As part of the class graduation festivities, there are "hack tips", in which the class invites the club to dance a tip with some special encumbrance, and the club does the same for the class. Here are the ideas that have been used in the recent past, as a guide to future hack tips. We always point out that these tips are voluntary, and will not affect one's graduation.
Target = who was hacked (who danced that tip)
Related: Big List Of Hack Tips
Semester / Year | Target | Patter / Singer | Hack | Description and Comments |
---|---|---|---|---|
Spring 24 | Class | Patter | Automatic slide | If you end a call in a wave of any length, slide nose to nose to form a wave of the opposite handedness (e.g. from parallel waves, "extend" would effectively do a cross extend, since the centers end in a wave and do a slide while the ends don't end in a wave so don't do anything different) |
Spring 24 | Class | Singer | Rope around all squares | Very long rope goes around all four of the squares, and the dancers have to keep it off the ground |
Spring 24 | Club | Patter | Back nose | Start facing out of the square and dance walking backwards |
Spring 24 | Club | Singer | Change gender on swing | Every time you swing with someone, switch identities with them |
Fall 23 | Class | Patter | Blindfolds | Two people (who are opposites) in each square wear blindfolds |
Fall 23 | Class | Singer | Stuffed animals | Each square has one dancer replaced with a large stuffed animal |
Fall 23 | Club | Patter | Back to back tandems | People square up back-to-back (16 people per square), and dance as back-to-back tandems. There is a new call that switches which person is going forwards and which person is going backwards (so it's choreographically equivalent to a u turn back, but nobody moves) |
Fall 23 | Club | Singer | Shuffled nametags | Everyone writes their name on a paper sticker nametag. Then they are shuffled around, and everyone gets a nametag that isn't theirs. The goal is for everyone to recover their own nametags by the end of the song. The shuffling was distributed between all squares, and Ted called figures with lots of scoot backs / follow your neighbors with squares parallel to each other :) |
Spring 23 | Class | Patter | Hex | https://fortytwo.ws/~cbaker/hexagon.html |
Spring 23 | Class | Singer | Hex | |
Spring 23 | Club | Patter | Stars | Like gemini, but each dancer is replaced with a star of ~4 dancers |
Spring 23 | Club | Singer | Gradual phantoms | After verse #n, couple #n promenades to an adjacent phantom square instead of their original square (by the end of the singer, all squares have fully moved over) |
Fall 22 | Class | Patter | Balloons | Keep them in the air while dancing |
Fall 22 | Class | Singer | Boys as couples, girls tandem | (was going to be rope around the square, but we lost the rope, so Ted improvised) Each boy position had two people dancing as couples, each girl position had two people dancing in tandem |
Fall 22 | Club | Patter | "Un" concept | e.g. unstep to a wave, unswing thru, unrelay the deucey |
Fall 22 | Club | Singer | 45° rotation | Squares are rotated 45 degrees relative to head/side walls |
Spring 22 | Class | Patter | Trade with partner | Any time you end a call next to your partner, trade with them |
Spring 22 | Class | Singer | Parasitic gemini | Some dancer or dancers start out gemini, they move around over the course of the tip by switching the gemini pairing when a gemini and a non-gemini are a couple |
Spring 22 | Club | Patter | No diamonds | Skip every call that would end in a diamond (even if it's hard to see, like thars) |
Spring 22 | Club | Singer | Promenade to girl's home | Promenade to the girl's home instead of the boy's home |
Fall 21 | Class | Patter | Pool noodles | Hold a pool noodle in each hand, and use them as if they were your hands |
Fall 21 | Class | Singer | ? | |
Fall 21 | Club | Patter | ? | |
Fall 21 | Club | Singer | Quadruple generous | Increase every arm turn by a full turn around (so no effect on choreography, just more spinning) |
Fall 19 | Class | Patter | Backwards concept | The dancers imagine their heads are on backwards, and they do the call that way. So, if you called "backwards pass thru", they would back up, passing left shoulders, to end face-to-face. If you called "backwards swing thru", they would backup turning 1/2 by the left, then backup turning 1/2 by the right. In C4 terms, this is "back nose". |
Fall 19 | Class | Singer | Rope around square | the dancers have to keep it up (without holding it with their hands) |
Fall 19 | Club | Patter | Square switching | Each person gets a colored object in their right hand and these get switched between people whenever they have right hands joined. Sometimes the caller will say a color and then the people with objects of that color have to find a new square |
Fall 19 | Club | Singer | Mirror | Squares are danced mirror (left and right switched) |
Spring 19 | Class | Patter | 6 couple rectangles | |
