Organizers

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Puttin' On The Dance 2 organizers conference - archive now online!

by Emily Addison via Organizers

Hello Fellow Organizers, I wanted to share a new organizer resource that JUST came online... The 'Puttin' On The Dance 2' organizer conference archive is now available. I won't say anything more other than it's SUPER useful and worth looking through ... check it out! http://www.puttinonthedance.org/potd2-conference-notes/ Related - if you want to see more images from the sessions, look here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/puttinonthedance/albums Additionally, these two archives of conferences are also available: POTD1: http://www.puttinonthedance.org/potd1materials/ SWROC: http://cdss.org/swroc/post-conference/archive/ Most any topic under organizing has been covered at one or more of these conferences. I'm curious --- any topics that haven't been covered which you think are worthy of discussion??? (Although, yes, we can always talk about some of these topics more...) Enjoy! Emily - for Putting On The Dance 2

9 years, 8 months

Re: [Organizers] sound system ownership

by Peter Clark via Organizers

I have been involved in a second group situation as you described where an established group allowed our new group use of their sound system. Initially it was free of charge, but eventually the established group requested a yearly donation of $150 to help with upkeep. Since our group's focus shifted to music workshops and open bands, we ended up acquiring a sound system that could be used by groups that included numerous new participants. That meant lots of mics and a feedback suppressor that could help with having a large number of mics open and musicians with emerging mic technique. Have you noticed any commonalities of which nights have good sound vs. which nights don't? When I have run sound, the biggest problems have resulted from musicians bringing their own gear. For example, a guitarist insisting on using an omnidirectional mic that caused feedback when used with stage monitors / a multi-instrumentalist wanting to use a switch to connect two instruments that required very different gain settings resulting in immediate feedback when the hotter instrument was selected. I have found it somewhat rare to encounter contra dance sound systems using ducking and compression and wouldn't consider them a must-have. The primary use I have seen with compression is on the caller channel because sometimes a caller will get excited and yell at volumes that are far too loud for anyone's enjoyment. I have seen bands resent the use of compression, since it prevents use of dynamics as a musical technique. Peter On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 1:16 PM, Dana Dwinell-Yardley via Organizers <organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hi smart organizers, > > I wish I had some good suggestions to contribute to the conversation about > callers, but I don't think I can say anything better than has already been > said. Instead, I'll pose a new question! > > We are considering getting a sound system for our Grange hall. Right now, > bands either bring their own sound, or we hire a local sound person to bring > their system for the evening. Sometimes our sound is excellent, other times > less so. We'd like to make it more consistently excellent, making the dance > less stressful and more fun for everyone. > > Our main questions right now are about ownership and responsibility. There > is one dance series at our hall now, but a second series is being organized > to start this winter, and other groups use the Grange as well. Who should > own the sound system? Who will be responsible for caring for it? Who makes > decisions about it? What about insurance and storage and use by several > different groups? > > Also, the idea is to own a sound board, speakers/monitors, and a mic for the > caller, but ask bands to bring their own mics/stands/cables. Bands could > either run our system themselves, or we could hire someone for the evening. > > For those of you who have sound systems, how to you handle these things? Any > insights are welcome. > > Thanks, > Dana > > -- > Dana Dwinell-Yardley > graphic design & layout > Montpelier, Vermont > 802-505-6639 > danadwya(a)gmail.com > > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net >

9 years, 8 months

Re: [Organizers] Hard decisions when a caller lacks excellence

by Erik Barry Erhardt via Organizers

Thank you all for your feedback on this thread. I think my recommendation to our board will be to start recording some of the dances (with their knowledge, of course). This will help us, both for feedback for those callers who want this feedback to improve their calling, and for helping us with having evidence for those callers that aren't meeting the needs of our dances. Then we can provide specific areas for improvement, and if improvement isn't made, then we can have a procedure in place for taking them "off the rotation". This will require a little more work for a reviewer, but probably only in circumstances that require intervention. Thanks to everyone. Specific feedback is below: Walker, I agree that "banning" is too absolute. Mac, yes, my situation is for local callers who are part of our community and whom I don't want to exclude in other ways. We've also developed several new talented callers through our New Mexico Callers Collective (NMCC), so there is less pressure to rely on callers who don't meet our needs. Laur, yes, I agree that the challenge is honoring the relationships and getting consensus. Also, the opinions of a community shift slowly, so implementing change takes time. Jeff, I agree that we shouldn't hire this sort of caller. David, I like your idea for collecting evidence (through video or audio recording) that make it clear what is working and what isn't, and that this can simply apply for everyone. Lindsay, I agree that feedback strategies are really helpful. I like the recordings, they are objective. Peter, the NMCC has been developing training materials and caller skills for callers, with evaluation by our local org's board (FolkMADS). When we've asked for feedback via online forms, all we get are the most vocal being brutal, so we've stopped that practice. If the comments were representative, it would be different. Martha, I love Joseph in a Box! So glad you're all here to help! Erik -- Prof. Erik B. Erhardt, UNM Statistics, (505)750-4424 stat.unm.edu/~erike On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Martha Edwards via Organizers < organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > I definitely agree with David's suggestion about taking videos. We had > Joseph Pimentel here for a Callers Workshop, and he talked about How to > Give Feedback, which was to be perfectly objective - simply describe what > happened, without being judgmental or injecting personal opinions. > > That, of course, is hard to do - we found we were pretty much incapable of > giving feedback without injecting our own opinions. We had, however, > already bought a cute little video camera to record our dances, and found > out pretty quickly just how perfectly objective it was, and renamed the > camera "Joseph in a Box." > > No matter what your calling level, you will learn an amazing amount in a > short time if you have a Joseph in a Box. Boy, is it truthful! > > (Ouch) > > M > E > > > > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list > Organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/organizers-sharedweight.net > >

