This weekend, I was dancing at an A2 dance when the caller called Chain Reaction from this formation:

After we all stood there looking blank, the caller told us what he wanted: the dancers in the wave step forward and do a partner hinge, while the couples step into the middle, and adjust to a right-hand star. At that point, we could continue as in a regular Chain Reaction: the outsides trade while the center star turn 1/4; those who meet Cast Off 3/4, while the others move up. Well, the first part sure doesn’t sound like any legitimate extrapolation of the definition that I’ve ever seen, and I fear the word “bogus” may have passed my lips.

At any rate, we did what he wanted from that setup a few more times and then went on to other (legitimate) things. The next day, I queried the challenge-sd (subscription info) email list and got a couple of reactions from callers I respect (as well as some private email echoing the same thoughts):

• Executive summary: Totally bogus.
• Ridiculous and preposterous.

So don’t look for me to workshop that particular “extended application” of Chain Reaction.

Additional notes: the discussion on challenge-sd has continued, and someone suggested calling this as “Do the call in phantom 1/4 tags, except the last part which you do with real people – Chain Reaction” and someone else suggested (same idea, different wording) “Finally Real People, in your Overlapped Phantom 1/4 Tags, Chain Reaction”, although the same person who suggested the latter added, “Even with the appropriate words to make it technically correct, it seems too contrived. It takes too many words, and still seems distasteful.”