Contra Callers

contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net

45 participants
4388 discussions

Re: [Callers] ID This dance? Square thru, shadow DsD

by Dugan Murphy via Callers

Hi, Jack - Yes, indeed. The dance is "Vallimont's Silver Hammer" by Luke Donforth. Luke shared it on Shared Weight recently. If the video you're talking about is https://www.facebook.com/DuganMurphyContraDanceCaller/videos/10367957730752…, that's me! Dugan Murphy dugan(a)duganmurphy.com > Date: Thu, 02 Jun 2016 22:30:01 +0000 > From: Jack Mitchell via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> > To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net> > Subject: [Callers] ID This dance? Square thru, shadow DsD > Message-ID: > < > CAP+XMj40fp4XDMRt1FyBYO5Pr6RKfXKQRvxaY_xh_O-8UcZNYA(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > Spotted on a video earlier today..... > > A1 Circle L 3/4, N Sw > A2 N Promenade, Ladies Chain > B1 RH to N balace, N pull by R, Partner pull by L; Shadow DsD > B2 P B&S > > -- > Jack Mitchell > Durham, NC >

9 years, 2 months

Warm weather dancing

by Lindsey Dono via Callers

Hi Callers, I’m booked to call a dance this Saturday; the temperature is predicted to be 98F. This is an unusually hightemperature for the area and time of year- this organization does not hold summerdances. I’ve emailed the organizers asking for their thoughts/contingency plans.My first priority is keeping the dancers safe. While I’m waiting to hear back from them, I’m brainstormingideas for how to make a hot weather dance a safe and fun experience (presumingit isn’t cancelled due to heat). Here’s what I’ve come up with generally: -Remind dancers to take time to hydrate/change shirts etcrather than rushing to maximize the number of dances called. -Offer ice/popsicles at the break. And specifically as a caller: -Run dances shorter. -Moderate band tempo -Select dances where ladies/gents/ones/twos/first corners/second corners get “solos.” Thehall tends to consist of two long lines, so I imagine that I might want to makeshorter lines if I call something uneven. -Avoid butterfly whirls -Walk all dances, but avoid unnecessarily long walk-throughs. Other thoughts? Are there figures that tend to take lessenergy? I’m imaging that sequential balances are less tiring than full heys,but I’m not certain of this. Also, suggestions for interesting dances with more recoverytime? A dance that comes to mind is Tecumseh (Dylan Bustin). Thanks! Lindsey (Tacoma, WA)

9 years, 2 months

ID This dance? Square thru, shadow DsD

by Jack Mitchell via Callers

Spotted on a video earlier today..... A1 Circle L 3/4, N Sw A2 N Promenade, Ladies Chain B1 RH to N balace, N pull by R, Partner pull by L; Shadow DsD B2 P B&S -- Jack Mitchell Durham, NC

9 years, 2 months

Dance ID?

by Maia McCormick via Callers

Danced this Mary Cay's Reel look-alike recently--anyone know the title and author? (becket L) A1: circle L 3/4 N swing A2: llf&b ladies alle R 3/4, next lady alle L 3/4 B1: pass P by R for full hey B2: P B&S Thanks! Maia

