Thanks Michael. I hadn't thought to look at Don's books.
----- Original Message ----
From: Michael Barraclough <michael(a)michaelbarraclough.com>
To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:53:00 PM
Subject: Re: [Callers] See Saw dance request
How about Moon Rhymes by Don Flaherty. His original dance has a dosido but
I feel that a seesaw flows better (that's how I call it). The title fits
perfectly with your theme! You do need plenty of space along the line for
this one.
Ladies chain (along set) [4]
Seesaw as couples [4]
Partner swing [8]
Men allemande left 1.5 [4]
Neighbour swing [4]
Circular balance [2]
Petronella [2]
Circular balance [2]
Petronella [2]
Michael Barraclough
http://www.michaelbarraclough.com
-----Original Message-----
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net
[mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Dan Black
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 11:37 PM
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: [Callers] See Saw dance request
Gang,
Does anyone have an easy see saw (left shoulder dosido) dance for a second
dance of the evening? My hope is to do a Moon Dance & Sun Dance medley
however, I don't have a see saw dance to set this medley up. I got Daddy's
Reeling and
Pride of Charlottesville from the list serve, any others. Thanks
Dan Black
Western Shore of NJ
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I was present, and dancing, at a dance once where Becky Hill taught the A1 of Dancing Bear with a demo. I always teach it exactly this way. This is how the Becky taught it:
Allemande right just 1/2, then do a little hop
(dancers LOVE this little hop. Alle 1/2 and hop takes 4 beats)
Then switch hands and allemande left one full time (another 4 beats) into the ladies chain.
That's the whole A1. It works just fine.
Rich
-------------- Original message --------------
From: "Rickey" <holt.e(a)comcast.net>
> Hi,
>
> I have called this dance before but a part of my directions does not make
> sense to me. Have you called it? The dance is Dancing Bear, by Becky Hill.
> Duple Improper
>
> (A1) Neighbor Allemande Right (œ ) (4) / Same Neighbor Allemande Left (ONCE
> AROUND) (also in 4!)/ Ladies Chain ( œ ) (8)
>
> (A1) Hey (16)
>
> (B1) Partner Balance and Swing (16)
>
> (B2) Ladies Chain ( œ ) (8) /Star left (once to new neighbors) (8)
>
>
>
> A Great dance!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>
>
> What is puzzling me is this: The Allemande Left (in A1) seems to need to be
> closer to ONCE AND A HALF to set up for the ladies chain and doing THAT in 4
> counts would be too much. I have called it, and I called it as once around
> and it did look like the dancers were going more than one half way around
> (the other option), so what do you think was really going on.
>
> How do you call this dance?
>
> Rickey Holt,
>
> Fremont, NH
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
Thanks to everyone who let me know about Donna Hunt and the "stutter step" in the video :)
I've emailed Donna and will let you all know of any data she gives me :) :)
Keep the contra fires burning... :)
Richie Katz
____________________________________________________________
Click here to find the perfect picture with our powerful photo search features.
http://thirdpartyoffers.juno.com/TGL2141/fc/Ioyw6i3mDcGPvii31xm139X0smrSQn8…
Hi,
I have called this dance before but a part of my directions does not make
sense to me. Have you called it? The dance is Dancing Bear, by Becky Hill.
Duple Improper
(A1) Neighbor Allemande Right (½ ) (4) / Same Neighbor Allemande Left (ONCE
AROUND) (also in 4!)/ Ladies Chain ( ½ ) (8)
(A1) Hey (16)
(B1) Partner Balance and Swing (16)
(B2) Ladies Chain ( ½ ) (8) /Star left (once to new neighbors) (8)
A Great dance!!!!!!!!!!!!
What is puzzling me is this: The Allemande Left (in A1) seems to need to be
closer to ONCE AND A HALF to set up for the ladies chain and doing THAT in 4
counts would be too much. I have called it, and I called it as once around
and it did look like the dancers were going more than one half way around
(the other option), so what do you think was really going on.
How do you call this dance?
