Passing Post: Feeding on Chocolate Bars

The Chocolate Box
You’re at the IJA festival with four other passers and you want to do an ambidextrous passing pattern. You should try the chocolate box. This is a Madison pattern where two people feed on chocolate bars and three feedees pass on three count. Here chocolate bar is a passing rhythm: pass pass self self, so called because the passes and selfs come in chunks.
The two feeders stand facing the three feedees as shown below:

Here is the passing table for the chocolate box:

In this pattern you always throw your right hand passes to the person that you last passed to and your left hand passes to the person next to them (on your left). If there is no-one next to them then you pass to the person at the right hand end of the line.
You can juggle this pattern with coloured clubs so that Adam always passes red clubs, Chris always passes green clubs, Ed always passes purple clubs and they each have two white clubs which they never pass. These coloured clubs might help Brenda and Diane pass to the right people, or they can be used to work out what’s gone wrong when the pattern breaks down. At the very least it makes the pattern look pretty!

Low Fat Chocolate Box
At some point Ed decides he wants to go to Matt Hall’s break-dancing workshop and so there are four of you left. You want to continue passing, so you could try the low fat chocolate box. For this pattern you stand in a square as shown below:

In this pattern Chris makes all of Ed’s passes as well as his own, so Chris ends up doing pass pass self. Here’s the passing table for the low fat chocolate box:

Once again you can juggle this pattern with coloured clubs so that Adam always passes red clubs and Chris always passes green clubs.

Suburban Terror Feed
Some time later Adam decides he wants to go to Aaron Gregg’s 423 variations workshop and so there are three of you left. If you want to continue passing you could try the suburban terror feed. In this pattern Chris ends up feeding Brenda and Diane as shown below:

Now Chris makes all of Adam’s and Ed’s passes as well as his own, so Chris ends up passing one count. Here’s the passing table for the suburban terror feed:

Six Person Double Chocolate Box
Once the workshops finish, Adam and Ed return. Ed met Fiona at Matt’s workshop and she wants to pass with you. Now the six of you can try a double chocolate box. For this pattern you stand in two lines of three as shown below:

In the original chocolate box Brenda and Diane were feeding Adam, Chris and Ed. You can superimpose another chocolate box on top of this with Ed and Chris feeding Fiona, Diane and Brenda. Here’s the passing table for this double chocolate box:

In this table the passes for the original chocolate box are shown in black and the passes for the second chocolate box are shown in red. Passes that belong in both chocolate boxes are shown in red and black.
Before you try passing this pattern you should point out the passes. The feeders for each pattern should point out their passes for each beat. There will be times when they should have a self in their pattern but one of the feeders from the other pattern is pointing at them expecting a pass so they have to pass! For Adam the pattern is the same as the chocolate box and Fiona’s pattern is the same as Adam’s.

Seven Person Double Chocolate Box
Gary has been watching you pass and wonders if there is room for another passer. With seven passers you could try another double chocolate box pattern. For this pattern there are three feeders and four feedees as shown below:

In the original chocolate box Brenda and Diane were feeding Adam, Chris and Ed. You can superimpose another chocolate box on top of this with Diane and Fiona feeding Chris, Ed and Gary. Here’s the passing table for this double chocolate box:

In this table the passes for the original chocolate box are shown in black and the passes for the second chocolate box are shown in red.
For Adam and Brenda the pattern is the same as the original chocolate box. Also Fiona’s position is the same as Diane’s position in the original chocolate box and Gary’s position is the same as Ed’s position in the original pattern. Chris and Ed do pass pass self in this pattern and Diane feeds on one count.

Eight Person Double Chocolate Box
Inevitably another person will want to join in! For an eight person double chocolate box there are four feeders facing four feedees as shown below:

In the original chocolate box Brenda and Diane were feeding Adam, Chris and Ed. You can superimpose another chocolate box on top of this with Fiona and Hannah feeding Chris, Ed and Gary. Here’s the passing table for this double chocolate box:

In this table the passes for the original chocolate box are shown in black and the passes for the second chocolate box are shown in red.
For Brenda and Diane the pattern is the same as the original chocolate box. For Adam and Gary the pattern is the same as the seven person double chocolate box. Fiona’s pattern is the same as Brenda’s and Hannah’s pattern is the same as Diane’s. Chris and Ed do pass pass self.

* Animated gifs were created using JoePass. Here are the pattern files in zip format.

Aidan Burns