There are also dances in four-facing-four formation, which some (especially
those influenced by the Lloyd Shaw Foundation) term mescolanza. One example
would be The Devil's Backbone by William Watson.
Luke mentioned Becket formation dances. There are also a handful of dances in
double Becket formation. Start with two sets in Becket formation and then have
them move closer to each other; dancers in all four lines (i.e., four couples)
will be interacting with each other. As far as I know, Pat Shaw's dance K&E was
the first one in this formation.
David Millstone
Hello all,
A dancer friend asked me about initial formation terminology, and I
wasn't sure so I thought I'd ask the hive mind.
In contra sets with hands four, if neither the 1s nor 2s cross over,
it's proper formation (specifically duple minor I believe). If the 1s
cross, it's improper.
If the 1s cross and the whole set rotates 1/4 circle, it's Becket.
If the 1s don't cross over but the 2s do, I've called that formation
indecent. I'm not sure how widespread that use is.
If the 1s and the 2s cross? I'd be inclined towards anti-proper or
maybe improper-indecent (a mouthful). This was the question that
prompted the query.
Triple minor dances are hands six, and can be proper or with some
couples crossed over... I don't know specific sub-names.
Tempest formation is a wide n shape of four couples, actives in the
middle facing down, inactives on the sides facing in.
There's circle dances and Sicillian circles of facing couples. There's
four couple square dance formation, five couples for Levi Jackson's
rag, Morris and rapper formations and more. But are there other contra
formations and if so what are they called?
Are there other traditional formations, and if so what are they called?
Thanks
--
Luke Donev
http://www.lukedonev.com
Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com
> MY FAVORITE, MOST USEFUL, MOST USED RECORDED MUSIC:
* All recordings (& books) produced by New England Dancing Masters
(Peter & Mary Alice Amidon, Andy Davis, Mary Cay Brass & many other fine musicians including Becky Tracy, Keith Murphy, Sam & Stefan Amidon & Thomas Bartlett)
http://www.dancingmasters.com/
*Sweets of May & White Mountain Reel - recordings (& books) by Dudley Laufman
These have recently been combined into a single volume which looks quite terrific
http://laufman.org/
* Recordings by musicians local to my area (or the area of the gig) and inspiring at least one on-mic comment about these talented musicians in the neighborhood.
* I also have used KGB's Volga Notions (because the cd jacket claims in Russian, "Danceable but no chestnuts").
For SPECIFIC Tunes/Songs required for a specific dance:
* New England Chestnuts by Rodney & Randy Miller
two cd re-release available at Great Meadow Music
http://www.greatmeadowmusic.com/
* Lissa Schneckenburger's gorgeous new cd, Dance, is almost all chestnuts.
http://lissafiddle.com/
* Lloyd Shaw Foundation
Amazing resource, zillions of recordings & cue sheets and more. They set up a download site for you, once you request your recordings.
http://lloydshaw.org/Catalogue/CatHome.htm
* I recently found Amazon Music Downloads very useful
-Chrissy Fowler
Belfast, ME
Dan's comment about having lots of 5x and 7x cuts reminded me...
Something I didn't mention in my earlier post on this subject is that for many
one-night stands, you don't often really long cuts of music. You can do
Gallopede 9 times through and folks are plenty happy to stop. If they're really
long lines, instead of having just one couple chassez down the set at the end of
B2, you can send the top two couples galloping down.
It's a differen tmentality than at a contra dance with dancers who do this
regularly, folks who are looking to get in the groove. Squares, longways set
dances, circle dances, and novelty dances as Beth points out. At camp gigs I
usually toss in Cotton-Eyed Joe and/or the Macarena and, more recently, the
Cupid Shuffle. Don't need to teach a thing... just put on the music and let the
kids take it away. They're having fun.
There was a time-- and not so long ago-- when I wouldn't dream of doing any of
that, and finally diagnosed myself with a case of
more-traditional-than-thou-itis. Realized that people hiring me for those
one-night stand situations weren't asking for a bit of pure-from-the-well
traditional dance... they were looking for me to assist them in having a good
time with their friends and relations.