Rickey Holt,
Fremont, NH
I have a whole bunch of thoughts on what makes a program varied or
unvaried. I see, after having written what follows prior to scrolling
down and reading below, that Alan and I have very similar ideas -
however, I'll just leave what follows here even if it goes over some
of the same ground, i.e., beginnings, transitions, and distinctive
figures. Oh well, here's my take:
I like to see variation in the types of transitions, like star to do-
si-do, or California Twirl to face next neighbors, or circle left and
pass through, or slide left to next etc. in a Becket. Too many of the
same transition can seem unvaried. To me, starting two dances in a
row the same way feels unvaried as a dancer. Haven't you ever been to
programs where every dance starts "Balance and swing your neighbor?"
I like to vary the kinds of swings in a program - some balance and
swings, one or two gypsy into swing, just plain swing from a do si do
or an allemande, sometimes women swing or men swing for variety. As a
dancer, I'm afraid I'm not really fond of swinging both partner and
neighbor in every dance. It just gets too darn tiring. Watch everyone
leave early on a hot night in San Diego without air conditioning. So
I try to mix up the program with a dance with "both" swings, and
dances with partner only swings. I even do some fun dances with
(gasp) active couples in them - usually double progressions, but also
an active dance done late on a hot evening, or early with a small
crowd, can have unusual choreography that you won't see in other
dances and that is fun to do as a dancer. I also like to do dances
where the #1 couple swings and later the #2 couple swings, so both
get a chance. As far as repetition of figures - some figures you can
get away with lots of repeats during the evening - like forward and
back in long lines, or ladies chain, or right and left through. Sort
of bread and butter figures. Other figures dancers start to notice -
a fair number of circles can be OK, but when every dance has one,
it's pretty obvious. Some figures are distinct and you don't want to
do more than two (maybe one) dances with them - petronellas, box the
gnats, wave balances, whole set circle left - those sorts of things.
And if you like your program, and you've got a lot of heys in it, OWN
your program, and say - tonight's theme is - wait for it - the HEY!
We'll be trying all manner of heys and ways in and ways out of heys.
Then it becomes something to look forward to and notice the
differences and feel from dance to dance.
Of course, that said, many dancers don't even notice if the same
dance is repeated in the same evening - this from personal experience
when two callers did that in a shared evening. A couple dancers
remarked when asked that it did seem somewhat familiar.... But even
if they don't consciously notice repetition, variety will still add
that spice.
One thing to be avoided though, is picking slightly similar repeating
figures in two different dances - like circle left, ladies chain,
women do-si-do and then two dances later do circle left, ladies
chain, women allemande right - even if the rest of the dance is
wildly different, people get pretty quickly entrained on the flow of
the first set and will keep wanting to do-si-do in the second set. So
I try to check my program for those sorts of repeats. I've felt the
magnetic attraction of the entrained movement as a dancer and seen
people stumbling with the second set as a caller - so avoid that.
That's enough thoughts on variety for now... Have fun planning your
programs.
Martha
On Aug 7, 2008, at 9:00 AM, callers-request(a)sharedweight.net wrote:
> Send Callers mailing list submissions to
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. What Makes A Program Varied (Rickey)
> 2. Re: What Makes A Program Varied
> (Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing)
> 3. Re: Chris's message (J L Korr)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 6 Aug 2008 17:26:57 -0400
> From: "Rickey" <holt.e(a)comcast.net>
> Subject: [Callers] What Makes A Program Varied
> To: <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Message-ID: <000501c8f80b$27bdfbb0$020fa8c0@maxx>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
> OK all,
>
> What determines if a program is varied? I originally thought that the
> number of times a figure occurred in an evening was a pretty good
> clue, but
> now ???????????? Here are dances that feel different, in programs
> that feel
> varied, yet look at how many times some figures are repeated in an
> evening.
>
> VARIETY IN PROGRAMMING
>
> What is it?
