Chestnuts

I was going to comment, but this really merits a full post.

The Miller Brothers CD isn't that great for calling, especially "Money Musk." I had bought it with that purpose in mind, but it's too improvisational and the tune length doesn't match the way the dance is danced. It's also very, very fast. Startlingly so.

I'm really loving the Henry Ford CD right now. I ordered it from Stig Malmo and it was definitely worth the money ($30 for 2 CDs, including postage). It has "Money Musk" and a ton of other great music and calling on it. Most dances are on there w/ and w/o calls. I also own the companion book in my personal dance library and would be happy to bring it to a dance for anyone to look at. Just remind me.

The trad caller's yahoo group really helped me to understand why I was having trouble puzzling out the Miller Bros. CD. Go join. Lurk if you like. Learn a lot, especially about more traditional dances. Right now they're talking about "Strip Ninepin."

In addition, the CDSS (are you a member yet?) column on cracking chestnuts spoke to the evolution of the "Money Musk" tune and dance. There's one on "Hull's Victory" too, which specifically recommends a forward & back balance.

Dancing these so-called chestnuts, btw, really isn't that old. These are the dances that Childgrove was dancing back in the late 70s.

I was talking to Larry about it last night, and he said that they used to dance all night long, and the unequal dances is what let them do that--he said no one ever sat out a dance. In addition, he said, the fact that the inactives stood back gave the active couples room to really dance hot and hard. I hadn't thought about it before, but what he said made a lot of sense.

Calling Party December 19

Didn't we just have a blast tonight?

We got off to a fast start, with Wade, Larry, Bob, David, Maryanne, Kay, Deb, and Martha plunging right in trying to figure out how to make Hull's Victory seem easy. We had danced it last Sunday, and though Deborah called it excellently, we danced it rather badly. I remarked to Deborah that we just weren't that good at moves we weren't used to doing. She pointed out that the dance has a bunch of allemandes and balances, a square through, and a down the hall, hardly "unusual" moves. Yet it was really hard for us to be in the right place at the right time. Why, then, did it seem so difficult?

A couple of us were just curious enough that we thought it would be useful to take it apart at the calling party. We came up with a couple of observations. The allemandes seemed too fast. How could you get around twice in only eight counts? Or once in four? Well, we discovered, you shouldn't do our usual allemande, which puts us at half an arm's length away from each other. Instead, you do the allemandes with your arms tucked pretty close to your chest. At that distance, it's easy to get around with no rushing at all. Then we also found that the balances went better if they were forward and back balances instead of side to side - that made a huge difference. And the timing on the down the hall! Ohmgod, who knew? A "Turn as a couple" takes four counts. So does a cast around. So if we went down the hall for our usual 6 counts, turned and came back, that would be 6 + 4 + 6 + 4, or 20 counts. Since there are only 16 counts of music for that section, it's no wonder we were always late. So we learned to go down the hall only four counts, turn, and come back for four counts, leaving the necessary 4 counts for the cast off. The final thing was to learn to do the rights and lefts of the square through using four counts of the music for each one instead of our usual two counts. Rather than go slowly, which feels weird, we found we could do a kind of "one two three and turn" "one two three and turn" and it felt both fun and on time. We had the "New England Chestnuts" album version of Hull's Victory to dance to, and though it did not make converts of us all, many of us ended up liking the dance a bunch.

Later on, Reida and Joe and Chystal and Alice showed up, so we were able to have a full complement of dancers for most of the evening even when some of us were enjoying the holiday snacks. Bob called Roll in the Hey and Jefferson and Liberty, which he will call this Sunday as Mac's guest caller. Mac called a contra that goes to the Liberty Bell March (aka the Monty Python theme song), Chrystal called an updated version of Female Saylor, Joe called Beneficial Tradition, and as the high point of the evening we all danced Roll in the Hey to our own singing. Our version of Jingle Bells was very modern, very polytonal, for the first few verses, but eventually settled into the more traditional "one key". I have to admit I laughed every time we got around to "one horse open sleigh, Hey!" just before the hey.

We got to talking about chestnuts (thanks, Deborah!) and one thing led to another, and pretty soon we were attempting Money Musk, with Wade calling, and the Miller brothers' New England Chestnuts CD on the boombox. It took us a while to figure out the timing, but we got it sometimes, and then it was really fun. I love the tune and would love to get to play it sometime.

