Well, it's been a busy couple of weeks, and boy is my body letting me
know it. I've been laid up with a cold the last couple of days. So here
is what's been happening with the calling side of my life (I guess I
don't need to warn you by now that this is going to be a long e-mail):
New Voices
The New Voices dance was quite a success. All of us (Seth Seeger, Jenna
Watson, Cortni Frecha, Nathaniel Jack, Mark Jones and myself) did very
well. We had a good crowd (I estimated 60-70 people, Mark probably has a
better count) of experienced dancers. We also had great music by Mike
Ames, Lissa Schneckenberger (sp!) and Bruce Rosen, who were a delight to
work with on stage. My own personal breakthrough that night was that it
was the first time that I felt comfortable on-stage. Instead of my
nervous energy making me hesitant, I directed it into my calling. It was
a great feeling. I called two of my favorite dances that I hadn't called
before: Mary Cay's Reel and 333-33. I knew that 333-33 was going to be a
challenge, and it was. I worked hard with a form to work out the words
(which I created first). The form I used is attached if people are
interested. Then I practiced (mostly in the car) calling into a tape
recorder. The prep work really paid off at the dance.
Dance Flurry
The next weekend was the Dance Flurry in Saratoga Springs, NY. This is
one of my favorite dance festivals with lots of great dancing, workshops
and great people. There were 4 callers workshops during the festival and
each had their own focus.
The first was Joseph Pinmentel's workshop. He talked about the 3 stages
of being a caller: the first is where you're learning the basics (call
timing, word choice, parts/structure of the music, etc.), the second he
called "flight time" or practice time, and the third I think he called
the "process". The third stage was the focus of the workshop. The
"process" he was referring to was the cycle of feedback and learning
that happens when you're calling regularly. Specifically he put it in
terms of the observation cycle: take an action, observe the results,
decide what you think about the results, and back to the beginning with
taking another action. The part that he observed that most callers had
with this cycle was that the feedback was hard to filter away from the
junk around it. For example when someone comes up to you after a dance
and says: "you called a dance without a neighbor swing. Your calling
stinks." His suggestion was that you look for the kernel of good
information in any feedback you get. In the example, you take away the
information that calling a dance without a neighbor swing made a dancer
unhappy. Then you can decide if you're going to call a dance without a
neighbor swing the next time without the defensive reaction to the
statement. It also means that you can handle the situation better
because you can honestly thank the person for their useful feedback and
ignore the rest. Of course this is harder than it seems. The rest of the
workshop we got up and danced and had different people calling the
dances. Then we sat down and made observations and Joseph helped us pick
out the kernels of good information in the statements. The funniest
moment in the class was when one of the people in the workshop made an
observation about a session earlier in the day where the caller didn't
run the dances long enough. The observer didn't realize that the caller
at that session was Joseph. 8^) You'll see by the lengths of my
descriptions that this was my favorite workshop.
The next workshop was Rick Mohr's. He focused on the basics of timing
and word selection. He talked about timing the words to music in order
to end the call at the correct moment. He had some great handouts for
this and we all practiced with a fiddler.
On Sunday, the first workshop was Ralph Sweet teaching singing squares.
He talked about the differences in patter calling and singing and the
kind of prep work necessary for singers. Coordinating with the band
seems to be the most important one. If you don't practice it, then most
likely you won't be able to be flexible with the calling to make sure
that the dancers are promenading at the chorus. He has published a nice
book full of squares and music that has some great material in it.
The last workshop I was late for, since I was having great fun at Rick's
Squantras and Contrares session. Peter Amidon was running a workshop
where he reviewed a handout with a few basics about calling, dance
selection and responsibilities. He then opened the floor to questions
and discussion. Most of the questions had to to with resources like
where to find dances to call and e-mail discussion groups like ours. I
have included a scan of Peter's two sided sheet.