>
> What is variety in programming determined by? I find that I can
> include
> many dances that have the same figures and still feel that I have a
> varied
> program. Below are three of my recent programs and the number of
> times in
> that evening that a given figure occurs. I arbitrarily started
> with the
> idea that more than five occurrences of a figure in an evening
> might be a
> problem. Obviously, I excluded swings and balance and swings. By
> accident
> no Circle left ??s were included. I have also not considered here
> where in
> the dance the figure occurred. Despite several figures occurring very
> frequently in an evening, the programs still felt very varied to
> me, and
> some dancers expressed that as well.
>
> What do you think?????????????
>
> All programs had 14 dances in each. Some of the names are
> approximate. Most
> dances were contras, a few were circles, a few were set dances.
>
> Program 1 for Beginners ? Circles were in 9 dances, at least 1 do-
> si-do in
> 7, Stars or hands across in 7 dances. Program: Pride of the
> Dingle, Jolly
> Roger, No Dos, Family Contra, Fiddle Hill Jig, Ease, Green Jig,
> Fancy French
> mixer, Flutterbys, Midwest Folklore, Reading Reel, Yankee Reel,
> Handsome
> Young Maids, Greenfield 2 hand
>
> Program 2 for Beginners ? Balance the ring in 5, Circles in 8, Do-
> si-do in
> 8, Down the Hall 4-in-line in 6, Star or hands across in 10 dances.
> Program: Cincinnati Reel, Haste to the Wedding, Family Contra, Anne?
> s Visit,
> Fiddle Hill Jig, Belles of Auburn, Malden Reel, Handsome Young Maids,
> Midwest Folklore, Bride and Groom, Road to Boston, St. Lawrence
> Jig, New
> Friendship Reel, Ease
>
> Program 3 for Intermediate dancers ? ladies chain in 12 of the 14
> dances.
> Program: The Baby Rose, Summer Sunshine, Dancing Bear, Betty Mac?s
> Reel, A
> Rollin? and A Tumblin?, Slapping the Wood, Fisher?s Jig, Box-the Gnat
> Contra, Weave the Line, Ben?s Brilliance, That Special Someone, 40
> Mohr
> Years, Flowers of April, Trip to Lambertville.
>
>
>
> Rickey Holt,
>
> Fremont, NH
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Wed, 06 Aug 2008 16:52:56 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing
> <winston(a)slac.stanford.edu>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] What Makes A Program Varied
> To: Rickey <holt.e(a)comcast.net>
> Cc: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Message-ID: <01MY1R8VJDAYA0JPQX(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU>
> Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=iso-8859-1
>
>> OK all,
>
>> What determines if a program is varied? I originally thought that
>> the
>> number of times a figure occurred in an evening was a pretty good
>> clue, but
>> now ???????????? Here are dances that feel different, in programs
>> that feel
>> varied, yet look at how many times some figures are repeated in an
>> evening.
>
>> VARIETY IN PROGRAMMING
>
>> What is it?
>
>> What is variety in programming determined by? I find that I can
>> include
>> many dances that have the same figures and still feel that I have
>> a varied
>> program. Below are three of my recent programs and the number of
>> times in
>> that evening that a given figure occurs. I arbitrarily started
>> with the
>> idea that more than five occurrences of a figure in an evening
>> might be a
>> problem. Obviously, I excluded swings and balance and swings. By
>> accident
>> no Circle left ??s were included. I have also not considered here
>> where in
>> the dance the figure occurred. Despite several figures occurring
>> very
>> frequently in an evening, the programs still felt very varied to
>> me, and
>> some dancers expressed that as well.
>
>> What do you think?????????????
>
>
> Over in English Country Dance land, where dances are tied to
> specific tunes, we
> think a varied evening has variety of music (different keys, meters
> (we get
> 2/2, 2/4, 4/4, hornpipe, waltz, minuet, polka, 3/2, and slip-jig
> choices)),
> tempi (we can range from maybe 85 to 110 bpm), mood, formation
> (triplet, three
> couple circle, two-couple set, four-couple longways, five-couple
> longways, four
> couple square, square with an extra couple in the middle, longways
> duple,
> longways triple, single circle, Sicilian circle, double circle,
> etc, but we
> don't generally do scatter mixers), complexity, and figures. I
> think David
> Millstone gets a bunch of this formation variation into his contra
> dance
> calling, but not many people do.
