I had been trying to remember where I saw this and I found the first clip on the "tag or not to tag thread"
For those intersted in tagging:
I think it's west coast tag
YouTube - Steal Dance
For those who want to stop anyone from stealing here's a funny clip on how to sucessfully block a partner thief
Steve
Thing is, that maybe under normal circumstances, yes you would only get one or two dances at most in a night of freestyle where you were tag-dancing. But, if you *teach* it as an accepted style then people will do it more and more. And if it is taught before a freestyle with no warnings of 'this is not polite unless you ask first' people may be led to believe that the freestyle is deliberately placed for them to practise this new dance style - and some of the people there may not wish to be practised upon .
I appreciate that you have taken my comments on board and am glad that you will make some sort of announcement to this effect at the start (and maybe at the end too?) of the class. I know you cannot guarantee that people will heed your warnings but at least if you mention it people might think twice before randomly stealing someone else's partner!
I love double trouble and tag. Double trouble only really works well if the follows are friends. Some think it is for the lead to show off but in reality it's the girls have the most fun dancing with their friend ( whereas one of them might have to lead) whilst the lead tries to work out what to do next.
Your comment on your tag with the contrast but connection of father and son sounds great. I have mostly thought of tag from a leads point of view, in that I get to dance with other leads without having to lead them or follow them and for the surprise on the follows.
Kathleen described her view on a five way tag session (three leads, two follows) as last Friday at Ashton's we had probably our best five way tag sessions, and I asked Kathleen what she thought of it as a follow.
She said it was fantastic. She said each of us leads has a very different style leading to big contrasts which challenged her to adapt for each lead change. She said firstly the dance would be all arms with DJ Warren smoothly and suddenly the lead would change to Craid and comes the long lunges a short while later and's it me with my wiggles (I didn't know she thought this of my dancing). Obviously the contrasts kept happening as the leads changed. Hmmm ... arms, lunges and wiggles. Sounds a bit like padfoot and prongs or whatever from Harry Potter.
Steve
Perhaps we should wear coloured lights. Put it on red if we want to stay with our partner and green if we want to be tagged.
I'd agree these ettiquette as a start.
1 Don't steal. Agree the swap with a lead with simple eye contact/nod of the head etc. After a couple of moves return the follow to the lead. This way she gets her original lead back and let them know whether it is ok to continue the swap. This works on most occasions otherwise as in the case of a collision etc be polite.
2 The reverse of 1 is true too. If you are swapped as a follow and get a better lead then don't attempt to keep them from returning you back (If you could).
3 Don't ask the spare lead to dance who is on the dance floor in the middle of a tag. Wait until the end of the track of the before attempting to join in the fun.
Spiky
So talking of tagging etiquette, was I breaking the tagging rules when you (Steve) and Foxyfunkster were tagging with Kathleen and myself, by stealing her away to leave you two dancing together?
I'm not sure about these ettiquette pointers you suggest... and I'm not even sure that *strict* rules are necessary.
However, how about these instead? :
1. If you wish to do a tagging dance, agree with another partnership/s before you begin the dance and do not involve couples outside of this without the prior consent of both Lead and Follow.
2. Once you consent to a tagging dance with another partnership/s only Follows should be swapped between Leads unless it has been pre-arranged that Follows and Leads are happy to dance together should those swaps arise (ie Leads dance with Leads and Follows dance with Follows).
3. At no point during a tagging dance should any person be left without a partner on the dance floor looking like a lemon (ie and have one Lead doing double trouble, for example), unless it has been pre-agreed before hand that this is acceptable to all parties.
(Psst, Steve and Sarah, it's etiquette with 3 t's.) I think this is starting to sound all too serious, the idea of tagging is supposed to be fun surely. If a couple doesn't wish to join in, i'm sure they can make it perfectly obvious by not giving each other over to the tagger. (If the tagger is persistent, an F' off would probably work) I know I hate to be tagged if I am dancing with a lead that i've been desperately trying to dance with for ages. But if he wishes to join in the tagging then that's tough on me and I'd hope to get the next dance with him to compensate.
Psst, Di, it's F' Off with 3 Fs
I agree with the point you're making though. A couple of times in the past people have tried to split up myself and a dancefloor partner - I just hang on to her and manouevre away. I would expect it will be pretty clear who is and is not up for tagging 'fun'.
Agreed on both counts (and apologies for poor spelling ).
I did say that I wasn't sure strict rules were necessary...
I guess my concerns mainly lie with people who are not as, how shall I put this, 'self-confident' as you and I, Cruella. Not eveyone feels comfortable being put in a position where they need to tell someone to F' off (which however many F's you desire)!
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