Hi All,
I posted a request for suggestions on preparing for an upcoming dance a couple of weeks ago. I had not called a dance in 18 months, and had expected to stay on “emeritus” status. Thank you for your suggestions! You helped buck me up and get my head back in the game. The dance was an annual one for our "living local” foodie folks. They were sure ready to dance after diner was finished! It was not hard at all to get folks up and moving. The Flying Elbows String Band is always a treat to call to. We all had big fun! The band and I might end up with an additional gig or two from this. One of the band members posted a video of dance from the 2015 dance for this same group. I was even wearing the same shirt. I recognized the dance that I used to use at almost all ONS dances. Dang! I had forgotten all about it! The band and I did another dance gig this weekend. We again had big fun. We managed to do our dances while several small children danced in and out of the sets. One result of these two dances is that some locals may finally get together to have a regular dance series again. The band and I have a wedding gig coming up this next weekend. I have shaken off my mental cobwebs and am back in the groove.
Thank you all for your encouragement!
John B. Freeman
Hi
I have a question for anyone who calls or dances Gender Free MWSD (by
Gender Free I mean where no assumptions are made about what role a dancer
will take based on their gender).
I've been told that GF MWSD dances still use the terms "Boys" and "Girls",
but please correct me if I'm wrong.
MWSD is unique amongst folk dancing in that dancers need to know the role
being danced by others in the square (if I'm a "boy" and the call is "boys
trade", I need to know who the other boy in my line / wave is in order to
do the call).
So to my question: How do the dancers identify which roles the other people
are dancing? Traditionally this is done with dancers taking the opposite
role to their gender wearing bands, but that is surely inappropriate if the
dance is GF.
Also, if any MWSD clubs are using truly non-gendered terms, please let me
know.
Thanks in Advance
Jeremy
www.barndancecaller.netwww.genderfreedance.net
Hi, all! I recently wrote this dance and would like to know if it’s already out there somewhere and being called by people. As always, your feedback is appreciated. I test called it in September and it went well. Seth Tepfer called it in River Falls and it went well, though he is going to try it with LLF&B at the top of A2.
Joyous Rose
by Jacqui Grennan
Contra/Becket-CW
A1 -----------
(4) Gents Give & Take their N
(12) N Sw
A2 -----------
(8) Circle L 1x
(8) N allem RH 1-1/2 plus to short waves, ladies LH in middle (allemande is just under 2x)
B1 -----------
(4) Balance the wave
(4) Move forward to new wave, w/ NEW N allem. Right 1/2 (gents middle LH) <=PROGRESSION
(4) Balance the wave
(4) Swing thru - Neighbor allem. Right 1/2, Ladies allem. Left 1/2
B2 -----------
(16) P B&Sw
End Effects: Wait out improper
I wrote out a glossary dance; not a first in the evening, but maybe second.
Anyone know of a prior version?
Spend Some Time Together
by Luke Donforth
Contra/Improper/Easy
A1 -----------
(8) Long lines, forward and back
(8) Neighbor swing
A2 -----------
(8) Men allemande Left 1-1/2
(8) Partner Do-si-do
B1 -----------
(16) Partner balance and swing
B2 -----------
(8) Promenade across the Set
(8) Women's Chain across
The B2 moves could be swapped, but I liked how much time you could get with
a partner this way (hence the title).
I wouldn't use it as a first dance, but it seems like a nice second one to
teach the a chain.
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
Hey all,
A question I've been mulling over for several months now is where the line
blurs from "a variation of" to "a dance based on" to "a dance of my own"
when writing contras.
*For example:*
Last Hey (First Hey var.) - Paul Balliet and *maybe* Isaac Banner in a way?
Becket, CW
A1: (8) Circle left 3/4
(4) Rings balance
(4) Pass through u/d
A2: (8) Ladies alle. left 1.5x
(4) Short waves balance
(4) Partner alle. right 3/4
B1: (16) Ladies pass left, hey for 4
B2: (16) Partner balance/swing
In this case, I took First Hey, shifted it off by a phrase, and changed
what had then become the A2. I've called it at four or five dances out in
the northwest now, and I've waffled back and forth between calling it "a
variation of..." or "a dance of mine, based on..." and I'm still not sure
on which I want to use.
I'll admit I'm still fairly new to this list, but at least in the several
months I've been following conversations here it seems fairly regular that
I see someone put out a dance, asking if it exists, only to get several
responses of "Oh, yes, I wrote that but with 8/16/32 counts different." I
always feel like it must be exciting, in a way, to know that you and
another caller both put together the same ideas, but I also would guess
that it must be a little disheartening, in a way, to know that your
newfound baby isn't quite yours and yours alone...heck, Newton and Leibniz
both developed Calculus and 300 years later even that can't seem to be
settled.
Over the last few years I've heard callers talk about when they consider a
dance to be a unique sequence and the majority opinion seems to be if a
full phrase is unique between the two, but I'm not sure that's always a
hard and fast rule...
