The Rewind Concept

J. Eric Brosius
72060.1540@compuserve.com

This paper is also available in PostScript format.

You may have seen diagrams that explain calls using little pictures of dancers with arrows showing the paths one takes when dancing the calls. What if the arrows went in the opposite direction? The starting diagrams would then become the ending diagrams and vice versa. To avoid having the dancers walk backwards, we could move their noses to the other side of their bodies. Changing a call in this way gives us a new call, the Rewind of the original one.

Definition of the Rewind Concept
* Here is the ``official'' definition of the Rewind concept.

To Rewind a call, imagine each dancer has a phantom on his or her own spot, but facing in the opposite direction. Imagine the phantoms have just done the call, leaving footprints on the floor. Now walk forward along the path left by your phantom, putting your toeprints on its heelprints and vice-versa. Start where your phantom ended, and end where it started.

The following approach may be helpful. It is less formal than the first, but means essentially the same thing.

Each of you imagine that a phantom crashed into you nose to nose, right where you are now, after doing the call. Put your hands on its shoulders and push it back along its path to where it started. You walk forward, and the phantom is forced to go backward.

It is wrong to back up or turn around unless one does so in the original call. We have found that describing Rewind as ``U-turn back, undo the call, and U-turn back'' confuses dancers. Also, when pushing the phantom backward you imagine him or her in front of you because he or she is easier to see that way. For precise positioning the phantom's position coincides with yours---the two of you take up only one spot.

How to introduce the concept
* Let's apply the concept to a call. From a Completed Double Pass Thru [1a], do a Rewind Ends Fold.

1. Rewind Ends Fold

Picture phantoms standing where we are, but facing the other way. The phantoms are in a Beginning Double Pass Thru [1b]. Think about where your phantom came from. The phantoms have just done Ends Fold, so the original phantom ends of Lines [1c] who folded are the new ends of the phantom Beginning Double Pass Thru. The leads of our setup of real people walk forward along the same paths to become ends of Lines [1d]. Next put the other dancers on the ends and let them try it too. Ends Fold is a good example because it is easy to picture the paths of the dancers on the floor. You could cue Rewind Ends Fold as Leaders Cast Back from here, but it is better to let the dancers work the call out for themselves first. Some rewind calls are easy to cue, but cueing is not a good way to teach the concept.

For the next example, start from Lines Facing Out [2a], and do a Rewind Peel Off.

2. Rewind Peel Off

Here the phantoms are in Lines Facing [2b] and must have started in a Completed Double Pass Thru [2c]. Again imagine the paths on the floor---the real ends become the new ends of a Beginning Double Pass Thru [2d], and the real centers become centers.

Rewind Peel Off can also be called from Two-Faced Lines [3a], giving a Column [3b], and so forth.

3. Another example of Rewind Peel Off

You may notice that Rewind Peel Off is Bend The Line and Roll. We can also do a Rewind Trail Off from formations such as Two-Faced Lines [4a,b]. From Two-Faced Lines Rewind Trail Off is Crossfire.

4. Rewind Trail Off

What calls can be Rewound?
* Be aware that not all calls can be Rewound. In order to Rewind a call, you must be able to determine where everyone started by looking at the ending setup. For example, you can't Rewind Bend The Line, because you don't know which way the phantoms were facing before bending the line. If you do a Rewind Bend The Line from Lines Facing Out, the phantoms have Lines Facing In. Before the phantoms did a Bend The Line they could have had Lines Facing Out, Lines Facing In, or Two Faced Lines, and there is no way to tell which.

More practice with Rewinds
* Next do some Rewind Circulates. Start in Waves [5a] and do a Rewind Split Circulate. The phantoms are also in Waves [5b], and they have just done a Split Circulate. If you walk forward along the path left by your phantom, you just Split Circulate in the other direction [5c].

5. Rewind Split Circulate

For most circulates, the circulate path is the same in both directions, so a Rewind Circulate is a Circulate. Do some Rewind All Eight Circulates and Rewind Diamond Circulates.

Many other calls are their own Rewinds. For instance, from Waves, do a Rewind Centers Trade. If you are a center, your phantom started at the center position next to you and flipped over 180 degrees to crash into you. To push it back, you too must walk forward 180 degrees to that other center position: Rewind Centers Trade is Centers Trade. Also try Rewind Scoot Back, which is Scoot Back, and Rewind Acey Deucey, which is Acey Deucey.

A harder example is Rewind Centers Run. Start in Two Faced Lines [6a], so that the phantoms are in Two Faced Lines of the opposite handedness [6b].

6. Rewind Centers Run

The phantom centers who ran are now ends, while the phantom ends who slid in are centers [6c]. To Rewind the call, the real ends push their phantoms in a semicircle back to be centers of Waves, while the real centers slide their phantoms sideways out to the ends [6d]. You may be surprised to find that Rewind Centers Run is Ends Run! In this call, some dancers move sideways because their phantom counterparts moved sideways in the original call. You may find it helpful to imagine grasping your phantom firmly by the shoulders and sliding it back over to where it began.

The shoulder passing rule
* Thus far I have avoided shoulder passing. This is because when doing Rewinds we observe a left shoulder passing rule, at least if the original call uses right shoulder passing. This seems surprising, but dancers should discover the reason for themselves. Begin in an Eight Chain [7a], and do a Rewind Pass Thru. This means we imagine the phantoms in a Trade By [7b], where they have just finished a Pass Thru. They must have started in an Eight Chain [7c], and used the usual right shoulder rule.

