Unusual applications: hop

I find that one of the best ways to learn a call well is to dig into unusual applications. Perhaps surprisingly I don't say this because it allows you to encounter those applications before they are called (which would typically give you an edge), but because it makes you focus so much on the call that it drills it into your head. After writing this entry, I'll probably never forget hop again!

For reference, the definition of "<anyone> hop" from Callerlab is "Starting formation - Any applicable non T-Bone 2 x 2 (usually Facing Couples). Designated dancers Walk as others Dodge; all Hinge. Ends in a Wave or Inverted Line. Anyone Hop is a 2-part call."

Basic C3A familiarizes us with the two most standard applications of hop: from facing couples and from a miniwave box. (The latter already feels "less standard" to me, maybe because of the partner hinge, maybe because the leaders can't see what's going on.)

When introducing variations, first I thought about whether more or fewer than two of the four people could be asked to hop, i.e. "everyone hop" or "no one hop". It wouldn't make sense for a leader to be told to hop, so "everyone hop" can only be done from facing couples (pass thru and hinge), but "no one hop" can be done from any box (half sashay and hinge). The flow may be terrible, but on Phantom Columnist we mostly care about legality!

Finally I came to the weirdest variation I could think of that was still symmetric: from facing couples, having one side of the box hop. This seems questionable because it will cause collisions and they must be resolved partway through the call (but we do that with other calls, e.g. many varieties of tally ho). If heads are facing sides and  "heads hop" is called, the sides will half sashay and collide to right hands with the new head they are facing, on their original plane. The fact that this puts all four dancers in the spots of two dancers originally means many cases will get some offset. In particular, from lines facing the walk and dodge + collision will put dancers in a 100% offset parallelogram and then the hinge will put them in clumps.

 3B>   4G<

 1G>   2B<

 4B>   3G<

 2G>   1B<

heads hop

  .     .    2B^   3BV

  .     .    4G^   1GV

 3G^   2GV    .     .

 1B^   4BV    .     .

From an eight chain thru, if the ends are told to hop, the call ends in nice parallel waves instead of the tidal wave that would result from the typical application of hop! I would then expect centers hop from an eight chain to end with the real dancers in outside phantom boxes.

 3GV   4BV

 3B^   4G^

 2GV   1BV

 2B^   1G^

ends hop	centers hop
4G>   3B>  3G<   4B<  2B>   1G>  1B<   2G<	3B>   4G>  4B<   3G<   .     .   .     .   .     .   .     .  1G>   2B>  2G<   1B<

And what about, from lines facing, "ends hop"? The centers would slide over to the end spots and the ends would pass thru, each colliding with a center and taking right hands. Then all would hinge to end in outside phantom lines. Meanwhile if it were "centers hop," the collision (and hinge) would put everyone in normal waves.

 4BV   3BV   3GV   4GV

 2G^   1G^   1B^   2B^

ends hop	centers hop
2G>    .     .    2B>  3B<    .     .    3G<  1G>    .     .    1B>  4B<    .     .    4G<	1G>   1B>  4B<   4G<  2G>   2B>  3B<   3G<

Coming to a caller near you? Probably not, but it's fun to explore weird behavior of even simple calls.

In your blocks, tie

The current C4 class out in Boston is not only told to memorize various calls and concepts most weeks, but is also given homework questions! Luckily for me, my friends are happy to pass these questions along to inquisitive C3A dancers. Then I can look up the necessary calls and try to figure out the answers. One recent week a certain question struck me as novel and extremely non-obvious, so I thought I'd share the question and my answer and thought process on this blog.

Q: The call was "in your block, beau tie".  Or was it belle tie?  You didn't quite hear it.  What should you do?

For reference, the definition of "<anyone> tie" from Bill Ackerman's C4 book 1 is "Often from a completed DPT: all Peel Off. Then the original designees Couples Circulate and Bend the Line, while the others Bend the Line and Couples Circulate."


[Spoilers below!]





A: My answer is "peel off, bend the line, and couples circulate" - that is, act like you were not designated. I would also say that you should check that your starting block looks like a miniwave box.

I'd say figuring this out was a mixture of a key realization and some tedious casework. You might save yourself some casework if you know "<anyone> tie" really well. My realization was that the Blocks concept must be applied only to calls that start and end in 2x2 formations. At this point, I did casework. There are really just two 2x2 starting formations to consider from which you can do "tie": tandem couples, and a miniwave box. From each of these, you have to consider beau tie and belle tie. I will show these cases below, adding another box on to show what happens when the 2x2s don't work within themselves.

From tandem couples:

 3B^   3G^

 2B^   2G^

 4GV   4BV

 1GV   1BV

   belle tie

 1G>   2B>

 4G>   3B>

 1B<   2G<

 4B<   3G<

OR

   beau tie

 2G<   1B<

 3G<   4B<

 2B>   1G>

 3B>   4G>

From a (RH) miniwave box

 2B^   2GV

 3G^   3BV

 1B^   1GV

 4G^   4BV

   belle tie

 3B<   3G>

 2G<   2B>

 4B<   4G>

 1G<   1B>

OR

   beau tie

 2G>   4B<

 3B>   1G<

 3G>   1B<

 2B>   4G<

This work shows that only one of these cases would be legal from blocks: belle tie from a RH miniwave box (everyone is a beau). From symmetry, we can tell that beau tie from a LH miniwave box (everyone is a belle) would be legal as well. Therefore if the call was legal, even if you didn't hear the <anyone>, you should assume you were not one of the designees, and act accordingly.