Seeking ill-chosen words for contras and squares
Jim Saxe
I'm looking for examples of ill-chosen words and phrases used in
calling or teaching contradances and/or ("traditional") square
dances. I'm particularly interested in words that can lead to
choreographic confusion because they sound like something else,
because they have more than one plausible interpretation, or for
some other reason. To get things started, I'll give a few
examples below. Please email additional examples to me at
<sa...@pa.dec.com>. I'll wait for a week or two, then summarize
the responses to this newsgroup. If the list seems interesting
enough and I work up the the energy, I might publish it in some
other form, such as a newsletter article. If you respond to
this inquiry, I will assume, unless you indicate otherwise, that
you are giving implicit permission for me to quote and/or
summarize your examples with or without specific attribution.
Now to set your minds working, here are the starter examples
that I promised:
Sound-alike words:
-----------------
* It's well known that the words "partner" and "corner" can
be mistaken for each other, particularly if the hall is
noisy, the sound is poor, and/or the instruction is for
dancers to allemande left with their partners.
* While calling a contradance with two swings--one followed
by long lines going forward and back and the other followed
by lines of four going down the hall--I noticed a surprisingly
large number of dancers having trouble deciding what to do
after each swing, even after quite a few repeats. I felt like
I had to keep calling long after I should have been able to
drop out. Afterwards another caller pointed out that the
prompts I was using, "four in line" and "forward and back"
start with the same syllable. In fact, "four in line" sounds
a lot like "forward in line". Distinct-sounding prompts, such
as "long lines" and "down the hall" work better.
* In a message to rec.folk-dancing a couple years ago, somebody
mentioned a caller who used expressions like "Start a right
and left through" or "Start a ladies chain" leading to
confusion when the dancers heard "Start" as "star".
Ambiguities:
-----------
* Suppose that, after swinging on the sides of a contra line,
the dancers are instructed to "Do a right and left through, but
as you turn around, shift one place to the right" (or "to the
left"). Is the term "right" (or "left") relative to the
direction the dancers are facing before or after they turn?
* I've heard grand square taught using the words "Side couples,
face each other." The caller meant for the sides to face their
partners (within each side couple the two dancers face each
other), but the words could equally well mean for each side
couple to face the other side couple.
* From a squared-up set: "Head couples right and left through.
Circle to the left." Do all eight circle, or just the heads?
In a hall with many squares I'd expect to see some doing each,
and maybe even some circles of six.
Thanks for any other examples you can supply.
--Jim Saxe
Jim Saxe
Thanks to all who have responded so far to my request for examples of
confusing, ambiguous, or otherwise ill-chosen words used in teaching
or calling contras, traditional squares, or related dances. I'll wait
a while longer before posting a summary of the replies, but to keep
the ideas flowing, I'll offer a few more categories to consider
besides my original two (sound-alikes and ambiguities):
* Directions that seem unambiguous in theory but cause confusion
in practice because at least some of the dancers don't know
some convention or piece of information that the caller
takes for granted.
* Directions that needlessly speak to only some of the dancers.
Examples include "swing below" [, actives] and "leave your
partner on your right" [, men]. If you have other
(un-)favorites, please send them to me. Don't worry about
sending ones I've already seen; your example may just have
that special twist that nobody else has thought of.
* Directions that, through convoluted sentence structure or
emphasis placed on certain words lead the dancers to expect
something unusual, and therefore to invent something more
unusual than what the caller intended.
* Situations where particular words are confusing because of
*when* they are said. During a walk-through almost any
instruction, however worded, can be problematical if given
before the caller has verified that the dancers have
finished the previous move in the correct position and
facing the correct direction. To keep the focus on word
choice, perhaps you can think of some examples that
particularly highlight the interaction of timing and
wording.
Several people have responded mentioning words used at events that
they recently attended. What can you come up with if you reach back
past last week's dance and try to remember examples from last month's
dance or a dance two years ago? Can any of you think of particular
wordings that you found especially confusing when you were just
learning to dance? (This could be hard, because it's usually
easier to recall things if you understand them while they're
happening.)
In the responses I've gotten so far there haven't been many callers
reporting their *own* ill-chosen words, or at least they haven't been
admitting to it. To loosen your inhibitions, I'll go first and report
a real howler that came from my own lips a few years ago. I was
teaching a square and wanted to have the side couples do a "roll away
with a half sashay," but I wanted to have the dancers do the move
before I gave them the name for it (probably a mistake, since it lost
me the help of the experienced dancers who already knew the move).
So I instructed the gents in each side couple to "swing the lady
across in front of you." I immediately realized my mistake as most
of the side men in the hall walked across their squares to swing their
opposite women.