Spring 19 | Class | Singer | Square switching | swing & promenade to your couple #'s square |
Spring 19 | Club | Patter | ? | |
Spring 19 | Club | Singer | ? | |
Fall 18 | Class | Patter | No Hands | Dance without hands (or elbows) |
Fall 18 | Class | Singer | Generous | Use the C3B concept Generous (this went poorly iirc) |
Fall 18 | Club | Patter | Cut in/out | Class members handed club members flowers to cut them out of a square |
Fall 18 | Club | Singer | Gender Switching? | Gender switching upon swing&promenade? |
Spring 18 | Class | Patter | "think" | "think <formation> for <call>" where formation may require reparsing squares; i.e. from facing lines, think columns for an eight chain four, or from waves, think tidal for a grand swing thru. |
Spring 18 | Class | Singer | Rope around square | |
Spring 18 | Club | Patter | ? | |
Spring 18 | Club | Singer | ? | |
Fall 17 | Class | Patter | Accreting Mass | Square starts with one person standing as flagpole center, others join, square dances around the increasingly large flagpole. |
Fall 17 | Class | Singer | Square switching | On each promenade, go to your (new) couple #'s square |
Fall 17 | Club | Patter | ? | |
Fall 17 | Club | Singer | ? | |
Spring 17 | Class | Patter | no hands | |
Spring 17 | Class | Singer | square switching | on each promenade, side couples find a new square |
Spring 17 | Club | Patter | Macarena | Dancers do hand motions of macarena while doing calls; new call "Hey Macarena" where all dancers 1/4 right |
Spring 17 | Club | Singer | Two-faced gemeni | each dancer is represented by a miniwave; after each call dancers within the miniwave trade so the other person is 'driving' |
Fall 16 | Class | Patter | Conference Call | Ted called into his phone; dancers dialed into the conference call to hear the calls. |
Fall 16 | Class | Singer | Roped-in squares | rope around each square at waist height; dancers have to move to keep it from falling down |
Fall 16 | Club | Patter | Tea Party | On the call <ANYONE> Tea Party, the designated dancer or dancers leave their square and go to the exact same spot in the next square around the room in promenade direction. It can be called from any formation and ends (sort of) in exactly the same formation. Of course, <ANYONE> Reverse Tea Party means the designated dancers should move one square in reverse promenade direction around the room. |
Fall 16 | Club | Singer | Through the Looking Glass | Dance with your hands Through The Looking Glass. Cross your right over left, and whenever you would take hands with another dancer, use the hand on that side of your body. Of course, don't forget to uncross your hands for the thank you at the end of the square! |
Spring 16 | Class | Patter | Balloons | Everyone got a latex balloon to hold between their knees while dancing |
Spring 16 | Class | Singer | Balloons | Everyone got a Mylar (helium) balloon on a string, and had to try to keep the balloons untangled while dancing |
Spring 16 | Club | Patter | Gender switch star thru | Everyone switches gender on each star thru - that is everyone star's thru normally, but they switch gender, so it always ends with half-sashayed couples. |
Spring 16 | Club | Singer | Beach balls | They have to keep beach balls aloft in their square while dancing, and are encouraged to throw them into other squares. Note: this descended into chaos, but people seemed to have fun. |
Fall 15 | Class | Singer | Parasitic Accreting Gemini | (See Fall 2012) |
Fall 15 | Class | Patter | Floor is lava | (See Fall 2012) |
Fall 15 | Club | Singer | Conga Line | 16 dancers similar to tandem, but only the leader dances, while the trailer puts hands on the leader's shoulders and is just along for the ride. On the call 'conga zoom' the leader and trailer switch. |
Fall 15 | Club | Patter | Snap switch | Each right pull by or pass thru is replaced with a U-turn back, including within other calls. |
Spring 15 | Club | Patter | Miniwave Gemini | People square up in sets of 16; each pair of people is a miniwave acting as one dancer; after each call the people in each miniwave trade so the person who is facing 'correctly' switches |
Spring 15 | Club | Singer | Quidditch | Each square had some brooms and balls; people held them and hand them off when they swing |
Spring 15 | Class | Patter | Mummy | For each sequence, two people can't use their arms. At each resolve, the people who can't use arms change |
Spring 15 | Class | Swinger | Swap Chain 4 | (same as Spring 2014) |
Fall 14 | Club | Patter | Concentric Squares | Squares of 16 people, one inside the other |
Fall 14 | Club | Singer | ? | |
Fall 14 | Class | Patter | Rope around square | rope around each square at waist height; dancers have to move to keep it from falling down |
Fall 14 | Class | Singer | Bag on head (eg Blindfold) | Paper bags over the heads of 2 people per square; switching who has them on swing |
Spring 14 | Club | Patter | Undo (Memento) | Spin Chain & Exchange the Gears. Now UN-Spin Chain & Exchange the Gears. Very hard. |
