Callers Commandment 2 … KNOW THE DANCE

 

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(The second of the commandments contained in the ancient “exodance” scrolls given by the Presence on the clouded mount and currently being interpreted by scholars of the obscure text)

 

This is linked to CC1 (USE YOUR MEMORY) – but  acknowledges that a notation can be memorised without being understood.

 

Callers must ‘work through’ a dance before calling it.  This may be a physical act (in person or with counters/other representative objects), or it may be a mental act.  Make sure you go through the dance from EVERY position (for both sexes); we cannot truly ‘know’ a dance unless we can experience all the varieties of the flow.  Sometimes, a dance flows easily for some dancing positions, but requires awkward turns for others.

 

(An aside:  some callers call every figure only from the first man’s perspective.  This can be confusing – e.g. when saying “end with your partner on your right” only 50% of the dancers can comply.  There are usually other ways of calling that are inclusive – even if, as part of the walk-through, we announce the use of special terms and explain what they mean.  To understand the dance only from the first man’s position is inadequate: we must also know and explain the awkward turns that other dancers may have to negotiate)

 

It leaves a bad impression if the caller says (during the walk-through) anything that resembles the following examples:

“I thought I knew this one”

“I should have worked this out beforehand”

“I can’t read what this says”

“This isn’t working – let’s do something else”

 

Of course, there are times when a dance notation is not as clear as it might be, and all efforts to make sense of it prove inconclusive.  The best choice to make in these circumstances is to omit the dance from your programme.  However, if you decide you want to try it out, tell the dancers at the outset that you are not sure how the dance is supposed to work, and invite them to help you by walking it through (this may also be a justifiable occasion for breaking CC1 – there is no point memorising something that may be incorrect).

 

There are times when, because the original notation is unclear, callers will improvise and insert something they think will work.  This is acceptable, provided CC3 is observed … and this will feature in the next issue of efn (if the scholars working on the exodance scrolls have completed their interpretation by then). 

 

Sibby