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Contra Shenanigans, Part II: Thoughts on Chaos/Shenanigans/Wild/Fill-in-term-of-choice-here Sets!

10/26/2011

 
Last week, we talked about gender-swapping and dancing switch in contra lines. This week we take the concept to the entire line, where people can intentionally swap roles and partners up and down the line as the dance goes on. These so-called “chaos/shenanigans/wild/etc. lines” have at times been formally announced, and at other times have happened on smaller scales on a somewhat ad hoc basis through two or three couples following each other up or down the set (with all of them being 1’s or all being 2’s, and then swapping partners and roles amongst themselves as they traveled up or down the line).

The major thing about these lines that a lot of people don’t understand is that at their heart they operate like other contra dances; you still have pairs progressing through the lines, and you still have people dancing the figures more or less as called -- it’s just that your role (and your partner) may change as you go through the line. The appeal and the challenge of this sort of exercise is to be able to change roles quickly and still complete the dance where you find yourself, and preferably on time. To my mind, the Platonic ideal of such a line operates smoothly enough that if I wanted to, I could take a partner, dance the whole thing straight, and still be able to make it up and back with my partner, meeting hands where I expect them, even as people switch roles and partners all around us.

“Chaos works best when progression continues to work,” agrees New York City dancer Sam Kleinman. “If you try to be too regular about chaos partner switching, you can end up in this echo chamber where you get stuck more or less standing still and as you swap and move partners. The dance matters too. Some dances are worse for chaos sets. Too complicated or a moment with some sort of precise timing and it all feels like mush.... The things that make conventional contras fun -- good flow, nice tension, smooth choreographic tone -- make good chaos sets, and I think it's easy to lose sight of that.”

Steven Roth says, “The thing I love about chaos lines is that it is one of the.few times when shenanigans on your part can greatly increase the enjoyment of the other dancers around you. I really enjoy having to be on my toes for the entire dance, because I can never be sure whose hand will be coming at me next, or even where I myself will be in the set from one moment to the next. It’s a wonderful exercise in adapting to changing conditions in the dance in real time with little-to-no preparation. That’s what I am trying to provide for the other dancers around me, and it’s what I go in hoping that they are trying to provide for me.”

Steven continues, however, that there still needs to be some order: “Still, there has to be some kind logic to everything you do -- swapping partners by changing a ladies’ chain into a right-and-left-through or adding a single ricochet into a hey. When you start playing around with the dance in order to add chaos, you have to do it in such a way that you are clearly communicating where everyone in your set needs to be in order for the dance to continue to work. Just as shenanigans can add to the dance, shenanigans can also really, really mess people up because you no longer have the crutch of knowing that everyone is trying to dance the exact same dance as you. If you make a change and the other people in your set don’t understand what you’re trying to do, you can end up with a situation where three (or even four!) people are trying to progress in the same direction at the same time, which means that the next couple behind you gets stuck trying to do the dance without a complete couple coming at them. Just like that, you just intruded on their fun and that’s not fair.”

Some people even argue that “chaos line” is a misnomer entirely. Brian Hamshar mentions an alternative: “There was a movement at FootFall to refer to it as a ‘shenanigans line,’ and I really like it. It sounds very playful and is way more accurate.... Maybe if no one calls it ‘chaos’ anymore, callers who are not as familiar will feel better about it, and maybe we won't have a repeat of people jumping out of the line!”

Aimee Steussy adds, “My biggest problem with using the term ‘chaos’ is that people tend to take that as, ‘woohoo, we’re going to mess up the line!’ But there is a point where you can’t have much...I mean, yes, play, yes, have fun, yes, switch! Yes, trade in each square, yes, trade back and forth along the line! Just make sure that the people you’re doing it with know you’re doing it, ‘cause you can’t surprise them.... The fun part is, you do the figure, and you’re on time for everybody else -- your shenanigans, your mucking about, whatever, is within the structure of the dance.... Make it so that it works. If you don’t get to where you’re supposed to be, you can throw someone else off, who might be just joining the dance, who’s really enthusiastic, but can get really lost really quickly. If you mess up, laugh, get over it, it’s a quick apology, get going, but still try to stay within the structure to some degree.”

So it seems that the things that you really need for a chaos/shenanigans/wild/whatever line are as follows:
  1. The ability to dance the dance straight through, at least once. “Chaos sets are not an excuse for dancers to ignore the dance as written,” says Steven. That said, Sam adds the following: “You can't be strict about Doing The Dance Right, and the adage that I've stolen from [fellow dancer] Becky Wright is ‘better never than late.’ If you have to skip a figure to get where you need to be on time, that's better than rushing to make sure you get every movement in.”
  2. Sam adds, “Though you shouldn't use it all the time, being able to write dances on the fly is a good skill, just because those abilities make it possible to fix things when they go awry, or change partners with grace. But like I said, that can create too much entropy and not in the fun way.”
  3. Communication. As Aimee points out, “You’ve got to have a hand signal, eye signal, something, that goes, ‘now!’ Because if you do it and they’re not ready for it, you could mess up the line...and that’s not the fun part.”
  4. Interestingly enough, some measure of order. There is actually a logic to good chaos lines; a California twirl can turn into a balance in and out, a long line going forward and back can turn into a roll-away with a half sashay on the way back, or a California twirl can be turned 90 degrees to swap you with the neighbor behind you.
  5. The ability to roll with it. Sometimes that means looking for your new partner two or three sets down the line if your partner suddenly leaves and no one’s there to take their place right away. ”It’s like those improv games you might play in a theatre class. You have to be able to say ‘Yes’ to everything that the other people in your set are doing and find a way to go with it and build on it. The moment you try to dig your heels in and say ‘No, the dance doesn’t go that way,’ you have started working against the very purpose of the chaos line.”

