There are many dancing difficulties associated with the Once Removed concept:

• It is versatile - extremely so and this puts a lot of stress on many dancers.
• Many Once Removed situations are ambiguous in that there may be more than one way to dance the call. There must be one and only one way to dance any concept/call.
• Multiple solution calls include but are not limited to the following:
• Once Removed Pass the Ocean from beginning double pass thru
• Once Removed Square Chain Thru 3 To A Wave from facing lines
• Once Removed Beau Hop from beginning double pass thru
• The definition for the Once Removed concept is so sparse as to be unusable by a dancer in the heat of battle. There must be a consistent set of rules (even if large). For example, where is it documented clearly that the Once Removed concept goes away when the formation axis changes?
• Strategies for dancing Once Removed calls should be documented. There are currently none (to my knowledge). Dancers need these badly. Maybe some callers do too.
• Some restraints should be added as to which Once Removed calls may be called as part of what lists. For example, there has been some discussion about whether or not Once Removed Diamonds belongs on the C3A list, or any list. And if they are not on any list, they default to the C2 list because that list includes the Once Removed concept and you sure can do Once Removed Diamonds within the concept.
• Maybe some Once Removed calls should be banned because of:

• ambiguity
• difficulty
• poor flow, e.g., dancers must back up
• Dancers must know what calls to take out and which not to take out. If they take the calls out, they must know how to take out the call and how to restore the Once Removedness of the formation when the call is done.

Unfortunately, very few dancers can see who is a member of their Once Removed group when the call starts or remember who that group contained at the end of the call. They also have trouble remembering the group offset. Seeing the offset is particularly difficult for those in the very center 4 spots of a tidal formation.

The point of all this is that this concept can be very easy to do or incredibly difficult.

The existing documentation about the Once Removed concept is far from adequate to handle the many Once Removed situations that are being called today. The strategies for dancing Once Removed from Lines/Waves and Columns is different from Tidal Formations which is different from Diamonds. And the strategy may be call-dependent within any of the 4 Once Removed groups. There are strategies that are formation dependent and strategies which are call dependent. There are calls that when done from a given formation can be done using three or four different strategies.

What is a dancer to do?

It seems that a large gulf exists between what is taught about Once Removed in lessons and what the dancer encounters on the dance floor. The typical lesson about Once Removed is sandwiched in among several other calls and concepts during lessons. Written documentation about Once Removed is skimpy at best. Both lessons and documentation do not reflect the reality about Once Removed as it is used on the dance floor. And the callers and dancers don't always agree.

There have been comments on the Challenge-SD forum suggesting that the Once Removed concept be moved to the C3B list and that the Twosome concept be moved to the C2 list to help handle the Once Removed concept.

I am not in favor of either of these. Many C3A and C3B dancers have problems with Once Removed. Twosomes is a difficult concept. While Twosome-like movements may be used in some Once Removed calls (like Peel Off from two-faced lines), Twosome is a demanding concept in its own right. The Twosome-like movements found in some Once Removed situations are just that -- they are individual dancer movements that mimic Twosomes without being Twosomes.