9 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] Organized Open Calling

by Valerie Cohen via Callers

Hi, I thought Don had some great suggestions for a periodic open caller dance. I helped keep Seattle's Open Band/Open Caller monthly dance going for awhile, and really liked having a host caller. The expectation was that the host would help keep the flow of the evening going by calling the first and last dance of the night, and fill in with others if needed, would arrange the order of the other callers (so more experienced callers might alternate with newer ones). The host caller would sometimes mentor (or chose a more experienced caller who was willing to mentor) less experienced callers: step in if they needed advice on choosing a dance, have dances to suggest on hand, help with band signals and knowing when to end the dance (but as Don says - also let it be learning experience - know how much to support & give reassurance, without taking over). We did not do sign-ups in advance, but put out a sign-up sheet during the potluck before the dance. It was a given that signing up to call a dance was not necessarily an indicator of the order. Great for you for keeping this tradition going! Hope it goes well, Valerie Message: 3 Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 15:31:21 -0400 From: Don Veino via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> To: Chet Gray <chetgray+sharedweight(a)gmail.com> Cc: Don Veino via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Subject: Re: [Callers] Organizing open calling Message-ID: <CAAJTtiJwmrQ4xH33jh3YE+i8rWkN8_t1gZDbrLVnnnhHr_X8QA(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" Hi, Sue Rosen generally does this for the periodic NEFFA caller nights at the Scout House Thursday dance. The expectation there is you have your wall clock time slots (e.g.: 7:30-7:55) and you *end* your slot on time, no matter what happened before or during your slot. Having slots specified as real clock time instead of elapsed time makes staying on/recovering to schedule much easier. I appreciate/leverage her approach and have taken it a bit more on-line. I've done this several times for our other Scout House series. My approach is to set up a shared Google spreadsheet with the available time slots, names assigned to slots. Generally in the first "half" (curiously, longer than the second :), a given caller gets two dance slots in a row and one in the second (one caller gets the flip assignment). I have the four callers enter two dances for each slot. One choice for "beginner heavy" and the other for "more experienced". Having them all in one place, we can visualize the program choices and challenge arc of the selections. The crowd that arrives leads us to which column will be the program that night. People can comment in the sheet and we work out most conflicts or necessary adjustments on-line (or by phone, etc.) before the evening. Of course there may be some tweaks that night, but having the two program difficulty choices spelled out minimizes that. This process typically takes about 2 weeks. Can be done in less time but would need to be led strongly with deadlines. People (particularly at this level) have focus on their "primary" job/life and the turnaround time on requests and changes can take days. Other thoughts: - Work out who'll introduce/recognize the band, sound, etc. (easily overdone or forgot otherwise). - Outgoing caller introduce the next one. - Tape a copy of the program up near the caller's mic. - Following caller helps enforce (gently) finishing clock time of previous caller. - Have slop slots built into your schedule (~7 minutes first half, ~5 second - not distributed into the caller slots and ideally remaining unused) and explicitly schedule any waltz/scandi and break(s) too. - You're the glue in this process. Be ready to help out but also stay back to let them work out any issues themselves - that's part of their learning too! Good luck! -Don On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 2:04 PM, Chet Gray via Callers < callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hello, all, > > After losing monthly open-calling evenings to venue schedule conflicts > last year, the local contra group where I live (Louisville, KY) are > re-implementing them on 5th-week dances (so, about four or so times a > year). I am "organizing caller" for the first of these, next Monday, and > I'm wondering if any of y'all have advice on coordinating an evening of > open-calling. > > The extent of organization for our previous open-calling dances had been, > essentially, callers put their name on a list and everyone hopes it works > out, and, while this was usually serendipitous fun, it often led to > long-running dances (both individually and for the evening overall) and > less-than-enjoyable experiences for newer dancers. When our board was > discussing re-starting open calling, I had recently been at the Jan Jam > (Champaign/Urbana, IL) after party, where Lauren Peckman had coordinated > open calling, and where I'd had the best open-calling experience?as both a > dancer and a caller?I'd ever encountered. I suggested to our board that, > this time around, the evenings each have an "organizing caller" to help > ensure overall program flow, coordinate callers/dances with an eye to > complexity/energy/time, incorporate and assist novice callers, wrangle > callers if need be for time limits, fill in gaps in the program, have > back-pocket dances at the ready, etc. > > Lo, they asked me to take a go at coordinating. Suggest a change, be the > change, I suppose. ^_^ > > The open calling has been announced at our weekly dances leading up, and > tonight (a week before) I'll be asking (but not requiring) prospective > callers to talk to me to help me get an idea for how I can best help the > evening flow. > > Any suggestions/anecdotes/warnings from my more-experienced fellows would > be greatly appreciated. > > ? Chet Gray >