VFW
After the New Voices dance I was very surprised to receive an e-mail
from Sue Rosen inviting me to call at the VFW as part of NEFFA night (a
multi-caller evening that happens 3-4 times a year). I was floored. I
was nervous. I said yes (how could I say no?). Being a regular dancer at
the VFW, I know what a demanding venue it is. I requested that Sue put
me in the first slot (1st dance of the evening with the first and second
after the break). Then I had to find dances that would go over well
there. I knew that one of my dances after the break would be either Mary
Cay's or 333-33 since they're fun dances and I already had the calling
and teaching worked out for them. I remembered a recent discussion on
trad-dance-callers about "Easy yet interesting" dances that I could use
for the first dance of the evening, but I was at a loss for the last
one. The digital voice recorder that I had been using to collect dances
had gone through the washing machine in my shorts the weekend before,
erasing about a dozen dances that might have done the job. I spent the
whole flurry collecting dances, but they were either too hard or too
easy for the VFW. It wasn't until the last session that I danced on
Sunday afternoon that I found just the right dance for after the break:
Nils Fredland's Head of the Bed. For those who are interested, I have
put it at the end of the e-mail.
So I had 3 days to prepare after I had my dance selection for the
evening. I had a few other things going on in my life, so I didn't
prepare as much as I would have liked. On top of things, I was running
flat out all week and got hit hard with a cold on Thursday. So I was
pretty miserable when I showed up at the VFW that night. At this point I
would like to praise the nasal decongestant spray that I bought at the
last minute. It kept my nose and throat clear through the evening and
allowed me to call. The evening is a haze to me, though. Because of the
snow, Linda Leslie wasn't able to make it that night. For a while, it
looked like it was going to be Bob Golder and myself. Erica Weiss showed
up a dance or two before she was scheduled to go on. Sue called Rick
Mohr and he was able to come and call a couple of dances during the
second half. This pretty much blew the schedule out of the water, so I
ended up calling the first two dances of the evening and the first after
the break. I called The Casbah Queens by David McMullen (which I got off
the trad-dance-callers list) and Forgotten Treasure as my first two
dances. Then I called Head of the Bed as the first one after the break.
All of which went over well. My teaching on Head of the Bed didn't go as
well as I wanted it to (I was reaching the limits of energy and
medicine), but the experience of the dancers made up for it and the
dance was a success. Great music by Lise Brown, Dave Langford and Bruce
Rosen combined with good material and lots of experienced dancers made
up for any mistakes I might of made that night.
Thankfully, my fuzzy head that night made it impossible to be nervous
about calling at the VFW. A few people came up to me afterwards and
mentioned that they didn't even know that I was sick until I told them.
One of the unfortunate things about getting sick was that I had to turn
down all of my favorite dance partners as they came up to ask me to
dance while I was sitting out.
Epilog
I have also attached a handout from Tony Parkes' workshop at the Ralph
Page weekend for your enjoyment. Once again, I'm hoping that you are
enjoying these e-mails and that those of you who are thinking about
taking the leap into calling are inspired to take another step.
All the best,
Chris Weiler
Head of the Bed
Nils Fredland
Becket
A1
Slide Left, Cir. L 3/4 w/new neighbors
Neighbor Swing
A2
R&L thru
Ladies Chain
B1
1/2 hey
Shadow Swing
B2
LL fwd & bk
Gents roll Shadow away
Partner Swing
Hello Friends,
For those who haven't heard yet, Mark Jones has organized a wonderful
event for new callers to try their stuff. At the Scout House! We had a
meeting Sunday night to try out our material and it's going to be great!
Personally, it's a thrill to be calling while David Kaynor is playing
since I learned how to dance at his Friday dances in Greenfield years ago.
Come out and support us if you can!
