My complaint about Sicilian circles (as a dancer) is you only dance with half the hall unless you find neighbors that you can switch directions with.
Ben W
ABQ, NM
Sent from my iPhone
> On Jan 27, 2025, at 6:04 AM, John Sweeney via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>
> Hi Claire,
> You can see the Zia formation at https://contrafusion.co.uk/Formations.html#other if you scroll down a bit. It is a square with contra lines radiating from the sides. There are some example dances there as well.
>
> I set Sicilian Circles up by getting the dancers to make a Circle, then tell one couple to face another couple and work around the circle telling each couple which way to face. Experienced dancers will see what is happening and quickly start sorting themselves out.
>
> Happy dancing,
> John
>
> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re: Sicilian circle to tame end effects?
Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2025 14:57:10 +0000
From: Mo Waddington <mjw(a)mowaddington.plus.com>
To: Ben Werner <benknobi89(a)gmail.com>
Yes I also dance at a club with 20 -24 dancers each week. You start
meeting the same couples. But (ceilidh) dances like lucky 7 or circle
waltz are worse, you might only dance with 2 or 3 partners.
On 27/01/2025 14:28, Ben Werner via Contra Callers wrote:
> My complaint about Sicilian circles (as a dancer) is you only dance
> with half the hall unless you find neighbors that you can switch
> directions with.
>
> Ben W
> ABQ, NM
>
> Sent from my iPhone
Many good contras where you leave the minor set aren’t too hard, but have
challenging end effects. One could eliminate the end effects using a
Sicilian circle. I haven't tried it, but wonder whether disorientation from
the curved set would offset the advantages.
If you’ve actually tried it, how did it go?
Rick
(...ignoring for the moment that Sicilian circles don't fit every hall or
size of group...)
Hi all,
A contra I used to call reasonably often 10-15 years ago popped into my
head the other day. I can't find it in my cards, which makes me think the
reason I stopped calling it is that I lost the card. Can someone ID it, and
tell me what the B2 is? (I'm gonna guess R&L through, circle 3/4, pass
through, but there are lots of possibilities.)
duple improper
A1 Current neighbors right hand star; previous neighbors left hand star
A2 Dosido current neighbor 1-1/4 to wavy lines; balance wave; allemande R
1/2; allemande L 1/2
B1 Balance and swing partner
B2 ??
David
St. Paul, MN
I haven't been a contra caller for many years, but last night I dreamt I
was at a dance and the caller did not show up. There were no other callers
in attendance. So I got up there wondering what dances I knew by heart. I
think I knew how A Nice Combination went. Then I woke up and thought about
it some more. I decided that every dance venue should keep a dance program,
with instructions, somewhere.
Gary in Santa Barbara
Hello, all. I am mentoring a wanna-be caller who took notes when she first
went to dances 40 years ago and wants to try one of those dances. She
thinks it went like the following. Can anyone identify it? Thanks!!
*A-1 Neighbor balance and swing (16)A-2 Circle left (8)
Partners do-si-do (8)B One's swing in center (end up where you
started!) (8)*
* Chain over and back (16) Star Right - around to NEW
neighbor (8)*
--
www.huntandallison.nethttp://thsmaritime.com/www.centralhallcommons.org
Hello,
I've got a circle mixer that I collected 15-20 years ago. The caller may
have been Becky Hill, maybe not. It's for a 32-bar waltz. I'm searching for
the title and author.
Starts with a ring of couples all facing the center:
A1 Balance forward & back, roll away (ladies/robins moving in front from
Left to Right), Repeat
A2 Repeat twice more
B1 As couples, face center connected by usual hands (gents/larks right,
ladies/robins left). Balance while turning away back (together), then
(letting go) turn symmetrically away to face out and take other hands.
Balance away and together, turn symmetrically away to face each other
B2 Take the ballroom position, take two waltz steps (step, close, step,
close) into circle, then two steps out, then free waltz four waltz steps,
ending by unfolding to reform a circle.
Thanks for whatever help you can provide!
Jerome Grisanti
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power
and magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Hello all,
Oftentimes at One Night Gigs, I'll do a mix of circle and longways set
dances. With scatter mixers and specialty dances, I can fill an evening.