I welcome your thoughts -- do you love this sort of exercise? Do you loathe it? What makes it work or not work, in your opinion? Is “chaos line” an inappropriate term? What should we call it instead? Sound off in the comments!

Particular thanks go to the dancers who took the time to share their thoughts for this article!

Update, October 28, 2011, 12:48 A.M.: Someone appears to be continuing this discussion over in teh Forum
Perry
10/25/2011 11:44:05 pm

I was in the "chaos" line at Technoberfest and though it was great. I'm not as concerned with what people want to call it. What I am concerned with is that people who join such a line actually KNOW what it means to be in such a line and that they KNOW how to dance in one. They work REALLY well if everyone knows how to stay within the structure while being thrust into a new role or with a new partner. I certainly hope I didn't confuse anyone with the trickery that I was coming up with, but I'm afraid that I might have. One gal found herself as the gent and had that deer in the headlights look. And I say, you joined the "chaos" line, that's going to happen.

Since we don't do shenanigan lines all that often, I think that people really need to learn how to swap within couples and even swap partners with another couple (one you've picked and agreed with and lined up properly ahead of time) up and down the line and learn how it's done. This isn't something that you can just "do". It's a crapload of fun.

One thing that I might add is that the caller last Saturday I thought did a great job in emphasizing which line was the "chaos" line. I think that in order for such lines to happen it MUST be communicated with the caller so the caller can make it clear, if you don't want to dance in such a line, don't. When this first came about, it was talked up on the dance floor and people lined up to start one, but not everyone knows about it and people get VERY upset if they are in a chaos line and don't know it. The caller, Melissa Taggart, did a great job of announcing it twice - just before people started lining up and before she started the dance. That made it very clear to everyone in the hall. So I suggest not thrusting a chaos line onto dancers without making it crystal clear that this line is where shenanigans WILL happen.

Ryan link
10/26/2011 01:17:41 am

In the ones I've been in when it has been ad hoc for the entire line, someone has gone through the designated line before the dance started (usually while calling for hands four) and made it clear to all couples in it that this is what was going on, even if the caller didn't announce it. It does create the issue of whether people who joined the line later got the message, but I've actually found that it's fairly rare for it to be completely and utterly out of the blue (usually someone's passed the word along that "Nth line, Nth dance" would be the chaos set and those who care to partake usually show up there, and then the last check of having someone go through and make sure everyone's where they want to be, at least at the start of the dance, has happened).

Caller cooperation can be quite useful, though -- there are some moves that I'm actually not fond of in a shenanigans line, but that's entirely personal opinion. For instance, I find that pull-bys up and down the line have a tendency to get mucked up in such lines more than is fun and you get people kicked out of the dance at points far enough apart that they don't necessarily find each other and you don't always have the check of looking at the person you're swinging and saying, "is that your partner over there?" because they may honestly not know.

dest/jess(ie)/etc.
10/26/2011 02:53:32 am

Yeah, i think it's very important to make sure that everyone in a chaos line is comfortable being there. On saturday, i was sure i saw someone in the chaos set who was there for her first contra ever, and i kind of wanted to give her original partner a very stern talking-to. When you bring a partner into a chaos set, you need to be pretty sure that they're able to fend for themselves, because it'll be that much harder to keep watch over them.
Pull-bys up and down the line aren't so bad for me--at least it's a direct one-for-one trade--but i do sometimes get frustrated when folks decide to make pairs (jim and i are dancing one part with our partner). It's kind of weird since in regular contra i like them. But my experience is that ppl often chaos out of a given pair by separating themselves, not by pairing with someone else, and that means that a set suddenly has five people and you have to negotiate, on the fly, which of you may pair to sort out the flow. And that just doesn't seem so considerate to me.
My general sense is that changing the name itself probably won't change the culture; it's more important that we help people to take a "whole line" approach to dancing, even when they're chaos-ing--or maybe it's a zen approach, where you try to get where you're going while leaving behind as few ripples as possible. My rule of thumb is, once i switch into a new square or a new role, i should be leaving behind a set where everyone's pretty sure what role they're in and what they're doing next.

Shani link
10/26/2011 03:47:39 am

Please, "chaos" dancers - NEVER take a partner without telling him or her that you're going to be switching places, etc. Happened to me once and it was totally unenjoyable. I like the idea of identifying the "chaos" line publicly before the dance starts so people, especially beginners, can opt in or out per their OWN preference.


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    I dance with abandon. I play with glowsticks. I look for music that is conducive to one or both. I play behind cameras.  I write about all of the above. I'm based in Glen Echo's contra dance community outside of Washington, D.C., but I'm happy to go dance afield when I can. Lather, rinse, repeat. Always repeat.

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