You can't be aware of everything, but surely if you're sending someone into a space, you should be aware of whether someone else is about to move into it?Originally Posted by Gadget
To a large extent, yes, that is the expectation. Part of the tradeoff of using a slot is: "In order to have enough space to move up and down the slot, I accept having to stay very close to the slot". If someone else is going "Ha! There's space in that slot I can grab!", then all you get are the bad points. It's still up to the slotted dancer to avoid the collision, but they won't appreciate your actions.From the previous posts, it sounds like WCS dancers expect everyone to keep their slot clear - "a bar or two" is a long time (4/4 music - 4 beats to the bar; 4-8 beats; 2-4 MJ counts): I could have done an MJ move and retracted from that space again in that time.
As for being able to do a MJ move and get out of the slot again in 1 bar: you must know a lot more 2 count MJ moves than I do!
In theory non-slotted is more flexible, but I see it as a bit like motorway driving. On one level, everyone should just use whatever lane they like, switching between them to optimize the flow, and going as close as possible to other cars to maximize capacity. In practice, it seems to work better (and is certainly a lot less stressful) to have rules. In particular, the car that spends all it's time going from lane to lane trying to use all available space causes a huge amount of stress for everyone around. If everyone is dancing in a slot I spend a lot less time worrying about collisions.
But if I were to take your attitude of using space to the extreme, and jump into the space you vacated the moment you did so, I bet you would find it extremely uncomfortable, if not dangerous.The main floorcraft skill of using space is identifying 'opening' spaces rather than 'closing' spaces. When I am moving out of a space, it is opening. When I am moving into a space it is closing.
But the idea is NOT to use all the space! I don't want someone using the space 2 inches from my face, no matter how good a dancer they are. It's a difficult balance - if you're too diligent in keeping a safe distance from other couples, like motorway driving, you will find people sneaking into the 'gaps' and leaving you very cramped. But on the other hand, do you really want to be the couple with lots of space because everyone around has decided "they're too dangerous to be near?".A truley 'free' space (neither opening or closing) is where most of the danger lies - anyone around it may want to take advantage of it. ~snip~ But MJ is more like a jelly and the 'circles' squish and deform to take up all the space.
Dave
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