Spring 14 | Club | Singer | Musical Squares | "Find a new square after each promenade". IMO, it was hilarious, but also involved lots of crashing into other couples, and you didn't stay with your original partner. |
Spring 14 | Class | Patter | Phantom Gemini (one handed) | Heads had right hands available, sides had left hands available. |
Spring 14 | Class | Singer | "Swap Chain 4" (Progressive square) | Requires even number of squares and special choreo. The girls moved into the next square on the modified Eight Chain 4 by walking across instead of being courtesy turned (do your part Swap Around). Boys did their part swap around (or run). Boys stayed in same square so we knew where to promenade to. At the end, everyone ended up at home with original partner. |
Fall 13 | Class | Patter | Cut in/out | Cut out a person currently in the square by handing them the LARGE stuffed animal. Then they go to another square (or to another dancer) and cut back in by handing off the animal to someone else. |
Fall 13 | Class | Singer | Progressive squares | On Trade By, move into the square ahead of you (if there is one) rather than turning back into your square. Special choreo was used so that everyone in square1 eventually ended up in square 2 spots, and vice versa. |
Fall 13 | Club | Patter | Sound effects | Made up new sound effects for existing calls, and caller said the sound effect rather than the name of the call (Eg "squeak" for hinge) |
Fall 13 | Club | Singer | Bag on head (eg Blindfold) | 1 person in each square started with a paper bag over their head (eg blindfold). Bag was passed along to next dancer on swing&promenade. I don't believe each dancer got bagged and one person had it for an extra time because of the mid-singer break. |
Spring 13 | Class | Patter | New call | Special call defined- I think it was like acey deucey but new centers partner tag |
Spring 13 | Class | Singer | Accreting Mass | Start off with 1 person in flagpole center, gradually (or quickly) accumulate more people in the center. Others have to work around the chunk of people in the middle |
Spring 13 | Club | Patter | Twister | Red/Yellow/Blue color spots placed on floor, do the call and end touching the appropriate color (example Purple Swing Thru) |
Spring 13 | Club | Singer | No hands | Dancers could touch elbows but not hands |
Fall 12 | Both | Patter | Go | "Go" defined as list of calls (Swing Thru, Spin the Top, Centers Run, Crossfire, Split Circulate, Face Right). This idea was proposed to Ted for the hack on the class; as Genni and Ezri remember, Ted did it as the all-club-now-tip immediately after the graduation ceremony. Ted later used this as the Senior Preliminary Mystery Caller for the 66th Annual PNTSDF (Pacific Northwest Teen Square Dance Festival) in 2017: https://www.facebook.com/tedlizotte/posts/10209241793866715 |
Fall 12? | Club? | Patter | Lights out | Glow bracelets (Red/right, Blue/left) and the lights turned out. |
Fall 12 | Club | ? | ? | (from photo gallery) "stuffed toys pass hack" |
Fall 12 | Class | Patter | Parasitic Accreting Gemini | Add a gemini to an existing dancer. Sometimes they got more than 1 gemini each |
Fall 12 | Class | Singer | Floor is lava | Taped-off areas on the floor that you were not allowed to touch while doing the calls. |
Spring 12 | Class | Singer | Accreting mass | |
Spring 12 | Class | Patter | Phantoms (Chair) | Replaced 1 dancer in each square with a wheeled office chair |
Spring 12 | Club | ? | (from photo gallery) "dictionary drift{the next word with similar syllables and rhythm to a call- they drifted genuinely into R-rated sometimes!}" | |
Spring 12 | Club | ? | Gemini | (from photo gallery) "hula hoop-gemini hack" |
Spring 12 | Club | Singer? | Rope between dancers | Ribbon connecting your wrist to your opposite (eg Couple 1 Belle & Couple 3 Belle) |
Fall 2011 | Club | Singer | Stuffed animals | Each dancer held a small stuffed animal. The stuffed animals got to do the dance actions instead of the dancers. |
Spring 2011 | Club | Patter | Roll after 's' | Roll after every call with S in it's name |
Spring 2011 | Club | Singer | Glowsticks | Turn out lights, close curtains, provide glow sticks |
?? | Club ? | Singer | Balloons | Each girl had a balloon on a ribbon, tied around their wrist. The strings get tangled as the singer progresses. |
Spring 2011 | Class | Singer | Parasitic Gemini | 1 or more club members pick a dancer to gemini with (nonconsentually). Then switch to a new dancer a few calls later. |
Spring 2011 | Class | Patter | Limbo | Two people (not dancing in the square) hold rope parallel to floor. Dancers have to duck or step over rope when moving around. |
Spring 2010 | Class | not sure | Accreting Mass | |
Spring 2010 | Class | not sure | Rope around square | Large piece of rope encircles all the dancers (as squared set). Dancers need to keep the rope from falling to the floor during the tip. |
Spring 2010 | Club | Patter | Telephone | Ted spoke into his cell phone instead of using the mic. The dancers had to join the conference to hear the calls. |