There was wine and there were brownies and there was Mexican stuff and Trader Joe stuff and wine and fruit cake and green cookies and did I mention wine? A few of us sat around talking for pretty long afterwards - mostly about music, rather than calling, but it was All Good.

Fire, Fire, Fire

I seem to recall that you all were working on a quadrille that had the dancers going in and shouting "fire, fire, fire." I just got a copy from Denmark of Henry Ford's Early American Dances on 2 CDs. One dance is "Fireman's Dance, Circle Quadrille, With Calls" and seems similar to what you were working on.

Is it possibly the same?

Calling Party this Wednesday, December 19

It's lovely. A few people have discovered that the calling parties are a good way to get in an extra night of dancing! And we thank you for your sacrifice.

My house, 7:00pm. E-mail me if you need directions.

There is much to do, much to discuss! We have a Contra calling opportunity coming up the day after Christmas, as well as New Year's Eve, and there's the English Country Dance Christmas Ball on January 5, at which some of us may be calling.

I used my shiny new CDSS membership discount to get the entire set of ECD dance CDs put out by Bare Necessities, so now we'll have a lot of music already recorded to dance to. (My offer continues to stand, in addition, to provide a practice tape of any piece you want to call a dance to, in case it isn't on the Bare Necessities CDs.) I also now have the big Playford book, so we can be up to date on the popular dances of the day, so long as the day is a couple of centuries ago.

I'm also working on getting a representative group of tunes for contras with clear "potatoes" ready for us to choose from, complete with beats per minute counts. I've divided them roughly into "old time" and "not old time". If you own any favorites you'd like to dance to, just bring the CD!

M
E

Calling at the Waltz Party

An update for those of you who couldn't be there: Martha's birthday celebration at last night's Waltz Party was a great success. Miss Martha herself called the "Levi Jackson Rag" and had three full sets dancing it and enjoying themselves. Bob taught the "Spanish Waltz," a Sicilian circle dance. Lovely to see an entire room full of people doing it gracefully and well.

Congratulations and happy birthday, Martha!

Practice Practice Practice

Wow. We're actually doing it!

All of our regular Childgrove callers have graciously offered spots to us fledgling callers in the coming months. Here is the list I have (correct me if I'm wrong!):

Sunday, December 16, Deborah calling - Wade
Sunday, Dec 23, Mac calling - Bob
Monday, Dec 31, open calling - Wade, David, Larry
Sunday, Jan 6, Judy calling - David and Chrystal
Sunday, Jan 20, Ted calling - Martha
Sunday, Jan 27, Mac calling - Kay
Sunday, Feb 3, Judy calling - Wade (plus one more TBD)
Sunday, Feb 17, Mac calling - Joe F
Sunday, Mar 3, Deborah calling - Martha

Also, my fellow hatchlings, we can ask Larry for Eileen's number to pester her about calling a dance at the Youth contra on Dec 26, and we can also importune Eric (or Deborah) to see if we can call a community-type dance in Elsah. AND, John and Kathy Coffman have invited us to come down any old time to call a dance or two at the Cape Girardeau dance. Personally, I'm not sure I'm ready to call a dance to anyone who couldn't do it if I just read them the card, but I guess it's time to try... Maybe they'd like to do one of those Victorian-period Blind-man's Bluff Parlor Games.

M
E

Calling for the "Kids"

Now that I've finally joined the dancecaller blog, I thought I may as well share my experience calling for the post-Thanksgiving Youth Contra dance. This was a very different experience than calling a dance for a room full of experienced dancers, or for that matter, for a room half-filled with experienced dancers. I think four people shared the calling duties (Larry, Eileen, me, and some young girl whose name I forget). I would guess there were around 30 dancers, maybe 10 of whom were experienced. As a result, small mistakes made on the dance floor were not self-correcting, and neighboring dancers couldn't (didn't) do much to straighten things out when things went amiss. Now, the flip side of this is that the dancers were really rather well behaved and attentive! There was very little chatter on the floor during the walk-throughs, and they really seemed to want to figure out how the dances worked. 

