Contra Callers

contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net

12 participants
4406 discussions

by Kalia Kliban via Callers

I sent this last week but got a message from Dave Casserly telling me the message had been marked as spam, so I'm guessing it mostly disappeared into everyone's lint filter. I've read the previous threads on headsets going back to 2014 and there aren't a lot of specifics. JoLaine, if you're reading this, I'd love to know what model you use. You mentioned that it was a Shure and that you loved it. And Rich Sbardella mentioned last year that his Shure had been giving him trouble. Rich, what model is yours, and are you happy with your replacement? Here's the mail from last week, to get those of you who didn't see it on the same page with those who did: Hi all I was just working a wedding gig and my old Samson headset mic crapped out. If the piano player hadn't had hers along, I would have been in serious trouble. Time for a new and more reliable headset mic. I use my hands a LOT when I'm doing ONS gigs, so a handheld cordless isn't an option for me. I'd love recommendations from any of you about specific models to look at. I'm planning to plow the funds from this wedding and some of my caller piggy bank into a new mic, so I want something that's really good quality. It doesn't have to be tiny and invisible, but it does need to be reliable and sturdy. If it doesn't have a belt pack that's a plus, but it seems like most of the good-quality headset mics have belt packs. I'll deal with it if that's the best bet. So, recommendations? For reference, the one I was working with was a Samson Airline 77, often referred to as the "aerobic instructor mic." It had the transmitter on the headset, so there were no wires or belt pack, and it worked just fine for a long time until suddenly it didn't. I would like to hear what folks are using who rely on a headset mic for their calling gigs. Kalia Kliban in Sebastopol, CA

9 years, 1 month

headset mics

by jill allen via Callers

I love my Sennheiser. Jill Allen

9 years, 1 month

Re: [Callers] Headset mics, take two

by via Callers

Hi Kalia, I use a Countryman Associates hands free headset. Countryman is very high performance company that many professionals speakers and performers use. You can contact them directly to ask questions. Their web site is http://www.countryman.com/ I have been using their Isomax headset with my Shure PGX1 wireless transmitter for years now. Hope this was helpful. Good luck. Joe De Paolo In a message dated 9/5/2016 11:12:17 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net writes: I sent this last week but got a message from Dave Casserly telling me the message had been marked as spam, so I'm guessing it mostly disappeared into everyone's lint filter. I've read the previous threads on headsets going back to 2014 and there aren't a lot of specifics. JoLaine, if you're reading this, I'd love to know what model you use. You mentioned that it was a Shure and that you loved it. And Rich Sbardella mentioned last year that his Shure had been giving him trouble. Rich, what model is yours, and are you happy with your replacement? Here's the mail from last week, to get those of you who didn't see it on the same page with those who did: Hi all I was just working a wedding gig and my old Samson headset mic crapped out. If the piano player hadn't had hers along, I would have been in serious trouble. Time for a new and more reliable headset mic. I use my hands a LOT when I'm doing ONS gigs, so a handheld cordless isn't an option for me. I'd love recommendations from any of you about specific models to look at. I'm planning to plow the funds from this wedding and some of my caller piggy bank into a new mic, so I want something that's really good quality. It doesn't have to be tiny and invisible, but it does need to be reliable and sturdy. If it doesn't have a belt pack that's a plus, but it seems like most of the good-quality headset mics have belt packs. I'll deal with it if that's the best bet. So, recommendations? For reference, the one I was working with was a Samson Airline 77, often referred to as the "aerobic instructor mic." It had the transmitter on the headset, so there were no wires or belt pack, and it worked just fine for a long time until suddenly it didn't. I would like to hear what folks are using who rely on a headset mic for their calling gigs. Kalia Kliban in Sebastopol, CA _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net

