(no subject)

[sorcyress]

So this weekend was the annual Tech Squares weekend hosted at East Hill farm up in New Hampshire. It was just under forty-eight hours of dancing, gaming, good food and excellent socialization. I slept for approximately five of them.

As a reference, I currently know the Modern Western Square Dance calls through A2. Square Dance levels go Basic, Mainstream, Plus (where anyone who graduates Tech Squares knows); Advanced 1 and 2; Challenge 1, 2, 3A, 3B, and 4.

Because I think it might be a more interesting way to do this sort of thing, awesome-good-meh-bad-ugly list! Reverse order, to end on a positive note.

Ugly:

• Actually, nothing I can think of. I had the realization sometime on Sunday that I felt astonishingly safe the entire weekend. People respected personal space. People respected consent. You could leave the doors unlocked. If I wanted to vanish, there were places to go, and people wouldn't bother me. If I needed a hug, I could find one. Or several. No one made a big deal that I was alternating Erik and Kat the whole weekend (with the name-badges to match!). I felt safe flirting with women I didn't know, and with men I didn't know. There were males running around in skirts. There were half a dozen children underfoot, all responsibly looked after. Mischief ran rampant amongst the squares, *and* people felt strong enough to speak up when it was going to cross their comfort threshold.


• Okay, some of the sleep-dep this morning was a bit ugly. Worse for Pi than me, probably because I had a relatively high amount of coffee (almost six ounces!).


• Oh, and no cell reception and no computer, meaning I was cut off from the rest of the world? Of course, currently, probably sixty-eighty percent of all my social interaction is with square dancers. That's me lowballing the guess. So yeah, not that much a problem.

Bad:

• Something was going on with the music Saturday night that was utterly destroying my concentration --of course it didn't help that I was exhausted/fatigued, but this was something more. I think it had something to do with the songs where the caller chose to drop the volume of the music when she was speaking. The wildly varying levels of music, added trying to pay very close attention to her words (especially added to those words being difficult), added to the general ambient noise level of the room...well, I'm not good at aural input in good conditions. These were not such. At any rate, I went and hid behind a chair for a minute or two and just made white noise. It fixed me enough that I could find a more useful/lasting distraction.


• My gender was all over the place this weekend, and I didn't bring enough clothes to cover it. I mean, people were cool about it and all, but ffffff, it is not great feeling dysphoric in completely opposite directions within a few hours of each other.


• Also, (and this is minor) I was running mostly neutral-male (as opposed to my more standard neutral-female), which meant I was dancing primarily the gent's role. This is only bad in that most of the flourishes are more fun for ladies (twirly!), to say nothing of the dread Teacup Chain (which is one of my favourite calls, but only when I'm in the role that gets to play!)

Meh:

• I drank a lot of coffee. I was basically doing 1-2oz of regular mixed with 4-6oz of decaf, but even that strongly biased, that's a lot of caffeine for me (especially coffee-caffeine which hits me stronger than soda or tea). On the plus side, I've been running pretty well on *very* little sleep, so that's cool I guess?


• I have found the only recording of "This Ol' Riverboat" on the entire internet (or at least easily locatable on YouToobs) and have been listening to it on repeat for...more time than I'm willing to admit. It is the traditional song for the very last dance of the weekend --a singing tip with an atypical progression and easy choreography made complicated by no one ever doing it. At any rate, I would like to obtain a copy of the song (especially a recorded copy of someone calling it, if such exist), and am willing to pay money for the privilege. There's one on iTunes, but it sucks, so I'm still looking.


• Last hex of the weekend was a little pathetic. Everyone was worn-out and weary, the calling was difficult (with some unusual positions, which are tricky to catch in a hex), and we were missing the person who was probably the best, or second-best, hex dancer in the room. We broke down a lot, and there were some very slightly frayed tempers. It smoothed out for the singer though, so that's cool.


• A lot of focus on "Follow your Neighbor" and "Peel the top" (and other complicated peels). I am really bad at both of these. Possibly now I am slightly better?

Good:

• Swimming square. As in, let's all hang out in the pool and do square dancing. It was much harder than I expected, physically, but a pretty fun idea for novelty. We wound up with twelve people, at which point *shrug, hex!*. --Hex in pool works pretty well, actually, because hexes often have less ground to cover than squares.


• JungleSpeed at stupid-o-clock early in the morning. As in, Kevin, Pi, and I played twelve rounds of it between about six-thirty and seven forty-five AM, as that desperate last grasp of something to do to keep us awake until breakfast. Final scores were three-four-five.


• Getting to play Fast Food Franchise. At New Years, I happened to glance into Andy's tote of games and notice his copy. I flailed about how awesome it was he knew it, he flailed about how awesome it was *I* knew it, we made an agreement that sometime in 2012 we would play together. Two of us plus C.Scott, Kevin, and Pi managed a glorious game, in which Andy's stupid family chain (and wicked good luck on card draws, ye gods) slowly steamrolled us all.