Chris
Feb 13, 2005 (2nd Sunday) - Scout House 7:30 PM
"New Voices: New Callers"
Seth Seeger, Chris Weiler, Nathaniel Jack
Jenna Watson, Cortni Frecha, Mark Jones
(Sue Rosen coordinating)
Lissa Schneckenberger, fiddle
David Kaynor, fiddle
Bruce Rosen, keyboard
Flyer:www.cds-boston.org/american/images/new_voices.pdf
_HomeGallery_ magazine has just published my article "Contra Dancing is
Back in Full Swing." The article is part of a continuing series called "Off
the Beaten Path" ("designed to take readers to places and activities they
might not otherwise know about in our richly diverse region" [southeastern
Massachusetts and Rhode Island]. As such, the article provides an overview
and history of contra dancing, tells the reader why contra dancing is so
enjoyable, and lists venues where interested readers may go to dance. I note
this for sharedweight.net subscribers because the article begins and ends
with descriptions of Seth Seeger's calling debut at the East Sandwich Grange
on Cape Cod a few months ago. I can send JPEGs of the three-page article to
any of you who'd like to see it, or I can just send the text in an e-mail.
I'd like to share two quotes from Linda Leslie and Amy Larkin, which
close the article. Both women are responding to how they feel after Seth's
debut as a caller.
Linda - "Seth, and other young people like him, are the future of our
dances. It is thrilling to see young adults develop into the next generation
of new callers, musicians, and dancers."
Amy - "This represents the very best of our Yankee heritage. It's
traditional New England culture, still alive and growing, and being passed
along to the next generation. It's participatory, not passive. In these
times, it is marvelous to focus on joy through art, through dance and music
shared with others." .... Bob
----------------------------------------------------
Robert Jon Golder
164 Maxfield Street robertgolder(a)comcast.net
New Bedford, MA 02740 (508) 999-2486 voice
Hi all,
Re: Lynn's questions:
> 1) Have you ever received a set of such guidelines (or sent them out from
your dance), and if so, would you be willing to share them with us? > 2)
As a caller, what information would you like to have included in such a
document?
I've never received a set of guidelines from any of the dance communities
I've called in to date. But I have a set of questions that I ask organizers
of new communities, many of which are similar to Lisa S's. Here are the
questions I ask in addition to hers:
- What style of music the band plays, and whether they'd find it helpful to
have my program in advance of the dance and who to send it to (with the
proviso that I have the right to switch dances as required.)
- Whether the teaching session before the dance is typically done by the
evening caller or by a local. Sometimes with a new community, I prefer to
see what they teach in a teaching session. It gives me a sense of their more
experienced community, what they think is important, etc. What things I then
emphasize within my dances, to add to the session or cover gaps.
- Any figures or formations to avoid, or conversely that they're
specifically wanting to include, for whatever reason. Lately, I've had
communities ask me to include contra corners right before the dance. And I'd
prefer to know that in advance.
- If beckets, contra corners and double progressions are ok to call.
- Whether the crowd hates mixers.
- How many dances are typically called in an evening. That's kind of along
the lines of the interval between dances, but also gives me a sense of
whether they like the dances to go longer or shorter.
- Anything (unusual) about the size/shape of the hall.
> 3) As a dance organizer, what information would you like to convey to
incoming callers?
And as far as I know, the Toronto dance doesn't send a set of guidelines per
se. However, since September 2004 the local callers have been specifically
working on raising the level of the intermediate level dancers, so we have
asked non-local callers to address a specific concept sometime.
4) How much detail would you like such documents contain?
It was very interesting to read the Cambridge dance guidelines, and I was
not surprised to see that level of detail for that dance/crowd, especially
after having danced there. I agree with Lisa G's comment that they are a
very demanding clientele and I would definitely want to know this and the
details well in advance of calling there. I don't see it as micro managing,
but rather making sure up front that the caller is well prepared and that
the dancers get what they expect. Tom's examples were very interesting too.
I would definitely want to know in advance if a community required a
specific dance or figure to be called. I'm still at the stage where I like
to plan a program in advance to make sure that I vary the story lines and
include the "meat." Changing thing up on the fly is getting easier for me,
but I prefer to make sure that I work specific details in. Interesting
comment about the placement of a mixer in a program. I used to include one
in the second or third slot in my programs but then called a bunch of dances
in a row where there weren't enough dancers to pull it off. Then, I moved
the mixer to the first dance after the break but I sometimes find that
people who hate mixers continue the break, rather than dance. Knowing when
to put it in an evening to help balance the lines would be very helpful. I
think ultimately, the level of detail should be determined by the community.