9 years, 2 months

Re: [Callers] Chains: the other side of the coin

by tavi merrill via Callers

Sigh. Why is "join right with right in front, left hands behind the gent's back, gents walk forward and ladies back up" way more difficult than "join left with left in front, right hands behind the lady's back, ladies walk forward and gents back up"? It's not, but.... A numerical argument: Say in a typical evening of 13 dances, 6 dances include a ladies' chain, R&L through, or promenade across (wherein turning to face back in counts as a courtesy turn) and 2 more dances contain either two of one or one each of two. (I consider that a conservative estimate given the ubiquity of ladies' chains!) That makes 10 iterations of standard courtesy turn; if each sequence is run for an average of 8 minutes (16 iterations of the dance) that's 160 iterations of standard courtesy turn in a typical evening of dance. Now, since a small minority of callers ever get off their butt and use a gents LH chain (because it's soooooooooo difficult), let's say one gents chain shows up in every 10 evenings of dance we go to (this time, a very liberal estimate). Same assumptions of average dance run time, so that's 16 iterations to practice the reverse courtesy turn. But since we danced ten evenings to get that one gents LH chain in, we had a whopping *1,600 iterations of practice for the standard courtesy turn to our 16 iterations of practice for the reverse*. The only real reason* the standard turn *seems* "easier" is because we get s---loads more practice at it! That will never change unless the reverse turn gets more use. It's hard because we so rarely do it, and we don't do it because it's hard. Great work everybody. Look at us exceeding our programming. Aahz, I would say the same for myself - a regular role-swapper, heavy-duty twirler in both roles, and "usually good about paying attention" - but I don't really care how often other callers dance both roles. The fact remains that many dancers don't, and of the dancers that don't, many lack the enhanced sensitivity to whether others want to be twirled that comes with being ambidancetrous. How aware we are is not an argument against the necessity of raising dancers' awareness. Let's elevate the level of dance in our communities. *The other possible reason: resistance to any actual built-in choreographic challenge to gender-normativity. When we're voluntarily swapping roles, we are queering the dance, and the dance's built-in gender inequity is secondary to our experience - but when the choreography itself challenges the form's built-in gender assumptions, it feels somehow wrong. I use traditional, gendered calling language in posts about choreography and gender inequality in the dance for a reason. How many dances involve the ladies doing a move - do-si-do, gypsy, et cetera - while the gents stand around and watch? How many dances involve ladies' chains? How few iterations of the reverse are there? No matter how much the ambidancetrous among us queer it on the floor, no matter how much we gloss over it by using alternative term sets, the prominence of gender in the roles is pretty hard to miss. Alternative term sets and role swapping have their place. I'm interested in the fact that neither of these things makes a perfectly good figure easier to use. Meh. I think you've got part of a point, but as someone who gender-swaps > regularly (often within a single set), I find doing the reverse courtesy > turn way more difficult than doing a regular courtesy turn dancing raven. > And I'm also a heavy-duty twirler, both lark and raven. And I'm usually > good about paying attention to whether someone wants to be twirled. > > Probably I could learn the reverse courtesy turn, but I think you're > underestimating the difficulty.

9 years, 2 months

Favorite dance to teach a ladies chain?