7. Rewind Pass Thru

If you imagine your hands on your phantom's shoulders, your left hand is on its right shoulder. As you push it back, it passes right shoulders with the phantom of the real person facing you [7d], since the paths are retraced exactly. This means the real dancers pass left shoulders.

Now do a Rewind Trade By. This is just like Trade By, but again, the real dancers pass left shoulders. Do some more facing Rewind Circulates, passing left shoulders, and some Rewind Partner Trades, which are just left shoulder Partner Trades.

Rewinding Casts
* We now do some calls which involve turning. Begin in Right Hand Waves for a Rewind Cast 3/4. The phantoms ended in Left Hand Waves, so as they Cast 3/4, they described counter clockwise arcs around each other. To push them back along their paths, you must walk forward along clockwise arcs, also going 3/4. Thus Rewind Cast Left 3/4 is Cast Right 3/4, and vice versa. This works the same for other fractions as well. For calls in which the handedness of Casts does not matter, a Rewind Cast is simply a Cast.

We can also do a Rewind Courtesy Turn. Begin with Couples Back To Back [8a], and thus imagine Facing Couples of phantoms [8b] who have just done a Courtesy Turn. They must have begun as Couples Back To Back and turned as a couple 180 degrees in a counter clockwise direction [8c]. Thus you must turn as a couple 180 degrees clockwise, to end as Facing Couples [8d].

This is a Reverse, or Mirror, Courtesy Turn, where the belle turns the beau. (Here we have an example where a dancer walks backward---the phantom beau walked backward while turning the phantom belle, so the real belle, who is standing on the phantom beau's spot, walks backward while turning the real beau.)

8. Rewind Courtesy Turn

Rewinding calls with parts
* Many calls have parts that the dancers do in order. To Rewind such a call, you Rewind the parts in reverse order. Indeed, since you start where the phantom ended, you get to the last part first and the first part last, and end where your phantom started.

For example, from Couples Back to Back, do a Rewind Right and Left Thru. Right and Left Thru is a Right Pull By followed by a Courtesy Turn. First do a Rewind Courtesy Turn, then do a Rewind Right Pull By. This is a Reverse Courtesy Turn followed by a Left Pull By.

As another example, how do you do Rewind Swing Thru from Waves? The phantoms are also in Waves, and they have Cast Right 1/2, then Cast Left 1/2. To Rewind this, first Rewind Cast Left 1/2, then Rewind Cast Right 1/2. This is the same as Swing Thru! Also think about Rewind Quarter Thru, which is Cast Right 1/2, then Cast Left 1/4. Rewind Dive Thru, called from a Completed Double Pass Thru, is Reverse California Twirl (beau goes under) followed by the Centers diving through the Ends' arch, to end in a Trade By.

Some more examples
* In trying to make things simple I have Rewound only low-level calls. It is true that for most of the calls discussed so far, we do not need the Rewind concept---why say Rewind Ends Fold when you can say Leads Cast Back, except to illuminate the relationship between the two calls? But there are many calls whose Rewinds are not currently defined calls: Rewind Follow Your Neighbor, Rewind Chase Right, Rewind Coordinate, Rewind Ping Pong Circulate, Rewind Track Two, Rewind Wheel And Spread, and many Advanced and Challenge calls.

9. Rewind Follow Your Neighbor

10. Rewind Wheel And Deal

Other issues
* A few issues I have not mentioned may occur to you. One is that of hand positioning, which the definition does not mention. Try to imitate the hand positioning of the original call when doing a Rewind. On a Rewind Pass Thru, do a left shoulder Pass Thru (without using hands), and on a Rewind Pull By, do a Left Pull By (using hands). Though literal-minded people may enjoy discussing the hand position for a Rewind Courtesy Turn, I suggest you do a Reverse (or Mirror) Courtesy Turn.

You may assume the phantom on your spot shares your couple number and sex. Thus Rewind Heads Run is Heads Run, while Rewind Slide Thru is Men Quarter Left, Women Quarter Right, and all Left Pass Thru. Is is worthwhile to notice that if you are an end or center, your phantom is the same, but if you are a leader, your phantom is a trailer, and vice versa. Similarly, if you are a beau, your phantom is a belle, and if you are a belle, your phantom is a beau.

Some calls have a normal starting formation, though they can also be done from other formations. In case of ambiguity, you may assume such calls started from the normal formation. Swing Thru starts from a Wave, so Rewind Swing Thru ends in a Wave. It is true that Swing Thru can be done from Couples Facing, since the rule says that in such cases you first step to a Wave, but this is a special case. Exactly the reverse is true of Square Thru---Rewind Square Thru ends in Couples Back To Back. On the other hand, Tag The Line has no standard starting position, so you can't Rewind it (unless you say something like ``Rewind Tag The Line, Opt for Right Hand Waves,'' which begs the question).

I would like to thank Kathy Godfrey for coining the name Rewind, Clark Baker for calling them to his groups and for suggesting I write up this handout, Bill Ackerman for proofreading it, Sue Curtis and Andy Boughton for devising the alternate definition, and many others for helpful discussions. If you know how to improve this handout, I'd like to hear from you.

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