I called two dances during the evening: Reel Easy by Cary Ravitz, and Duck Soup by David Kirchner (which I had called at Childgrove's open calling dance). Reel Easy was the first dance I called, and Larry graciously provided me with a video of my teaching and calling of that dance, which is VERY instructive to watch. To my shame, the teaching took over 8 minutes! (Other callers had similar times). Why so long? Partly because I wanted to make sure that the dancers had really learned how the dance worked, so I was being very deliberate in teaching, but on reviewing the video I think that I was perhaps too tentative. The dance starts neighbor do-si-do, neighbor swing, but by the end of the swing there was at least one couple with the lady and gent on the wrong side of each other. I saw one couple in the wrong place and corrected them, but the video shows that I missed another couple. The next move was long lines, then ladies allemande right in the center 1 1/2, and with people out of place there was confusion. At that point I decided to start again and there was a request to split the dance into 2 lines, so we did that. Already, 4 minutes had elapsed! On the second time through, an entire set of dancers again ended the first swing out of position, but this time I spotted it. As callers we are not supposed to say "Yo, guy in the glasses and beard, the lady goes on your RIGHT!" I think I said "You should end the swing with the lady on the right side, so that lines on the sides are alternating men and women. If two men are next to each other, one of you is in the wrong spot." I don't think this worked very well. 

Eventually, some one on the floor got them positioned correctly. They did the lines forward and back, ladies allemande 1.5, partner balance and swing just fine. With the circle left 3 places, neighbor allemande right one time, pull by right to new neighbor one set got mixed up. I stopped to straighten them out, but in the time it took to do that, one couple decided that they didn't have a couple to dance with and moved from the center of the left line to the end of the right line (in fact, the next couple just had not yet caught up to the pull by right to the next neighbor). Nothing to do now but say "Um, you folks can't leave the middle of the set! You have to come back, it will work, trust me!" To my great relief, when they came back I did a second walk-through and it went smoothly. I sent the dancers back to place and started the dance, and bless them, they danced it! I had to keep doing partial calls for most of the dance to prevent it breaking down (there was a brief collapse in the right line, but they recovered), but they got through it, and judging by the applause they had a blast. 

I don't have a video of how "Duck Soup" went, but I think that teaching that worked better: I had more prior experience with that dance and the dancers had more experience by the second half of the evening. Perhaps the biggest snafu was that I split the long line into two short lines, and then had to move it back to one long line. 

In short, it was an eye-opening experience. Novice dancers throw curve-balls at you! Being under-prepared in such a situation causes problems. I didn't know my first dance that well and came off weak in teaching it, killing at least 2-3 minutes in the process as a result. However, it was really very thrilling when they responded so positively after each dance. Its one thing to get applause from experienced contra dancers, but when you get it from dancers who maybe don't know how much fun they can be having it means even more. And the applause isn't even for you the caller, its for the whole thing that just happened, and you had a part in making that happen. 

Calling Party December 5

Great party on Wednesday! By my count, there were fourteen of us here!
Among other things, we celebrated Chrystal's birthday a day early. She was BORN on St. Nicholas's day, December 6. Pretty cool, huh, having Santa Claus as your patron saint?

Three of our experienced callers called interesting dances with some problematic moves in them. We learned the subtle difference between a "star through" and a "California Twirl." They're both "twirl to swap" moves done by exactly the same people with exactly the same hands, but, get this, a "star through" is done with inside hands (each couple holding hands nearest the center of their group of four), whereas a "California twirl" uses outside hands (each couple holding hands furthest from the center of their group of four), like this (imagine you're the solid people):

1)Beginning of the Star Through
2)End of the Star Through, beginning of the California Twirl
3)End of the California Twirl, facing new set

Chrystal also brought us the "Swing Through," which I'll try later to remember and diagram. Something about a bunch of half Allemandes. Very fun.

We finally had enough people to do "The Levi Jackson Rag", which I have been wanting to call for ages, so even without preparation (sorry, Kiran!) I tried it out. Thanks to Eric's having called it before and telling me the trick to making the 5-handed star easy to do (The trick is to say "Leave one, pass one, get one!"), we were able to do it without breakdown all five times through. What a thrill! And thanks to Yankee Ingenuity for having the music on their CD.

Ted was kind enough to answer my call for spots on the calling roster with an offer this weekend, first come first served. I waited two hours to see if anyone else wanted it, but you must have been getting your Christmas shopping done, so I got to call Sunday night. It seemed to go okay - a couple of people said I was too quiet (including Wade, who was the sound guy but was having too much fun dancing to turn it up) but others said they had no trouble. The band played pretty lickety split for a dance that has three different allemandes in an 8-count period, but it was probably my fault for calling Southern Swing and asking for a hot dance. The dancers looked really good from the stage, however. What a great place to watch a dance from!