by Luke Donforth via Callers

Hello all, I've been thinking about glossary dances, and building vocabulary for new dancers. I'm curious what your favorite dance is for teaching a ladies chain for a crowd of mostly new dancers? Or if you don't have a specific dance, what do you look for in a dance to make the chain as accessible as possible? Just a chain over? Or a full chain over and back? Chain to neighbor? Chain to partner? What move best precedes the chain to set it up? What move best follows the chain that still helps new dancers succeed? Other factors you consider? I don't have a go-to favorite, but I'll walk through some of the things I think about: I very seldom call a dance with a full chain. Experienced dancers don't whoop and holler over them, and for new dancers, I'd worry the confusion would snowball. Programatically, in a hall with a reasonable mix of new and experienced dancers, I shoot for the first chain to be to neighbor so that the new dancers can feel it with different experienced dancers; rather than new dancers (who will partner up and clump, no matter how many helpful dance angels you have) continually chaining to each other. If I were trying to teach a chain to ALL new dancers... well, I doubt I'd teach a chain to completely new dancers... but if I were, I'd probably go to partner. For moves, while I love the chain->left hand star transition; I'm not convinced it's the best for teaching the chain. It often goes B2 chain->star, find new neighbor; and the new neighbor from a left hand star is non-trivial for new dancers. Possibly a dance where the chain->star wasn't followed by the progression would work, but it's such a great progression when they're ready for it; I don't see many of those dances. chain->star->left allemande maybe? I do like long lines either before or after the chain as a set-up; but not on both ends. I'm not sure which side of the chain the lines help more. The Trip to ___ dances that end with chains and start with women walking in to long wavy lines flow well, but I don't know that they're the best for teaching chains, since the long wavy line is another new piece. Anyway, just some of my thoughts (started by the other thread about simple glossary dances). I look forward to hearing what others on Shared Weight have to say about the dances they use to teach chains (and I certainly won't be offended if folks tangent off into gent's chains; just start a new thread ;-) Take care, -- Luke Donforth Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>

9 years, 2 months

Want to contact Harry Brauser

by Martha Wild via Callers

Hi, Harry Brauser is a dancer and former caller who has moved back to San Diego. He called me when he got here and I screwed up and erased his phone number from my phone before I had a chance to write it down. Does anyone have his phone number? He used to call in Maine and Boston. Martha Wild

9 years, 2 months

Re: [Callers] Chains: the other side of the coin

by John Sweeney via Callers

Hi Tavi, I do teach the twirls in a Ladies' Chain, occasionally at a regular dance, but more often in style and technique workshops at festivals. If anyone wants some pointers on how to teach good twirl technique then please see my article at http://modernjive.com/history/tension.html Although this is written for a different dance style, when you get to a point where there is (albeit briefly) some lead and follow, as in a twirl, then most of this article is directly applicable to the twirls and flourishes that we do in contra dancing. Because the dance style that this article was written for has a male lead, it uses the words "man" and "lady", but you can substitute anything you like to indicate who is the twirler and who is the twirlee. I hope you find it useful. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

9 years, 2 months

Heads up, feet down, Dare to be Square WEST is coming round!

by T Claw via Callers

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9 years, 2 months

Dance Organiser version 4

by Colin Hume via Callers

The latest version of my Dance Organiser program (which runs on Windows, including a Windows tablet) has extra features which may appeal to contra callers. Now you can see a grid of which figures appear in which dances of your event, and you can change things to give more variety of figures. I realised the necessity of this while calling in the States in June! Download a trial copy from http://colinhume.com/download.htm and experiment with some of my existing program(me)s. Apologies to those of you who subscribe to two or three lists and will see this two or three times. Colin Hume

9 years, 2 months

This has to have been written

by Ron Blechner via Callers

I'd like to give the choreographer credit: Becket contra: A1. Ladies Chain (to N) (8) Star L 1x (8) A2. Gypsy/Face-to-face/Spiral R Next N 1x (6) N1 Sw (10) B1. Gents Alle L 1.5 (8) 1/2 Hey (PR, LL, NR, GL) (8) B2. P Gypsy + Swing (16) I have been poking at the idea of coming out of a star L, having a next-neighbor/shadow peek, and then returning to swing the person you starred with. (Thanks to the dance "Here's to the Ladies" for getting my gears going.) A more complex, partner heavy dance that I'm poking at: Becket contra A1. w/P pass thru across, turn left, single file to next (6) w/n2s Star L 1+1/4 (10) (til on side w/N, gents home side) A2. N3 Gypsy/F2F/Spiral Right 1x (6) N2 Swing (10) B1. Mad Robin (8) (CW, gents in front, same N2s) 1/2 Hey (8/ (GL, PR, LL, NR) B2. G pass L (2) PS (14) In dance, Ron Blechner

9 years, 2 months

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