As a caller, I want the community to have an enjoyable evening. So I'd like
to know whatever level of detail they feel is important for me to know to
help make sure that happens.
Good topic. Thanks for raising it Lynn.
Bev
*****************************************
The Witful Turnip wturnip(a)sympatico.ca
"If you're gonna eat shit, don't nibble."
- said by Tom Hinds re: calling square dances
*****************************************
Hi!
I need some help in identifying a dance. This was shared with me
recently and I hope to call it at some point and would like to be able
to credit it.
becket
A1 long lines forward and back, ladies chain
A2 left hand star, w/ next neigh allem. right 1 1/2 (to long waves with
men facing in and ladies facing out)
B1 bal. wave, circulate, bal. wave, circulate
B2 bal. wave, circulate and swing partner
It seems familiar, so I think that I've danced it before. At least the figure with the bal., circ., bal., circ., swing. (Circulate is a modern western square dance term. If you're facing into the set, walk across; if you're facing out, loop right to take the place to your right facing in.)
Thanks for your help!
Chris
On May 17th, the MIT dance in Cambridge, MA is having a "Caller Sampler
End of Semester Fiesta". They are looking for callers to participate.
This is a good venue to get some practice calling. We will call 1-4
dances each.
Contact Ann Cowan if you're interested: acowan3(a)earthlink.net
During the past month, I've had more exposure to dance guidelines and people wanting to write dance guidelines than I've ever had before. What I'm talking about is guidelines that the programmer/organizer of a regular dance series provides to callers who will be calling at that dance. I've found some to be very helpful, especially when I've never been to that dance. Others provide way too much information and almost feel like micromanaging.
So, my questions for you all are: 1) Have you ever received a set of such guidelines (or sent them out from your dance), and if so, would you be willing to share them with us? 2) As a caller, what information would you like to have included in such a document? 3) As a dance organizer, what information would you like to convey to incoming callers? 4) How much detail would you like such documents contain?
Thanks,
Lynn
I've been presented with some interesting guidelines relating to programming:
End the evening with La bastrangue
Include 1 contra with contra corners in the evening
Don't call squares
Don't call contras (at the Blacksburg square dance).
As a person booking the dances in C'ville I noticed that during one summer, ALL of the callers called an entire evening composed of dances in the pattern of:
A1 swing neighbor (variations of)
A2 some easy moves in order to....
B1 swing partner (including all the variations)
B2 some easy moves in order to.........
The experienced dancers got really bored.
So I had to request that callers vary the story lines and actually include some meat in their programs.
We've moved to a smaller hall that requires short lines. I suggested no double progression dances and a circle mixer as the 3rd or so dance- people tickled in and this is when the numbers were too many for one line and too few for 2 lines.
Tom
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. dance guidelines (lynn ackerson)
> 2. Re: dance guidelines (Lisa Sieverts)
> 3. Re: dance guidelines (Lisa Greenleaf)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Wed, 26 Jan 2005 15:04:13 -0800 (PST)
> From: lynn ackerson <callynn1(a)pacbell.net>
> Subject: [Callers] dance guidelines
> To: callers <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Message-ID: <20050126230413.29985.qmail(a)web81610.mail.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> During the past month, I've had more exposure to dance guidelines and people wanting to write dance guidelines than I've ever had before. What I'm talking about is guidelines that the programmer/organizer of a regular dance series provides to callers who will be calling at that dance. I've found some to be very helpful, especially when I've never been to that dance. Others provide way too much information and almost feel like micromanaging.
>
> So, my questions for you all are: 1) Have you ever received a set of such guidelines (or sent them out from your dance), and if so, would you be willing to share them with us? 2) As a caller, what information would you like to have included in such a document? 3) As a dance organizer, what information would you like to convey to incoming callers? 4) How much detail would you like such documents contain?
>
> Thanks,
> Lynn
>