The next contradance open calling opportunity is New Year's Eve. In addition, Mac, Ted, Judy and Deborah have offered to let one or the other of us call a dance whenever they're calling. Here's their schedule for the next couple of months:
December 16 - Deborah
December 23 - Mac
December 31 - New Year's Eve - open calling
January 6 - Judy
January 12 - Deborah
January 20 - Ted
January 27 - Mac
February 3 - Judy
February 17 - Mac
March 3 - Deborah

Think about when you'd like to call and let them know. The other folks calling during this period are Lisa Harris and Paula McFarling. If you're friends with one of them, see if you can wangle a spot with one of them as well! Practice, practice, practice.

Now if we could just figure out how to get some practice calling English...

M
E

Taking Hands Four

Who would have thought that how a caller gets people to take hands four would be a controversial issue? That's why it's fun to talk with Kiran - he has a very long list of things he's thought about, and has, um, strong opinions about them, but he still rather enjoys a contrary opinion.

He says that it's the caller's job to make sure that the sets have formed, and that the teaching should not begin until they are. If you call for hands four and the sets do not form all the way down because people are socializing, you do not start teaching, you just wait. Eventually, the dancers will start demanding the hands four - that's the best way, he says. Waiting is a good thing, because, after all, people are there partly to dance, and partly to socialize.

Chris Bischoff described his method of taking hands four this way: "Hands four, ladies and gentlemen. Hands four. Take hands four all the way down the set." Then he waits. Talks to the band, shuffles his cards, watches the crowd. Then, even though the sets have not yet formed all the way to the bottom, he begins the teaching. "And with your neighbor, balance and swing." The crowd at the bottom notices that the teaching has begun and that they have not yet taken hands four. They quickly hop to, get the sets formed and send the message up to the caller that they had not yet taken hands four. (As if he had not noticed.) Chris then says in his sweet honey voice, "Oh, I'm sorry. We seem to have started before everyone had taken hands four. Let's go back to original places and start again."

I like Chris' method for several reasons. It gives dancers time, but not too much time, no one berates anyone else, and it gets things started more quickly than they would otherwise. Over time, it tends to send the signal that you would be better off paying a bit more attention, because you learn that the caller is not going to wait forever to begin teaching.

We have a particular problem with this in St. Louis because our dance space, lovely as it is, is very echo-ey, and even a handful of people talking in the line makes it sound as if absolutely no one is paying attention. This can be disconcerting to callers, who can occasionally become quite huffy about it. And once you start complaining as a caller, your credibility plummets. So there just has to be another way.

Does anyone have any other ideas about how to get the sets formed? How much time is too much time to wait? How much is too little? Do you think a caller can affect (over time) how self-disciplined a dance community becomes?

Kiran's Visit

Some of you probably know of Kiran Wagle, the io.com~entropy guy who put together the very first comprehensive contra dance site in about 1995. Even though he pretty much abandoned it years ago, it contains so much good information that contradance web sites all over the Internet still connect to it.

He's visiting, planning to go to "Body Worlds" this afternoon, and currently sleeping downstairs.

Kiran is a professional gadfly. He makes it his business to understand how contradance works, how calling works, and then lets you know if you managed to understand it, too. My kind of guy.

He used to critique callers, and they wouldn't listen because he wasn't a caller himself. So, naturally, to help him get his points across, he learned to call. Alas, I haven't actually danced to Kiran's calling, so I can't tell you if he follows his own advice, but let me tell you, the lad is a walking encyclopedia on the subject, relentlessly articulate, and probably right.

We talked until 2:30am last night, and I found a couple of notes from him in my email this morning. Here's one of the links he sent, which will give you a nice bit of fresh cold water for your face: First-time Caller Notes.

Kiran worked with Larry Jennings before Larry died, helping him put together the second "Zesty Contras" book, which is just chock-full of information on every aspect of contradancing. It's usually on my coffee table during the Calling Parties.

If I can convince him to stick around after he goes to "Body Worlds" this afternoon I'm going to do some serious cross-examination.

Speaking the English

Well, I pretty much blew our nearly-perfect record tonight. "Let's see..." I'm thinking. "No new people in the crowd. I'd better not bore them with my patiently crafted, efficient-but-complete explanations. Just get on with it." The only problem was that I actually LEFT OUT not one, but TWO of the moves of Portsmouth, and neglected to point out that if there are two couples at the bottom in a triple minor, they should dance with a ghost. So much for my strangely obsessive research into the subject.