Anyways, I've been *very* curious what other people have to say on the
topic. Please let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Isaac Banner
Hi, Angela,
I've been calling the figure a "facing star," when I bother naming it at
all while teaching or prompting it.
Also, nice dance, though I suspect that since experienced dancers tend to
take fewer than eight beats to do half poussettes and 3/4 stars, I suspect
that dancers may end up swinging for as many as 20 beats.
Dugan Murphy
Portland, Maine
dugan at duganmurphy.comwww.DuganMurphy.comwww.PortlandIntownContraDance.comwww.NufSed.consulting
> Date: Mon, 2 Oct 2017 14:03:37 -0400
> From: Angela DeCarlis <aedecarlis(a)gmail.com>
> To: callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> Subject: [Callers] New Dance?
> Message-ID:
> <CA+h6_BYyybaF3qCeyDrJO1p=DLn9x+CyJ75xEgGWiut3+4R+YA@mail.
> gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Hey y'all!
>
> After a lovely weekend of both Contra and English at Youth Dance Weekend, I
> had an itch for programming some English-inspired choreography at BIDA last
> night. Since I didn't have a dance with the figures I wanted, I whipped one
> together on the drive home, tested it in the driveway, and debuted it last
> night. Success!
>
> Now the question, of course, is whether or not someone already wrote it!
>
> -===-
>
> Amble On East
> Becket CCW
>
> A1: Long Lines Forward & Back
> Ladies Chain Across (to Neighbor)
> A2: Ladies Dosido 1x
> Neighbor Swing
> B1: Give & Take, Gents draw Partner into 1/2 Poussette CCW
> With NEXT, Gypsy Star* 3/4 (Ladies backing up)
> B2: Partner (Long) Swing
>
> -===-
>
> *Do we have a new name for this figure yet? I called it Gypsy Star in the
> walkthrough once or twice before realizing I should maybe figure something
> else out, and the phrase "Special Star" actually escaped my mouth, to the
> absolute delight of some of the dancers. During the dance itself, I just
> called "Star."
Hi, Bill,
I'm pretty sure Cary Ravitz first developed the figure we call "gypsy
star." I know three of his dances which use the figure. "Woven Waves" and
"Gypsy Star" were both written in May 1999. "Gypsy Waves" was written in
2013.
I haven't seen it in many other dances. Ryan Smith and I helped Stacey
Lang write a dance with the figure called "The Fault in Our Stars." See
http://www.twirlyshirts.com/dances/by-ryan/the-fault-in-our-stars/
Dugan Murphy
Portland, Maine
dugan at duganmurphy.comwww.DuganMurphy.comwww.PortlandIntownContraDance.comwww.NufSed.consulting
On Mon, Oct 2, 2017 at 4:29 PM, Bill Olson <callbill(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
> Dugan and all, I don't know if Cary Ravitz actually "invented" the Gypsy
> Star but he wrote a dance entitled that and a lot of others that include
> it. Dugan, you're sort of Cary's protégé, right?, so you must know the
> dance. This is the same figure, correct??
>
>
> bill
>
Hey y'all!
After a lovely weekend of both Contra and English at Youth Dance Weekend, I
had an itch for programming some English-inspired choreography at BIDA last
night. Since I didn't have a dance with the figures I wanted, I whipped one
together on the drive home, tested it in the driveway, and debuted it last
night. Success!
Now the question, of course, is whether or not someone already wrote it!
-===-
Amble On East
Becket CCW
A1: Long Lines Forward & Back
Ladies Chain Across (to Neighbor)
A2: Ladies Dosido 1x
Neighbor Swing
B1: Give & Take, Gents draw Partner into 1/2 Poussette CCW
With NEXT, Gypsy Star* 3/4 (Ladies backing up)
B2: Partner (Long) Swing
-===-
*Do we have a new name for this figure yet? I called it Gypsy Star in the
walkthrough once or twice before realizing I should maybe figure something
else out, and the phrase "Special Star" actually escaped my mouth, to the
absolute delight of some of the dancers. During the dance itself, I just
called "Star."
Hey folks,
Looking for a dance with multiple swings with the same N, and also
preferably a P b&s, for a workshop I'm running on in-dance communication.
Anyone have one to recommend?
On a similar note, this is the dance I tossed off to fill this need: does
it exist? If not, tentatively titling it "Good Fences".
Improper
A1: long lines forward and back
(new) N swing
A2: ladies chain to P
half hey (ladies pass R)
B1: P b&s
B2: gents alle. L 1 1/2
(same) N swing
Folks,
I found a square sequence I wrote a while ago?
Does it exist in trad-dance circles?
Heads R&L Thru (8), Hds Pass Thru, Sep @1 into middle and Bx Gnat. (12)
Same 4 RH Star (8) to corner Alle Left (6)
P DSD (6), Corner Swg (8)
Full Promenade (16)
Thanks,
Rich Sbardella
Stafford Springs, CT
Home of the Stafford Stomp!
