through three
8 N2 swing
B1. 8 Robins chain to partner
8 ½ hey (RR, N2L, LR, -)
B2. 4,12 Partner balance, swing
Fluidity
By Rick Mohr; September 2017
Contra, BecketCaller's Box
<https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=18477>
Level: Easy/Intermediate
A1:
3/4 Hey *(larks pass left shoulders to start)* (12)
Robins allemande left (4)
A2:
Gypsy and swing neighbor (16)
B1:
Right and left through (8)
Circle right (8)
B2:
*(With next couple)* Circle left 3/4 (6)
Swing partner (10)
=========================
Output from ChatGPT
=========================
Centrifugal Hey (Gene Hubert) Duple Improper
A1: Neighbor allemande right 1 & 3/4, men allemande left 1 & 1/2
A2: Hey (PR, WL, NR, ML, PR, WL, NR, ML)
B1: Partner swing
B2: Right and left through with partner, circle left 3/4, pass through
along (NR)
Stars are Aligned (Lisa Sieverts) Becket CCW
A1: Left-hand star, right-hand star
A2: Partner do-si-do, partner swing
B1: Whole set oval left, whole set oval right
B2: Forward and back, left-hand star on to the next, partners moving along
the line
Trip to Trillium (Bob Isaacs) Becket Left
A1: Circle left 3/4, with partner weave the line past two
A2: With N3 square through three, N2 swing
B1: Robins chain to partner, half hey (RR, N2L, LR)
B2: Partner balance, swing
Fluidity (Rick Mohr; September 2017) Becket
A1: Three-quarter hey (larks pass left shoulders to start), robins
allemande left
A2: Gypsy and swing neighbor
B1: Right and left through, circle right
B2: With next couple circle left 3/4, swing partner