If I were a baseball player, I would have had a good night. Batting .500 is, after all, a good thing. The Hay Makers, which I was actually more worried about, went fine. Too bad I'm not a baseball player, however, so have to face the fact that I screwed up half of the dances I called.

Kay is beginning to make St Louis into an easy dance. (There was a discussion recently on the trad_callers list recently that seemed to arrive at the thought that there are no hard dances, only badly-called ones, that to a really good caller, there are no hard dances.)

Missy and Mark called the rest of the dances, and did a wonderful job. It was a good party, celebrating the end of a year of performances, and we all went home happy, except for one caller who was still wishing she could do over just three minutes of time earlier in the evening.

M
E

Extra Session to Practice English

We had a wonderful "extra" session to practice calling English last night. Chrystal and Kay and Bob and I were joined by Larry and Marianne, Wade, Reida, and, for a nice first, by seven-letter-Deborah.

Deborah, as we all know, is an extremely experienced and talented caller. I believe she could actually herd cats if needed. She offered many good tips, including admonishing me not to get sidetracked by questions from the floor (Moi? Sidetracked?).

We talked a lot about using your voice and about microphones and monitors. Wade talked about how difficult it is to mic a caller who is inconsistent - sometimes loud, sometimes soft, sometimes close to the mic, sometimes far away. We talked about the relative merits of a calling monitor and I think we agreed they're a really nice-to-have.

Deborah also suggested that I was using too many words calling The Haymakers, so together with Kay and Chrystal, we did some serious liposuction on the calls, teaching me some new "English" in the process. Who could have figured that "Hands across half way" means "Take right hands in a hands-across star, and turn the star two places"? Five syllables instead of sixteen. Or "First corners cast around" instead of "First Man cast down, Second Woman cast up"? At least that was better than "First Man turn over his left shoulder to walk down the outside past the Second Man, Second Woman turn over her left shoulder to walk up the outside past the First Woman." But wow. "First corners cast around." Sweet.

We had another go at St. Louis, too. At this rate, I think several of us are finally actually understanding this dance! We should make a video, put it up on YouTube and tell Colin.

Today I went all crazy and figured out how a Triple Minor works. I should probably have learned this by dancing a few, but as I'm calling one next Tuesday, I had to go the diagram route.

I first just tried out the progressions as I (mistakenly) thought they would work (columns are the times through the dance, letters are the couples, numbers are the roles played by each couple each time through the dance, and the highlighting shows a complete set of three couples doing the dance):

You can see that poor couple F stayed at the bottom of the set the entire dance. :-(

Much good input from Bob and Kay and Chrystal via e-mail revealed that when there are two couples out at the bottom, they dance with a ghost couple, which reverses their positions, leading to this:


Note that in column 2, D1 and F2 are to be dancing with G(host)3. The same in columns 5, 8 etc.

You must dance the dance four, seven or ten (or 13, 16, 19) times to have everyone dancing the last time through. Heck, a mere 19 times through, and if you are dancing with six couples, you will have gone through every configuration in the dance, ending with all couples dancing where they danced the first time through.

M
E

Just Joined the Blog

Hope to make it to the DEC 5th caller session.

New Callers night

Congratulations to all of you who helped with the calling Sat evening - it was a very enjoyable dance and everyone I tlaked to was very complimentary of the callers.

We should do this once in a while - maybe twice a year would be good. In between - you alre all welcome to call a dance at our weekly events. Local callers are pretty open to providing one slot in the evening and will probably even help pick a dance and provide other guideance. Just contct one of them a week or two before the dance.

There was some discussion of doing your own programming next time. That would be a very nice learning experience. Talk to other callers about how they approach programming - everyone has their own style. You can come up with a format for an eveing and probably even individual preferences for each of you. Once you have your plan - start looking for dances that fit and assign them to the callers.

There was a inquiry about a source for assigning difficulty to dances. Even if you find such a list - don't give it too much credibility. Talk about what makes dances hard, easy, fun, boring, etc. There are lots of factors. There is a discussion going on the callers group right now - and one post offered the theory that it is not really about hard and easy, but more about how well it is taught.

Don't get too academic with this - it still has to be fun.