9 years, 8 months

Vacation reply

by via Organizers

9 years, 8 months

Elevator pitches for contra

by Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers

Hello everyone! This is something I am trying to develop and I was wondering if anyone had some that they like to use. I like the "if square dancing and swing dancing met in a bar, you'd get contra", but as someone pointed out to me, if the person you are talking to doesn't really know what square dancing is like it's not very helpful. What are your favorite elevator pitches? How do you describe contra to friends, family or potential new dancers? Thanks! Marie Communications for ContraMontreal

9 years, 9 months

What is the main goal of your dance series or organization?

by Marie-Michèle Fournier via Organizers

Hi all! It's a pretty simple question to articulate, but for us the answer is not so easy to put in words, so I am looking at other places for inspiration! Thanks! Marie ContraMontreal

9 years, 11 months

talent info sheet and contracts - thoughts and queries???

by Emily Addison via Organizers

Hi Fellow Organizers, As many of you know (because I've already posted on this!), Ottawa Contra is trying to improve our talent info/contracts. I've been working with versions from your various dance communities as well as ideas that came up at the Puttin On The Dance session re talent. I've attached our draft as it is now and would love to get your thoughts on a few aspects. See below for five questions. :) Emily 1. *Does our cancellation policy look fair? Anything we should do different?* *If Ottawa Contra has to cancel a gig within three months of the event, we will compensate the talent for the full agreed upon amount. If the caller or band needs to cancel the gig, please let us know ASAP. Bands can substitute a member if agreed with Ottawa Contra (no additional pay). If you don't perform, we don't compensate. Please note that cancellation is difficult for us as we promote all bands/callers over the whole season.* 2. *I'm trying to open up channels for us to give feedback to the occasional caller/band when things don't go well. Does our wording on 'feedback both ways' seem good in terms of being able to approach post-gig to provide comments if there are particular issues (in addition to the emails we send when it goes really well!).* *Callers & Bands - Feedback both ways:* *We would like to foster an open dialogue of feedback from you to us and from us to you! If you are uncomfortable with feedback, please let us know ahead of time. And, if you have any feedback for us regarding any aspect of your experience with Ottawa Contra, please begin the dialogue!* 3. *Sit Ins/sharing mic... ... we'd like to (if talent willing) have options for a caller and 1-2 local musicians to get a bit of experience in order to build capacity. See what you think of how we suggest that. **BAND: · 'Sit ins'* *: If you are willing, 1-2 of our local contra musicians would love to 'sit in' with you for 1-2 sets. This is a purposeful attempt on our part to build capacity in our dance musician community – having locals get to feel your amazing energy will help them a lot! This is only if you are willing and we'll confirm with you ahead of time. (These sit ins could be mic'd or not.) CallErs: If you are willing, we would like to arrange a time of your choice during the evening where one of our local callers could call one dance. We would love for you to take a few notes and provide them with some constructive feedback on what they did well and what they could tweak (i.e., stop-start-continue). Our local callers would really benefit from calling with varied professional bands and from your tips! * 4. *Caller archiving: This is an idea from Belfast and Concord. What do you think?* *Archiving:* We have started an archive that lists past programs which you may refer to before/during the dance. Please record your called program there – name of dance, composer/author, comments, etc. This is shared with other visiting callers to get a sense of pacing, types of dances called, and challenges they come across . 5. *Gender-mixer dance... ... this is something some people on our committee want to try to help women especially who are scared about learning the gents role (it's true - we have many and 1 workshop a year isn't doing it). Also other reasons as some folks like to play with gender roles. However, we aren't interested in becoming a gender free dance and we have a lot of beginners every time who get confused when people change roles too much (it already happens a bit). What do you think?* *Gender-mixer dance:* (Optional ) In the second half, we would like you to announce (a full dance ahead) that there will be a gender-mixer for those who want it. Randomly choose a line for folks who want to play opposite gender roles, swap roles throughout the dance, etc. A few dancers do this regularly but some folks who are learning the opposite gender role want a more safe time to experiment where they won't be embarrassed if they make mistakes, etc.

9 years, 12 months

Bringing in more English dancers

by David Chandler via Organizers

This has been a difficult year for English dancing in NYC, with lots of people not dancing because of disability, weather, etc. We are looking for ways to get more dancers to come and join our community on a continuing basis, and want to survey dancers (those who came only once, those who came for a while and dropped out, and long-timers) about what might make dancing more attractive. Rather than reinvent the wheel we wondered if any other communities have done such surveys, and/or found good ways to expand their English dancing community. Thanks for your help! I'll post this separately on ECD. David Chandler

9 years, 12 months

performer communication

by Chrissy Fowler via Organizers

I was recently reminded of how thoroughly the Chattahoochee Country Dancers appear (at least from their comprehensive, and very entertaining, web materials) to communicate with performers. http://www.contradance.org/html/band-caller-info.php Cheers, Chrissy Fowler . . . Chrissy Fowler | 207.338.0979 chrissyfowler.com | westbranchwords.com | belfastflyingshoes.org (1st Friday Community & Contra Dances)

10 years

Saying "no"

by Jeff Kaufman via Organizers

When you're handling booking for bands or callers, there are generally some proper you don't want to book. When the reason is straightforward it's not too hard to communicate ("you need to get more experience; play some smaller dances and get back to me" or "on even days our series only books local callers, ago the dates you suggested don't work, but what about DATE?") but sometimes the reason is "we don't think you're very good, and you've been doing enough dances that we don't think booking you for ours will help you improve"? I'd like to just say "no" without getting into reasons, but everything I write sounds either too short and curt or overshary. How do other bookers handle this?

10 years

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