But sometimes I get a group that "wants contras" or is looking to grow
their familiarity with the dance form.
I think Becket dances without lark/robin distinctions and no neighbor swing
are AN easy option into "hands-four" contras. There are other ways in, but
I'm looking for more Beckets that match that description. For a while I've
had "Pluck It" in my box as a friendly option:
Pluck It
Contra/Becket-CW
A1 -----------
(8) Circle Left
(8) Circle Right
A2 -----------
(8) Left hand Star
(8) Right hand Star
B1 -----------
(8) Partner Do-si-do
(8) Partner swing
B2 -----------
(8) Neighbor Do-si-do across set
(8) Long lines, yearn left
This is, in my opinion, pretty close to the traditional mixer Scatter Shot
but done as a keeper in Becket. (It does have a DSD across the set, which
in a recent thread was listed as a no-no for some callers. While I wouldn't
use that move at a dance weekend, for One Night gigs I think it's
accessible and acceptable). You don't have to teach ballroom swing, and if
folks want to elbow swing and swap roles with their partner it doesn't
really impact the dance (this is a small advantage of Becket over improper
for this type of dance; different position on the side is less disorienting
than different side of the set).
What other Becket dances do folks have that don't rely on roles? No larks
allemande or robins chain, etc.
On the drive home from my gig last night I came up with this one (which may
already exist), written for Naomi who organizes the community dance I was
at:
A Pillar of Weathersfield
Contra/Becket-CW
A1 -----------
(8) Balance the ring and spin to the right (petronella)
(8) Balance the ring and spin to the right (petronella)
A2 -----------
(16) Partner balance and swing, end facing down the hall
B1 -----------
(8) Down the hall, four in line (turn as couples)
(8) Return and face across
B2 -----------
(8) Long lines, forward and back
(8) Promenade across the Set, turn as a couple and progress
(Go between the ones you danced with, passing by left shoulder, and the new
couple on your right, turn to take hands with new couple)
I'd be curious what else folks have that they use for entry-level contras
when you don't have a critical mass of experience for improper dances with
neighbor swings.
Thanks!
Luke Donforth
Burlington, VT
I’m think you both make good points — to that end I did whip up a script that will take json from the callers box website and output a markdown file in my template, I can share if there’s interest.
I think to me the difference between transcribing and understanding is the boilerplate — that is, I don’t want to rewrite my template, but I would rewrite the directions to, say, omit slurs and go from more of a positional point of view. But what’s not useful to me is rewriting my markdown table.
Sent from my mobile device, please excuse my brevity.
~James Slaughter
On Jan 12, 2025, at 4:02 PM, Erik Hoffman via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
From Louise Siddons:
Also, specifically in terms of programming (which someone mentioned), there are aspects of calling where experience is a key element of the learning process. Shortcuts will be detrimental to the caller’s experience even if the dancers don’t notice.
From me:
This is much like late Larry Jennings’ decision to transcribe dances in his book, Zesty Contras and Give-and-Take with abbreviations and in a form that was not common in the time. His thinking was people using his books would have to think about the dance they were planning to call had to think about the dance as they re-transcribed it. I recall the challenge of putting dances down on a card (remember those?) (and I know people still use cards…) from Zesty Contras and doing just what Larry intended: thinking a dance through as I put it down in my re-abbreviated cards.
Cheers,
~Erik Hoffman
Oakland CA
From: Louise Siddons via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2025 12:35 PM
To: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Re: Unifying contra dance formats with AI
AI is resource-intensive and an environmental disaster. Using it for trivial purposes feels worse than pointless to me.
Also, specifically in terms of programming (which someone mentioned), there are aspects of calling where experience is a key element of the learning process. Shortcuts will be detrimental to the caller’s experience even if the dancers don’t notice.
In the spirit of slow food, might we not consider ‘slow folk dance’ as taking a positive, sustainable position in relation to the climate crisis? There is no actual need to make anything related to contra dancing more efficient.
(I’m reminded of the joke that dancing is a very complicated way of going nowhere. Surely in some sense we embody the idea that the journey is the destination?)
Louise.
(Winchester, UK)
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