>
> So I used to worry about this in contra calling,a nd I do, still,
> worry about
> it a bit if I've got a band that only plays old-timey, but, really,
> the variety
> concern is somewhat overrated.
>
>
> In contra, the musical variety stuff is up to the band, but you
> still get to
> futz with mood - is the dance playful, flirtatious, incredibly
> flowy? Is it
> equal or unequal? Do you stick with your partner throughout or
> lose and regain
> your partner? Do you stick with one other couple for 32 bars or
> travel around?
> Is there a trail buddy?
>
>
> But if you're going to be doing, y'know, contras (longways dances
> with minor
> sets, whether that's improper/indecent/proper/duple/triple) the
> things that most
> non-caller contra junkies will notice are
>
> (a) How each round starts - if every single dance begins with
> "balance and swing neighbor" it'll not only seem like it's
> all the
> same damn dance, you'll screw up the muscle memory and for
> the next
> move they'll want to do the same thing they did in the last
> dance.
> So don't stack up dances with the same first figure.
>
> (b) transitions - how do you get on to the next couple? If
> they're all
> pass through right shoulder, or all California Twirl and
> face the
> next, etc, etc, that'll seem pretty similar. (Mixing in some
> Beckets will typically open up the transition menu.)
>
> (c) distinctive figures. If a dance has 8 bars of something
> unusual or
> distinctive - Petronella turns, balance short waves f&b and
> go on
> to the next wave - grand right and left around the whole
> outside
> of the ring - Rory O'More turns - then you don't get dinged for
> boringness for having circle / star / r<, much less
> ladies' chain/ hey for 4. Also, the extra-twirl crowd
> doesn't get
> bored by LC or H4 because they get to embellish.
>
>
>
> Figure count is probably worth noticing, but what makes things dull
> is a whole
> bunch of things that feel the same. Circle left to start a zigzag
> feels
> different from circle left half and slide one couple and circle
> some more feels
> different from circle left 3/4 and swing partner. If the kinetics are
> different, it's different.
>
> For ONS, mess around with easy formations (scatter mixers, big
> circles, etc)
> but _minimize the number of different figures_. Circle, star,
> swing, pass
> through, down the middle, trade with partner, trade back, allemande
> right,
> allemande left. You don't really need much more, figure wise, and
> they'll
> typically be happy just to be dancing.
>
> If you're doing an explicitly contra evening for a roomful of new
> contra
> dancers, variety isn't your problem. Don't throw a whole bunch of
> different
> figures or weird progressions or whatever at them just to be
> varied. Build
> your program to introduce a few figures in the course of the
> evening, but I
> don't think you should look at your figure matrix, notice that you
> didn't do
> "Give and Take", and feel like you've failed. They're dancing with
> different
> people, to different tunes; that's all the variety most of them need.
>
> -- Alan
>
> --
> ======================================================================
> =========
> Alan Winston --- WINSTON(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
> Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone:
> 650/926-3056
> Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park
> CA 94025
> ======================================================================
> =========
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Thu, 7 Aug 2008 00:01:46 -0400
> From: J L Korr <jeremykorr(a)hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Chris's message
> To: <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Message-ID: <BLU140-W5F920CB7338D23F2A7D74C7750(a)phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
> Chris, I want to thank you for posting such a thoughtful and
> detailed evaluation of a set of programs that obviously didn't go
> quite as you had hoped. It was helpful for me to see what did and
> didn't work for you, and why. As I know that you reflect carefully
> on each program you call and what you can learn from the
> experience, I have no doubt your next calling at a festival will go
> much more smoothly.
>
> Jeremy Korr
> Rancho Cucamonga, CA / Woods Hole, MA
>
> _________________________________________________________________
> Your PC, mobile phone, and online services work together like never
> before.
