March 21, 2006, 9:29 a.m. (Message 44799, in reply to message 44780)
The counting business is a bit reminiscent of primary school -- and as mentioned, not always well performed. ECdancers and contra dancers manage pefectly well by forming "hands 4 (or 6, or 8) from the top" and crossing over when required withiut further fuss. Have SCDers become so used to quasi military regimentation that they are no longer capable of thinking for themselves? There is a strange contradiction: On one hand, so much insistence on fun, socializing, relaxation ... On the other, "straighten up you lines", "clear the floor between dances", just stand up straight and do as you are told. And is it not more important to find one's place on the dance floor quickly (impossible to do in any military manner, I think), than to appease the gods looking down from above by having every couple cross over simultaneously ("tidily") on an ear-jarring chord? Perhaps one day we shall look back on military precision the way we now look back on the days when the men all had to sweat the evening away in tight black jackets! Down with the second chord !!! Martin, in Grenoble, France.