Even the best callers can occasionally be surprised by interpretations
that dancers find for instructions that the caller thought were
perfectly clear. An example is given in Ted Sannella's discussion of
"Gents and Corners" in _Balance and Swing_. (Thanks to David
Millstone for recalling my attention to this example.) Ted looks at
the wording for the first phrase of the dance, "Head gents with your
corners go into the center and back." (This is the same dance that
Don Armstrong turned into "Trail of the Lonesome Pine.") Ted writes:
I have heard myself call the first figure with the words "Head
gents and corners go forward and back" and have been surprised
to see some sets in which the head gents and their corners walked
toward each other and then back to place, never approaching the
center of the set. Of course, they were doing exactly what they
were told to do. I suggest that this figure be called as in the
dance description so that the dancers will perform it correctly
and will be in the best position for the next figure.
So, callers, what instructions have you ever given that you wished you
had worded differently as soon as you saw how the dancers reacted?
Those who don't notice or learn from their mistakes need not respond.
The rest of you must have some good stories. Please email them to
sa...@pa.dec.com
When I summarize the responses, I won't associate particular names
with particular confessions unless you say it's ok (and maybe not even
then).
Keep those messages coming.
--Jim Saxe
Tony Parkes
I'm posting this rather than mailing it to Jim, so that he doesn't
get a chance to protect me.
Jim Saxe writes (as of Tues 30 April) that people aren't sending
him their *own* ill-chosen words. I'm not sure what category the
following story comes under, but it's definitely in the "howler"
class.
I was teaching a style workshop at NEFFA some years ago and
giving advice on avoiding dizziness during a swing. My standard
line at the time was "Try looking into your partner's eyes, and if
*that* makes you dizzy - for *whatever* reason - try looking at
your partner's right shoulder." It was usually good for a small
laugh; but that day, for some reason, I was getting my words
cross-mungled (as Donna Hebert used to say), and the harder I
tried to straighten my tongue, the more tangled I got. Finally
I managed to blurt out, "Oh, just look at something on your
partner that doesn't appear to be moving."
Five minutes later, people wiped their eyes and we were able
to go on with the workshop.
Tony Parkes
Jim Saxe
The flow of responses to my request for examples of confusing words
in teaching and calling dances (more specifically, contras and
"traditional" squares) seems to be tapering off. While some
responders have duplicated each other's examples or supplied examples
that I had already collected from my own dancing and calling
experience, there have been a substantial number of unique submissions.
This makes me think that there are still many good bad examples [sic]
out there that I haven't collected at all.
If you notice some interesting examples of confusingly-worded
instructions at dances over the weekend, please send them to me
(no need to identify the callers involved). Perhaps while you're
chatting at a restaurant after the dance you can ask other local
dancers about their pet peeves or previous specific experiences
with confusingly-worded teaching or calling--or ask (other) local
callers what words and phrases they've learned, by experience,
to avoid.
I plan to post at least the first installment of summarized
responses on or about May 8. Thanks again for your help.
--Jim Saxe
Jim Saxe
On April 26, I wrote:
>I'm looking for examples of ill-chosen words and phrases used in
>calling or teaching contradances and/or ("traditional") square dances.
>I'm particularly interested in words that can lead to choreographic
>confusion because they sound like something else, because they have
>more than one plausible interpretation, or for some other reason
Below is the beginning of a summary of the examples given in the
responses I've received, together with examples I've accumulated
from my own dancing and calling experience. But first some
comments and caveats.
The examples given below and in the later installments to follow
should be read with a critical eye. Ideally, they would clearly
illustrate direct connections between poorly chosen words on the
part of callers and confusion on the part of dancers. In practice
the words reported may not be what a caller actually said, but
only what the caller remembers having said or what a dancer
remembers having heard. Any confusion that was later observed may
have been due to a variety of causes, which might or might not
relate to the caller's choice of particular words; for example,
the caller may have chosen inappropriate material, failed to
understand the dance thoroughly before presenting it, failed to
verify that all dancers were correctly positioned after each
figure in the walk-through, or failed to maintain the dancers'
attention. Or other words that the caller said earlier than the
ones reported might have sowed the seeds of confusion. Or the
words in the example might be words that some caller avoids (or
that somebody thinks callers should avoid) for fear that they
*might* cause confusion. The same words that are effective with
one group of dancers may be ineffective with another group.
Alternative "better" wordings suggested in some of the examples
may not actually be more effective in a given situation than the
original "bad" wordings. Contorting your teaching in order to
avoid the words used in a "bad" example--or in order to set the
context for some clever bit of "good" phrasing--may do more harm
than good. In short, these examples and any associated
commentary are no substitute for your good judgment.
I've made some attempt to group the examples into categories--
sound-alikes (covered in this message), ambiguities, timing
problems, etc.--but many of the examples could equally well fit
into two or more categories. In such cases I've made somewhat
arbitrary decisions, being more concerned with writing the
examples down that with devising an ideal system of classification,
Thanks to all the people who've help me compile the examples in
this message and in the messages to follow, either by their
responses to my queries on rec.folk-dancing or through recent
private conversations. These include: Bob Archer, Jenny Beer, Bo
Bradham, Roger Broseus, Ron Buchanan, Harold Cheyney, Brent
Chivers, Charlie Fenton, Jim Fownes, Michael Fuerst, Anne Hillman,
Donna Howell, Larry Jennings, Jon Leech, Alan Gedance, Jonathan
Griffiths, Jackie Hoffman, Paul Marsh, Greg McKenzie, David
Millstone, Russell Owen, Obejoyful, Ted Swift, Tony Parkes, Dan
Pearl, Ted Swift, Kiran Wagle, and perhaps others whose names I've
inadvertently omitted. My thinking about words to use in teaching
and calling dances has also benefitted (I hope) from interactions
with many other dancers, musicians, and callers over the years,
and I won't even attempt to list them all. Of course none of the
above-mentioned individuals necessarily subscribes the opinions
expressed in what follows. In fact, I'm not so sure about some of
those opinions myself.