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>
> ------------------------------
>
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>
> End of Callers Digest, Vol 48, Issue 4
> **************************************
Chris, I want to thank you for posting such a thoughtful and detailed evaluation of a set of programs that obviously didn't go quite as you had hoped. It was helpful for me to see what did and didn't work for you, and why. As I know that you reflect carefully on each program you call and what you can learn from the experience, I have no doubt your next calling at a festival will go much more smoothly.
Jeremy Korr
Rancho Cucamonga, CA / Woods Hole, MA
_________________________________________________________________
Your PC, mobile phone, and online services work together like never before.
http://clk.atdmt.com/MRT/go/108587394/direct/01/
OK all,
What determines if a program is varied? I originally thought that the
number of times a figure occurred in an evening was a pretty good clue, but
now ???????????? Here are dances that feel different, in programs that feel
varied, yet look at how many times some figures are repeated in an evening.
VARIETY IN PROGRAMMING
What is it?
What is variety in programming determined by? I find that I can include
many dances that have the same figures and still feel that I have a varied
program. Below are three of my recent programs and the number of times in
that evening that a given figure occurs. I arbitrarily started with the
idea that more than five occurrences of a figure in an evening might be a
problem. Obviously, I excluded swings and balance and swings. By accident
no Circle left ¾s were included. I have also not considered here where in
the dance the figure occurred. Despite several figures occurring very
frequently in an evening, the programs still felt very varied to me, and
some dancers expressed that as well.
What do you think?????????????
All programs had 14 dances in each. Some of the names are approximate. Most
dances were contras, a few were circles, a few were set dances.
Program 1 for Beginners Circles were in 9 dances, at least 1 do-si-do in
7, Stars or hands across in 7 dances. Program: Pride of the Dingle, Jolly
Roger, No Dos, Family Contra, Fiddle Hill Jig, Ease, Green Jig, Fancy French
mixer, Flutterbys, Midwest Folklore, Reading Reel, Yankee Reel, Handsome
Young Maids, Greenfield 2 hand
Program 2 for Beginners Balance the ring in 5, Circles in 8, Do-si-do in
8, Down the Hall 4-in-line in 6, Star or hands across in 10 dances.
Program: Cincinnati Reel, Haste to the Wedding, Family Contra, Annes Visit,
Fiddle Hill Jig, Belles of Auburn, Malden Reel, Handsome Young Maids,
Midwest Folklore, Bride and Groom, Road to Boston, St. Lawrence Jig, New
Friendship Reel, Ease
Program 3 for Intermediate dancers ladies chain in 12 of the 14 dances.
Program: The Baby Rose, Summer Sunshine, Dancing Bear, Betty Macs Reel, A
Rollin and A Tumblin, Slapping the Wood, Fishers Jig, Box-the Gnat
Contra, Weave the Line, Bens Brilliance, That Special Someone, 40 Mohr
Years, Flowers of April, Trip to Lambertville.
Rickey Holt,
Fremont, NH
Hello everyone,
I figured that I better start writing this report right away. Later I
might be lazy and leave out some of the experiences from this past
weekend. I suspect that this will be another of those long e-mails. Read
as much or as little as you care to. For those unfamiliar or new to this
list, when I started calling, I would send updates to this list
detailing my successes and blunders in the hopes that it would help
other new callers. Here are the latest:
The beginning of this story goes back several months when I got an
e-mail inviting me to be the second string caller at the Champlain
Valley Folk Festival. I was offered camping, meals, a festival pass and
exposure ("you can die of exposure" one caller said in a workshop).
Since it's one of my favorite festivals and I planned to attend anyways,
I accepted.
Fast forward to the Champlain Valley Folk Festival that happened this
past weekend. Due to my lack of vacation days at my relatively new job
(I don't have enough to cover my time at Pinewoods later this month), I
decided that I would work a half day and drive up during the afternoon.
