Pavlovian snap switching

Many Tech Squares members are always looking to put a twist on club level dancing (plus), especially when they've been doing it for years. We even introduce our new dancers to the idea at graduation with a "hack tip" where we decide a variation for them to perform, often ending in hilarity (but we let them decide on one for us, too - which is usually the more evil of the two!). On any given Tuesday, there might be a hexagon forming, people snap switching, or some gemini dancers. Our caller rolls with the punches. He may gripe a little and give up on sighting off that square, but doesn't seem to mind much.

Our annual retreat, East Hill Farm, has some dance sessions dedicated to doing odd things - with not only the caller's approval but also their cooperation! In 2013, one of our talented attendees called a "Pavlovian" tip. I wasn't sure what it was going to be, but it sounded like we'd have an action to do when some condition was met. It turned out that the condition was "being next to your partner at the end of a call" and the action varied depending on the sequence among trading, half sashaying, or half of either of those (we'd be told at the beginning of the sequence). Each sequence resolved beautifully... it was surely a challenge to write.

When the weekend was over, I found myself still thinking about that tip. I wrote a few of my own such sequences with the additional twist that while you'd trade when next to your partner, you'd hinge when next to your corner. (But that's a subject for another post.) I missed the fun of noticing when you were next to your partner at the end of a call, but knew that it took complicated sequence writing to make a tip work with the Pavlovian variation... so how could I do more of it? The answer was clear - instead of doing a set action like a trade or hinge when next to your partner, snap switch with them! This takes the form of a half sashay if you end up facing the same direction and a trade if facing different directions, but ideally would be danced as smoothly as possible (e.g. turn a wheel and deal into a turn and deal if starting with your partner).

I tried out this snap switching technique with a few of my friends on Tuesdays and had a ton of fun doing it (they seemed to enjoy it too!). It turns a normally paced tip into quite the workout! We've found the best way to do it is to skip the switching after a call if neither of you were involved in the call, and not to worry about missing opportunities. After all, the point of hacks is to have fun and undue stress doesn't help that. Sometimes it's just too hard to switch as many times as you need to when the calls are coming quickly and you keep ending up with your partner, e.g. swing thru (end with partner), centers run, bend the line - all in a row. It's tricky when you end up next to your partner as centers of lines after you've been working with your box, but it's arguably the most fun when it's a little unexpected like that! It can also be harder than normal to keep track of your gender since it's changing so frequently, but having good opposites (who aren't also switching!) helps with that immensely.

Anyway, try it the next time you're feeling bored! One more note: it's helpful to tell your squares you're doing this before starting so they know not to panic when they expect your partner and get you instead.

Introduction

Hello fellow dancers! I'm Rachel, creator of Phantom Columnist, a blog in which I hope to write a subset of my multitudes of squares-related thoughts. I expect these will range from musings on square dance etiquette to explorations of calls and concepts, from tales of last night's trickiest calls to ideas about teaching, from original sequences to the worst puns you've ever heard, and whatever else comes up. Part of the reason I'm starting this blog is to put all of my thoughts and ideas in one place in order to have a more consistent record than my current collection of social media posts here, emails there, and notes-to-self hiding somewhere on my hard drive. I'm also hoping to reach a wider audience than just the people with whom I'm comfortable starting random conversations about squares.

Here's some info about my background in square dancing: I learned plus as a college freshman at MIT's Tech Squares from September to December 2008 and it has been one of my best decisions of recent memory. I think my initial motivation for trying the class had to do with fond memories of father-daughter square dances held for young Girl Scouts in my hometown (which all assumed no prior experience). After taking time to get comfortable with plus, I eagerly learned A1, A2, and C1 between September 2010 and June 2011 and C2 between September 2011 and June 2012. I've self-studied C3A but (as of this post) have had few opportunities to dance it. A bunch of my dancing friends have been taking a C4 class and love to talk about it, so I've also had the privilege of hearing about many calls and concepts that I can enjoy without needing to remember after the conversation. I'm "ambidancetrous" (fantastic term used for being able to dance either gender) and enjoy snap switching and dancing with phantoms. Sometimes I enjoy other hacks like hexagon dancing, nose dancing, or gemini/tandem dancing. I'm currently between clubs as I've just left MIT but haven't yet settled in my next city, San Francisco, but I'm looking forward to dancing various places out in the Bay Area.

Until next time, a quick joke:
Q: What challenge call is like speed dating?
A: Single rotate