As we've gone through our Friday Flourishes, we've been trying to make a point of indicating potential trouble spots and safety precautions. It occurs to me that a concentrated version of these might be useful to dancers who are just starting to explore flourishes, or who have been embellishing their contra dancing for a while now as a refresher (I know I've committed my share of dance floor sins). There's room for everybody.
1. Don't be a jerk.
If you're not going to read this entry any further, commit this phrase to memory and use it as your mantra. Cranking arms, twirling people who have said they'd really rather not, sending your neighbor on to their next neighbor really late, or pulling out flourishes in crowded rooms where it could endanger yourself, your partner, or someone in the next set is just plain not cool. This is part of how flourishers get a bad name; let's rise above the rep, shall we?
2. Be aware.
This is partly a reiteration of #1, but there are some specific points I think we should all remember:
- Be situationally aware. Some dancers really get annoyed when other dancers twirl their neighbor in a circle left and thus break the connection between the partner pairs; some dancers are probably going to twirl your partner, too, and so you can create a really neat symmetry in the minor set if you do it too. Some people love the drama of dips; other people find the idea unthinkable. Some people have a deep respect for the dance as written, and only as written; other people like to embellish. A lot of being a good flourisher is being able to adjust your dancing depending on who is coming at you. As you dance, you get to know the room. Use that information to enhance everyone's experience, not just yours, and respect it when someone's idea of fun may be different from yours. We wouldn't be dancing if we didn't love it.
- Be temporally aware. Know where you are in the music. If you get an 8-beat swing, don't try to squish in a 12-beat swing flourish. If you've got a crazily long swing, you have more time to experiment and still be on time for the next figure.
- Be spatially aware. This plays into dancing in crowded rooms as well as pulling off some of the more dramatic flourishes. Frequently when someone is twirling particularly fast or is getting inverted into a dramatic dip, they are putting all their trust into their guide (i.e., the lead) that they will have enough room to participate in the flourish safely. To those who are looking into dips: for most of them, bear in mind that you do not get to control the dipee's lower body beyond shifting its center of gravity; if they want to kick their legs up, they can't see the space behind the dipper, and neither can the dipper. Physics tells us that two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time. Experience tells us that bruises (or worse) can result in the attempt.
3. If you are not sure that you can execute a flourish SAFELY, don't.
'Nuff. Said.
4. Try your best to be on time for figures.
It happens to all of us, flourisher and non-flourisher alike; somehow you miscount a beat and you realize that your minor set is two beats behind the room, or you have to make a really big step in to balance for a set of Petronella twirls because you and your partner drifted further afield than you thought. No one will ever think less of you for the occasional oops. If you are constantly too busy playing with that cute new dancer to get back in time for the all lines forward and back, or if you're constantly progressing your neighbor on to the next person three beats late for an eight-beat swing, people will (rightfully) get a little annoyed. If your partner didn't start twirling as quickly as you thought into a chain flourish, don't guide all six twirls that she usually does. For many contra dancers, the dance has become a lead/follow dance form; that said, you're both still dancing with the rest of the room. See #1.
5. Remember it's just a dance.
Even for flourishers, it doesn't have to be all about the fanciest steps. You end up in a line packed with new dancers. For some reason you have completely flubbed a lead you thought you had down cold. It happens. You started dancing, presumably, because it was fun; and as long as you're not harming anyone else, the practical side of the anti-flourish argument loses water. (The theoretical side will likely always be there, and the best thing flourishers can do is acknowledge other dancers' feelings and respect their existence, even if we disagree.)
Think I missed something?
Sound off in the comments!