Never mind that my first calling session was 5:30pm to 7:30pm on Friday
and it's a 4.5 hour trip from my work to the festival. This was my first
mistake of the weekend. It made my Friday a stressful, rushed day. I
also decided to give a friend a ride to the festival, which added time
to the trip.
Part of the trip was a stop at home to drop off my work things and pick
up my camping/festival stuff. Due to the frantic rush to get back on the
road, I made my second mistake: I did not pack the bag containing my
dance cards and other reference materials into the car. I discovered
this when we arrived at the festival at 5pm. See the above start time
for my first session.
Resisting the urge to panic, I went into problem solving mode. My first
priority was to check in and get to the stage. The second priority was
to somehow get enough dances together for a 2 hour session. I remembered
that I had 3 callers phone numbers in my cell phone. I decided to sit
down and write down every dance I could remember off the top of my head
first. It worked out well, one dance would spark the memory of another.
I would also think of a figure and it would trigger the memory of the
dance that I like to use to teach that figure. In the end, I wrote down
8 dances that worked (and a couple that didn't). I decided that I could
make a session out of that and that I could remember some more during
the session. So I didn't need to call anyone (yet).
On a side note, I was scheduled for three sessions over the course of
the Festival with three bands that I had never heard of. I had expected
that I would have time to meet the band members and get to know them and
their capabilities at the festival. That was mistake #3 (we're not
numbering chronologically here). I should have gone with my first
instinct which was to hunt them down on the web and get in touch through
e-mail or phone. The organizers would also probably have helped make
that happen, too.
Back to Friday night. The band was a long running group of French
Canadian musicians who had been playing concerts for quite some time.
They were fairly new to contras, however, and had learned a bunch of
"square" tunes for the occasion since most of their repertoire is
crooked. There were a couple of glitches during the evening. Some due to
the tunes they learned (one had crooked phrases, but overall the tune
was square. whoops!). Some due to bad communication. The person I was
communicating with had trouble remembering how many times through before
they should end. Sometimes the band would get off a part. The last
dance, the person yelled to me across the stage something like "just
tell us when to go out, it's just easier". So at the top of the B2 I
caught her eye and waved, assuming that they would finish the tune. I
turned around to face the dancers and prompt a final partner swing and
the dance ended that instant. Whoops!
Of the dances that I remembered, it quickly became clear that two of
them were too easy for the crowd. That left me six dances to fill the
session. I never did remember any more that night. So I ran the dances
long. I added a waltz in the middle of the session as well as the end. A
few people commented on the long dances and I heard it from the band,
too. They were very tired after the session. The flute player kept
rubbing her wrists. In the end, the dancers had fun. It was the first
dance session of the festival and they had energy to burn. Compliments
on my calling and the music came back to me afterwards, some directly,
some through friends. In the end that's what I have to remind myself is
what matters.
I had spotted a couple of callers in the crowd during the session. Later
in the evening, I sought them out and explained the situation. I asked
if they had brought their cards with them. With the exception of two
people, those I asked had not brought their cards. Saturday morning I
went through their cards and copied about twenty dances from them. Some
I knew and called before, but some I didn't. My undying gratitude goes
out to Fern Bradley and Nancy Turner for their help.
The second band was a group of young musicians. This group plays mostly
country and old-time music. While they had all played for contras
before, they hadn't played together for one with this repertoire. The
guitar player apologized at the beginning for not knowing many jigs and
assured me that they could play one during the session. My response was
essentially "no big deal, play to your strengths". So I got a great set
of hot old-time music for the session. I pulled dances that I felt would
work with that kind of music out of my limited repertoire and put
together a fun session. In concert, the band features two female
vocalists who sing some wonderful harmonies. They were able to
incorporate this into the dances wonderfully, without getting in the way
of what I needed to do. One time they had an 8 bar a Capella lead into
the dance that was beautiful. Later they played Golden Slippers and sang
the words once the dancers had the dance down.
Later that day, we had a downpour at the festival and everyone and
everything got soaked. This revealed several more personal mistakes:
assuming my raincoat was in the car; not bringing quite enough clothes
to change into; driving my car onto a muddy field that just got more
muddy. This also meant that on Sunday, only the really die-hard dancers
came back to the muddy festival.
