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.