9 years, 3 months

Organizing open calling

by Chet Gray via Callers

Hello, all, After losing monthly open-calling evenings to venue schedule conflicts last year, the local contra group where I live (Louisville, KY) are re-implementing them on 5th-week dances (so, about four or so times a year). I am "organizing caller" for the first of these, next Monday, and I'm wondering if any of y'all have advice on coordinating an evening of open-calling. The extent of organization for our previous open-calling dances had been, essentially, callers put their name on a list and everyone hopes it works out, and, while this was usually serendipitous fun, it often led to long-running dances (both individually and for the evening overall) and less-than-enjoyable experiences for newer dancers. When our board was discussing re-starting open calling, I had recently been at the Jan Jam (Champaign/Urbana, IL) after party, where Lauren Peckman had coordinated open calling, and where I'd had the best open-calling experience—as both a dancer and a caller—I'd ever encountered. I suggested to our board that, this time around, the evenings each have an "organizing caller" to help ensure overall program flow, coordinate callers/dances with an eye to complexity/energy/time, incorporate and assist novice callers, wrangle callers if need be for time limits, fill in gaps in the program, have back-pocket dances at the ready, etc. Lo, they asked me to take a go at coordinating. Suggest a change, be the change, I suppose. ^_^ The open calling has been announced at our weekly dances leading up, and tonight (a week before) I'll be asking (but not requiring) prospective callers to talk to me to help me get an idea for how I can best help the evening flow. Any suggestions/anecdotes/warnings from my more-experienced fellows would be greatly appreciated. — Chet Gray

9 years, 3 months

Confirming Bookings - Best Practices?

by Don Veino via Callers

What do folks do to ensure dance booking contacts remember that they've booked you? I just had my second booking in a row in a certain geography forget that they had booked me. What's curious is that in both cases these dances approached me by email (I could understand it maybe if it were the other way around?), we had an exchange where we clarified the dates, etc. and confirmed we were all set. We agreed to connect again with any final questions on program, accommodation, etc. as we approached closer to the date. The first case turned out to be rather comical in their confusion - the second I can't figure out. So, short of calling/emailing monthly, what do YOU do to ensure folks remember their booking commitment with you? Thanks, Don

9 years, 3 months

Triplet Times Through?

by Don Veino via Callers

I've been adding Triplets into my programs in certain situations and have given some thought about the duration to run them. I'm curious what others have determined - how many times through do *you* run a Triplet? Let's see if we can get a consensus value via a simple poll: http://doodle.com/poll/yz9ubdr5e7fs4tuu It would be helpful to me if you'd focus quantitative responses through the poll. Discussion or qualitative responses which inform your poll input are welcome here in this thread. Thanks, Don

9 years, 3 months

Crickets (was WordPress: Custom Dance Post Type?)

by Don Veino via Callers

OK. So, hearing only crickets, I'm guessing I may be the first to try creating a WP custom post type for dances. If I go that way, I'll share back here. Speaking of crickets... you might be interested in the below dance I recently tested successfully. Happy dancing, Don *Cricket's Flight - DI - Don Veino 20160320* *A1* (4,12) Neighbor Balance & Swing *A2* (8) Mad Robin - Gents into center first, left to right (CW around Neighbor) (8) Gents Glance Around*^* LEFT 1x *WHILE* Ladies Orbit 1/2 CW (pass RIGHT shoulders w/adjacent set Lady) *B1* (8,8) Partner Glance Around*^*, Swing *B2* (8) LLFB (8) Gents start Left Hands-Across Star 1x, Ladies Fall In behind P The A2 here was inspired by Kent Koeninger's "Cricket's Delight" ( http://www.library.unh.edu/special/forms/rpdlw/syllabus2009.pdf#page=44). *^Please, oh please*, I don't want to get the whole terms debate fired up again and *I ask you not to* rekindle it on on the basis of this post. Given the move is used twice here, I found myself in a quandary as to how to annotate this dance to post it. "Glance Around" (or shortened to "Glance") is a term I'm personally evaluating (a.k.a. Gypsy). I welcome you to annotate/call this dance however you chose, or to ignore it, as you see fit. On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 12:38 PM, Don Veino <sharedweight_net(a)veino.com> wrote: [snip] > I'm wondering if anyone has already done the work of developing a custom > post type and taxonomy for dances in WordPress? > > If not in WordPress, has anyone created a similar approach using another > common blogging or Content Management System? > [/snip]

9 years, 3 months

Looking for LGBTQ caller

by Elizabeth Guy Szekeres via Callers

Someone in Ontario has contacted me looking for a caller of Contra and/or English dance who is part of the LGBTQ community. This is for a one night event in August this summer, in Haliburton, Ontario, within a week-long camp for the LGBTQ community. Contact me and I will hook you up. Thanks! Elizabeth Szekeres Talent Coordinator Toronto Contra Dance Sent from my iPhone

9 years, 3 months

Jump to page:

2025

2024

2023

2022

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

2008

2007

2006

2005

2004

Contra Callers