My third session, on Sunday was the shortest. A blessing since I was
running out of dances to call from my now limited repertoire. The band
turned out to be incredible. A mix of musicians who have been playing
for decades and young newcomers. Five fiddles, guitar, bass and piano.
Hearing five fiddles belt out "Grumbling old man/Growling old woman" was
an incredible experience. Working with them was a breeze. It was during
this session, though, that my tiredness and unfamiliarity with some of
the dances that I was calling came through. Mostly it showed up in
awkward prompting. But with one dance (B&B Contra by Robert Cromartie)
it was near disaster. During the walkthrough, I left out two moves from
the teaching. I'd noticed that things had seemed a little awkward during
the walkthrough, but it didn't seem to be a problem. "They'll smooth it
out with the music" I told myself. I should note that the Sevens were
playing on the main stage at that time, so it was the REALLY die-hard
dancers who showed up to dance. They fudged and adjusted the dance to
make it work.
Of course, when the music started, there was all of this extra time and
we seemed to be getting off the music. I checked my notebook and
discovered the first missed move. I had left out the ladies chain. I
Started incorporating that into the prompting. This also meant that
people changed shadows (I think), changed who they were following in the
star (their partner instead of their neighbor). Some were able to adjust
others weren't. After another time or two through the dance I realized
that I had also forgotten the final do-si-do. At least that one was a
zero figure. Some people weren't able to adjust to the new figure, but
had good enough recovery skills that they fixed it every time. Once the
dancers were stable and succeeding (mostly) I signaled the band to go
out after 2 more times through the dance. I finished the session with a
couple of dead-easy dances that let the band shine.
Exhausted, I left for home shortly after that. As I reflect now, even
with all of the stress of the weekend (some from the weather, some from
my own mistakes and poor preparation) it was a pretty incredible
weekend. Friends and callers were all supportive. The ones that didn't
have cards wrote down dances for me. They introduced me to other callers
that I didn't know. Hugs were applied liberally at the appropriate
times. And I had a wonderful time visiting with friends old and new.
Swimming in the lake in the light rain on Sunday was incredibly
refreshing after being muddy all day.
And in the end, there were so many people that came up to me during the
weekend and complimented my calling or told me how much fun they had at
my sessions that I just can't hold onto the self-criticism. I've learned
my lessons and I'll do it much better next time. But I can't ignore that
I pulled it off and people had fun.
What else needs to be said?
Chris Weiler
Goffstown, NH
Hi Richie,
That's Donna Hunt. Donna, are you on this list?
- Adina
---------
Adina Gordon
828.230.9266
http://www.adinagordon.com/
--- On Wed, 7/30/08, callers-request(a)sharedweight.net <callers-request(a)sharedweight.net> wrote:
From: "Richie K." <mightylumpy3(a)juno.com>
Subject: [Callers] Thanks for a dance name, author and other data...
oh and one more question besides... :)
...
http://contrausa.com/user/fri2%20ron%20b4%20with%20quote.wmv
...starting just after the music gets fast, there is an inactive women coming
up the line with reddish hair and and a knee brace who does a sort of stutter
step before she does some of the moves... If anyone knows why she does so or
even who she is so I can ask her the advantage of that it would be most
appreciated :)
best wishes ...
Richie Katz
Hello All;
Since we are mostly interested in contras and squares, I'd like to share with you what I've learned about a hybrid formation that combines contras and squares called zia formation (see the attached). In the past year I've started writing and calling zias, and have found they can be a fun novelty for those audiences experienced enough to appreciate them. Compared to another hybrid formation, grid squares, I have found they are harder to write but easier to dance, as they tend to stay aligned better and thus give dancers a more clearly defined path. I'd certainly be interested if anyone on this list knows of other zia dances that have been used.
I hope you enjoy the discussion and the dances, and this gives you another way to bring fun to your dancers -
Bob Isaacs
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