• While we're on games, Andy brought a new game called ARGHitect. It's gimmicky, and arguably more hilarious to watch than play. You have to speak in grunts. You get to hit people with an inflatable club. I approve of all of this, and would like a copy for myself sometime!


• I picked up on an important piece of the user manual: I need to dance by myself sometimes. Just...have music, either for me alone (ipod) or the world (speakers) and move, move by myself and for myself. I did some of this today (I have no qualms about introvert dancing off to the side of the rounds dancers, as long as I don't run into them.) and it helped some of the neuroatypical stuff realign like a snap. Bless. Both for doing it, and for now knowing better how much I need it.


• Did a square of C1 dancing as one of the eight people in the square, did at least one C2 tip gemini (two people side by side acting as a single person) with Pi, did both a C3B and a C3A tip in a square with phantoms --the first with Pi and I dancing with six phantoms (just mimicking the movements of the same-position person in the square next to us), the second with four phantoms (both mimicking the complete square, and attempting to keep 180-degree rotational symmetry with my opposite.). Whew. I managed to pick up approximately one Challenge-level call from all this, and that's it. (Step and Fold --mostly because one of the novelty squares (see Awesome) had "after every call, Step and Fold" as the challenge.) But man, do I enjoy dancing above my level, because let's face it --I can do it, and that's awesome.


• I decided on Saturday that I'd like to run a quadrille workshop next year, and Clark was cool with the idea, assuming I think I can get people to show up. I probably wouldn't bother teaching any footwork, but I really want to teach some of the interesting figures that show up in Regency/Victorian/etc quadrilles --ohgods, and sixdrilles! I want to teach sixdrilles, despite the fact that I'm pretty sure they're incompatible with squares. So hopefully that will happen.


• I came out of the contra late Saturday night with a net energy gain, which is impossible and awesome. It was a contra dance in which there was actually space --lots of it!-- to spread out and move in. I've never done contra in a room big enough to hold the set, and OH MY HEART, it is amazing. Also, we did one called Wizard Walk (I think) which makes me laugh because of the Highly Difficult and Precise figure in it that many people mess up --yeah, it's basically just mirror reels on the side without changing facing direction. I love love love coming into set dancing from a Scottish perspective.


• Actually, I love in general how much all my different set dancing knowledges blend into each other. I am better at each individual dance form I do, because of the others. If that wasn't an advertisement for trying multiple forms, I don't know what is!


• During the enjoyable pre-dinner "people still arriving" stage of the weekend, I wound up sharing a chair with my friend Peg, and getting in some good conversation with her, which spilled into us sitting together at dinner too. This prompted Nurit to start teasing my about my ~girlfriend~. Peg and I both found this hilarious, and spent the entire weekend joking about the situation. I do not recall if anyone managed to fill the official Tech Squares Gossip Coordinator about what was going on, which is just as well, as Peg and I broke up just before I left today.
  

Awesome:

• Ice skating square. I cannot possibly say enough good things about this set of squares. We had time for three or four, out in a sheltered little ice rink. Eric Mulder was calling, and while he would occasionally run afoul of something impossible to do on skates (Up to the middle and back? Suddenly in the hardest quarter of mainstream/plus calls.), he was pretty good at catching himself before saying it, and sending us to more fun things. Relay the Ducey done while gliding on ice is a powerfully fun set of movements. We did about fifteen, and ALL OF THEM WERE GREAT!


• I got to milk a cow! This is one more skill I now have for the apocalypse!


• There were some incredible mischief/novelty/unofficial star tips being danced late late Saturday night (like, from one to three in the morning or something). Despite most of them being C1 or higher, I got dragged through them all --I dance gemini very well, even when I'm a quarter asleep and literally being dragged through the calls.


• Oh, and a bigon with Pi, Chris, and Ginda on Friday. I still have no idea whatsoever of how they're supposed to work, but slo-o-owly the pieces are coming together. Kindof. Fun though!


• Clark did a workshop on old/discontinued/unused calls that he likes. My pattern-loving brain made little desperate wanting noises, and I'm going to have to get the names so I can look 'em up and dance them more. There was a star figure that's positively steampunk, and what I can best describe as a reel in which you do not ever change your facing direction. Reels in squares are an *exceptionally* relevant thing to me --I need to learn how to call 'em so I can trick my friends into dancing squared Scottish dances at the next amateur night.


• There were so many people there who I love spending time with and want to spend more. The entire weekend was just a constant fluctuation of conversation, with a strong inclination towards cuddling and just...being happy. I've been in a really touch-negative space the last couple weeks, so I can't reinforce enough how happy it made me to be able to feel good about touching people and being touched. Special props go to Nurit, Tracy, Peg, Pi, Chris, Martha, Kyle, JB, Mike, Rebecca, and probably at least three or four others I'm forgetting because I'm tired. I haven't walked out of an event this socially satisfied since my first Balticon or something.

Overall assessment? Doubledoubleplusplus, and I *will* be back next year for more. Thanks to everyone there who made it just about perfect, and I can't wait to see you all again --next Tuesday, next month, or next East Hill!