Enough preamble. On to the examples.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
First, here are some examples involving sound-alike words--words
that sound similar to other words because they share a syllable or
even a vowel sound. Note that not all these examples necessarily
involve ill-chosen words. In some cases the potential problems
might be avoided by more careful enunciation or more careful
teaching rather than by a different choice of words.
* "A!" -- directing the band that they should now be starting the A
part of the music, but heard by dancers as "Hey!"
* "Centers" -- pronounced as "c'en'rs" and thus potentially heard
as "ends". I noticed this one while listening to a tape of
my own calling and hearing what I thought at first was "ends
arch ends dive." I don't remember actually seeing problems during
the dance, so perhaps an effective walk-through made up for my
later sloppy enunciation.
* "Ladies change" -- heard as "Ladies chain."
* "End ladies chain" -- intended to mean a diagonal chain by
two ladies at the ends of facing lines of four during a square
dance, but heard as "and ladies chain," setting all the ladies
into motion (this despite a successful walk-through with just
the end ladies chaining at that point in the dance).
* "Four in line", and "Forward and back" -- to tell the dancers what
to do after the two swings in a dance. Prompts with unique first
syllables (e.g., "down the hall" vs. "long lines") are better.
* "On the corner, allemande left" -- I'm not sure about the origin
of the term "On the/your corner" (at the corner of the square?).
In any case I once saw a dancer who evidently heard "on" as "honor,"
taking a quick bow to his corner before the allemande each time
this call was used.
* "Partner" and "Corner" -- easily mistaken for each other in a
noisy hall, especially if the call is something like "Allemande
left your partner." The old gender-biased expression "corner
lady" actually served a practical purpose in distinguishing these
terms, since the expression "partner lady" was not used.
* "Start ..." -- "... a right and left through", "... a hey", etc.,
heard as "Star".
* "Switch" -- heard as "swing" when shouted from the sidelines to
tell a pair of dancers that they were out of position.
* "With" -- potentially heard as "swing" in phrases like "With
your corner, allemande left."
A caller's use of a particular word may have the unfortunate effect
of suggesting a different usage of the same word. Here are some
examples that I subjectively chose to categorize as sound-alike
phrases, rather than in some other category.
* "Balance forward and back" -- in a ring of eight. Understood
by some dancers as an eight-count "forward and back" during
the walk-through and danced that way (despite use of the call
"balance" without "forward and back") during the dance, thus
turning the timing for the following figures into a scramble.
* "Do-si-do" -- an old traditional name in the south and west for
the figure now called "do-paso" and numerous variants, easily
confused with the New England do-si-do (the latter being
referred to as "back to back" in English country dance, and
as "do SA do" in modern western square dance), even when the
caller takes pains to be explicit about the distinction during
the teaching.
* "It's a long swing" -- leading some dancers to form long lines
immediately on hearing the word "long."
* "Go right into ..." -- "... a left hand star" or other figure.
* "right hand star" and "right and left through" -- said with
"right and" and "right hand" having simila cadence and
dynamics.
* "Go 'round -- continuing with something like "... that big 'ol
ring" as patter during a grand right and left, but leading
dancers to expect "... your own and the other way back."
* "Star thru" -- suggesting "star" to dancers not familiar with
this inaplty named (in my opinion) figure borrowed from modern
western square dancing.
* "Swing thru" -- suggesting "swing" to dancers not familiar
with this inaplty named (in my opinion) figure borrowed from
modern western square dancing.
If the hall is noisy, the acoustics are poor, and/or the sound
system is poorly adjusted, or the callers' enunciation and mic
technique are poor, it's easy for some words to become completely
lost (i.e., be sound-alikes for nothing). This can be
particularly troublesome with words like "not" and "don't":
* "Don't get below those two's" -- said to keep the swinging active
couples in Chorus Jig from drifting down the set, but apparently
causing more dancers than ever to cast out through the wrong
spaces when the word "don't" got lost in the din.
* "Ladies chain over but not back" -- heard as "Ladies chain mumble
mumble back."
While I'm on the subject of sound-alikes, here are some examples
of words that may not cause any actual confusion, but that
suggest stale puns.
* "Chain the ladies."
* "Half ladies chain."
* "It's a short swing."
* "Duck ..."
* "Space out along the lines."
* [From English country dance:] "Skip <designated figure>"
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Stay tuned for Installment 2.
--Jim Saxe