I agree that live music is great to bring to a party and that's always my
preference. There's a different kind of energy that comes with it, it's part of
the tradition, it employs musicians, it gives folks who aren't dancing something
else to watch, and it's much easier to get the musicians to speed up or slow
down or to add one more time, not to mention having them be able to play backup
when someone wants to get up to sing a song. All part of making the party
happen.
David
While I vastly prefer using live music, I call my share of dances with recorded music, and have for decades.
Some people have cited some good recordings. Listen to recordings that are *almost* suitable, but can be made suitable by lengthening, shortening, excision of an "interesting but undancible" round, etc. Use audio editing software such as Audacity (free) to make things the way you want. As a result, I have a collection of cuts from 5x to 7x (lots of those), 8x, 9x, 11x and 15x.
I keep my music organized on my laptop and accessed by the MIT Folk Dance Club player. See http://home.comcast.net/~a1penguin/ for details on that. It is mostly bug-free, but it is free.
You don't need tons of material right away. Build it up as you go along.
Dan
Hi all -
Have any of you called for a dance without a band? I've gotten a query about
calling a barn dance, but their budget is teeny tiny, so they asked if I could
call to CDs. I know this is quite possible; my dad used to call square dances to
records, but those records were specifically made for dancing to. Most contra
music tracks I have only last at most ~3 minutes. I could theoretically splice
the tracks together to make a repeating loop, but this is a lot of time
investment and also, how would you know when the music would stop, in order to
go out? Would you try to guess, or just unceremoniously turn the thing off, or
do the "mood fade?" (And no, sadly, I'm not like Alan Furth or Erik Hoffmann,
folks who can call and play guitar/fiddle/banjo//etc. well at the same time.)
Do you have any strategic ideas? Thanks!
Tina
OK fellow callers, shall we compile a nice big list/thread to serve as
reference to those in need, since this seems to keep coming up? Hit that
reply-with-quote button and let's share/compare...
(I'm leaving my answers off so this can be an easy template)
MY FAVORITE, MOST USEFUL, MOST USED RECORDED MUSIC:
Albums specifically recorded to be danceable for contras:
Albums specifically recorded to be danceable for other formations:
Albums not specifically intended for live dancing, but nonetheless
containing enough good material to be worth buying for that purpose:
Single tracks on otherwise not-always-danceable albums:
Non-contra recordings that work for dancing (klezmer, swing, etc):
I call about a dozen dances a year with no live music, just me and my iPod. My
preference is to work with musicians there, but as you say, there are some whose
budget just won't allow for that/
Tina, there are CDs available with longer pieces of music on them. One of my
favorites is called "Any Jig or Reel," with wonderful music by BEcky Tracy
(fiddle), Andy Davis (accordion), and Keith Murphy (guitar and piano and foot
percussion.) Other albums from New England Dancing Masters also have longer
cuts.
If you're calling New England style squares, then your typical pattern is 7
times through a tune, so you'll find plenty of cuts on other albums that are
that length, about 4 minutes.
Yes, it will take time at first, listening to your collection and notating each
album more carefully, but once you've done that, you're good to go. I used to
work from CDs but now MUCH prefer the flexibility and portability of my iPod. I
have friends who use a different sort of mp3 player... it's bulkier but it has
the advantage of variable speed control, so they can slow down a cut if need be.
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
Hi Bill,
This is David Smukler, who has been putting the RPDLW syllabi online. The syllabi from before 1997 were not saved in electronic format, and so I'm afraid that they are not available. Sadly, they are no longer available in print form either, but I believe that the Dimond Library at the University of New Hampshire (host of the website) has copies all the way back. Perhaps one day they will be scanned, and then the archive will be more complete.
You may have noticed also that no syllabi were produced for 1988, 1989, 1992, or 1993. The dances from 88 and 93 appear in the index anyway (without page numbers) because for those years I found lists kept by Ted Sannella of every dance that was done during the weekend. I suspect Ted kept similar lists for 89 and 92, but they have not turned up. Many of the dances done during those years either show up in syllabi from other years. One of the projects on my to-do list is to go through all the ones that don't and find other places that they have been published. Once I do that I will add the info to the index.
David
> Hi David,
>
> Are pre 1997 syllabi available (online)? The index starts at 1988, but
> the pdf only begin at 1997.
>
> Ta
> Cheers, Bill