~Sor
MOOP!

PostScript: Everyone kept complimenting my earrings. I have all the yay!

Comments

[harena]

*yayayays at all the Yays!*

[sorcyress]

Yay!

[tirerim]

Okay, I really want to dance something on skates, now. I haven't been skating in like seven years. I wonder how much longer the little ice rink in front of the Harvard science center is going to be there... and if they have skate sharpening facilities.

I have danced in the water before, and yeah, it's hard. One year at Pinewoods we did "Minister in the Loch". :-)

[sorcyress]

It's really great. Scottish, I expect, would not work, but we were able to swing (with a little bit of difficulty and a lot of laughing) and anything that flows really well is going to be awesome.

I love that little ice rink, but I hear that, due to the weather, it has no idea. Boo!

~Sor

[mogwit.livejournal.com]

That dance is called "Wizard's Walk," one of a very few non-chestnut contras for which there's a set tune. I think it was written by a fairly young kid, and it was One Of Those Things for a while way back when.
And I hear what you're saying about different dance forms - all of my dancing has gotten better from all of the different ways I move my body.

Also, I miss you. It's nice to hear you feeling Very Excited and happy about something.

[jbsegal.livejournal.com]

Ruth Ungar, Jay Ungar's daughter.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

<3

I miss you too, Mogpants! I would love to have extensive hanging-outs with you, except that my job is terrible and I never have time for this sort of thing.

Knowing how my body works is really useful, but honestly not as much for me as knowing how the patterns work. Tech Squares has been the best for this --there's a lot of breaking things down into smaller pieces, and that can make it easier to learn or remember more complicated things. There's some Scottish figure that involves several quarter, half, and three-quarter turns that feels like something out of squares.

~Sor

[(Anonymous)]

Jealous. I got to dance at the John Marshall fundraiser, but other than that not much.

Love the concept of always step&fold tip.
OMG!!! Any relay call on skates!

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

That anon was me. sorry.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

No worries. Although weirded out that somewhere along the way, my livejournal decided (without my input!) to always screen anon comments. The heck? It's fixed now.

Spin chain and exchange the gears was also pretty good on the skates (except for possibly the part where you have to turn around.). Veering was surprisingly easy, and suddenly a much prettier figure. Yeah. It was lots of fun!

We should square dance sometime, you and I.

~Sor

[lonebear.livejournal.com]

Yes. Yes we do.

[minibusy]

I found Riverboat on vinyl for $22 on Amazon. http://www.ceder.net/recorddb/viewsingle.php4?RecordId=1555&SqlId=146947 (along with the "See Also" section at that link) mentions several square dance labels that produced it, but http://sdcsdca.sdsda.org/music.html seems to suggest they're all actually the same, and the web site linked from there doesn't work. Asking Clark about it might also be useful.

If you want to read about bi-gons, there's http://www.tiac.net/~mabaker/bigon2.pdf . There are some minor stylistic differences between the paper and how the people who typically dance bi-gons at Tech Squares dance them.

I think the star figure you mentioned might be Cross the Star: http://www.ceder.net/oldcalls/viewsingle.php4?RecordId=1608 . Another one of the calls was Tilt the Wave. I remember at least one more that was related to Teacup Chain, but don't remember its name.

[kdsorceress.livejournal.com]

Yes, Cross the Star is correct. Thanks!

Vinyl is completely fucking useless to me. I'll ask Clark.

~Sor

[tricia868]

I have a record-to-CD conversion system set up at home!

[werewulf.livejournal.com]

So does Sorcy's mom.

[minibusy]

Ah, and Linear Weave the Line appears to also be one of the ones you referred to: http://www.tiac.net/~mabaker/disposable-experimentals.html

http://fortytwo.ws/~cbaker/Disposable%20Calls%20by%20Clark%20Baker.pdf also has some of the other calls he called.

[mrbelm.livejournal.com]

We have an original copy of Fast Food Franchise. Complete with paper hats.

[luckylefty.livejournal.com]

I am so jealous! Tom was my housemate while he was developing the game. Two of the rules of the game are my own suggestions. And I've always wanted a copy of the game with the hats, and was never able to get one. Tom made up a small number of sets of hats, used with prototype versions of the game to demo it at cons, and I never persuaded him to make more.

[luckylefty.livejournal.com]

You should definitely have no qualms about dancing solo (or with a partner but ignoring the cues) during rounds. Some people will tell you that rounds is when we put on music and a cuer tells you what to do, but they're wrong. Rounds is when music that is good to dance to gets played, and as an added bonus, a cuer makes choreographic suggestions as the music plays. You're welcome to make as much or as little use of these suggestions as you like. When I knew a tiny bit of round dance Jive, I used to dance the Jives by dancing what the cuer cued when it was one of the few cues I knew, and just leading swing moves when I didn't know what the cuer was talking about, and it worked fine.

And the solo Cha I saw you dancing during one of the rounds looked very cool. For some reason I'm comfortable improvising with a partner, but I freeze up if I'm dancing alone.