Mac

I just read a comment by Kay about the caller's group calling for a Contra dance night every few months. This would be not be unlike the Folk School coming in and doing their thing once or twice a year. I think it's worth some discussion and planning.

What a Blast!

OK it was a blast on Saturday! It was so fun to see everyone up there calling and to dance to all the hard work I know went into it!

The band was fabulous. I stepped up to the stage, and while everyone was taking partners I told them, "Ok, I just wanted to let you know this my first time ever calling a Contra dance." The guitar player there on the end just grinned and said, "OK! Great were going to play a three-part crooked tune..." And I said, "Bring it on."

We talked about doing the bunny hop signal last Wednesday--when to signal--and I still did it too early so when the Bass player called out "last time" and I panicked and begged for one more time thru! I didn't want to leave anyone out at the top! They were cool and it ended well. I'm sure everyone noticed I hollered "Last Time" It was as much for me as anyone. hee hee

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME job everyone!

Hi everybody. I as well think that kudos are in order all around. We collectively seemed to be calm and prepared to call (yea). Ironically, even after determined effort I managed to leave out a couple at the top at the end of the dance that I called. I just could not tell when the band was going to end the tune. Larry mentioned to me that the ladies may have had some difficulty getting into the hey after the right -hand allemande in Al's Heyday. Perhaps we could work on that move at the next caller's gathering.
Thanks,
Joe

Big Night at Contra

Wahoo!!

We rocked!

Seven (count them) newbie callers called at last night's contra dance, and, folks, not only did we live to tell the tale, we had zero breakdowns, we remembered things like introducing the band (thanks, David) and letting the band know when we were going to stop. Sometimes we even changed the dance a bit at the end to allow for a final partner swing. Stuff like that.

Our regular callers, Mac and Judy, called squares to break things up a bit, and, if I'm not mistaken, I think it was a first or second square for Judy.

Okay, many of us ran our dances a bit short (though they seemed long to us...) but that just left time for our caller friends from Cape Girardeau to call, a nice treat. Mac organized the team according to the dances we had chosen so that the first half of the evening had relatively easier dances, when we would have more newcomers.

The crowd was large and had plenty of newcomers, so it was a good test. The band played mercifully slowly, giving us and the dancers plenty of time to think. Most of us called pretty easy dances, too, so we had given ourselves lots of reasons to succeed, but what a rush we got when we realized we had, in fact, succeeded. Yay!!

Big Night at English

Friday night, three of the calling party regulars called English dances at English Country Dance. Kay and Chrystal and Sue called (along with Missy and Rebecca), and did a great job!

Kay repeated her success with "St Louis", Chrystal called "mmmph Hill" (the tune is also known as Squirrel Hunters, putting the original out of my mind), and Sue called "Weldon Hall". There may have been others.

Bob and I had a wonderful time. If I'm going to dance on that concrete floor again, however, I'm getting some dance sneakers. Ouch!

M
E

Welcome Joe, and congratulations to Sue and Kay and Chrystal

A big welcome to Joe - master clogger and now a blogger! (I guess that puts you in the nineteenth and the twenty-first centuries, respectively, bypassing the twentieth altogether...)

Will wonders never cease. I had a really good time at English last night. Sue called. Chrystal called. And Kay called. Missy and Rebecca called too, and everyone did a good job - fun dances, minimal talking and maximal dancing. I was working hard trying to develop some English dancing chops. I'm at that awkward stage where I know enough to be able to pretend I know what I'm doing, but not enough to keep from regularly embarrassing myself. Lucky for me, I'm used to feeling that way. I figure you just have to wade into the water and thrash around a bit before you learn how to swim.

Kay did an especially good job finally conquering "St Louis". There's one fiendish spot in the dance where two figures flow together across the phrase between the B1 and B2 sections of the music. Since most of the time, moves are contained within one section of the music (just count to eight twice), with a natural "phrase ending" to those moves that coincides with the natural phrase ending of the music, it's normally easy to keep track of whether you're doing the right thing at the right time. But in this dance, you move out of (get this) three-quarters of a double figure of eight (huh?) right into a gypsy. How the heck are you supposed to know when the wandering around stops and the gypsy starts? Add to that, that the gypsy ends in an unusual way, and must be precisely on time, you've got yourself one doozy of a difficult dance. Kay nailed it.

OK everybody, this my first posting of a blog message of any kind let alone the caller's group. I realize I'm probably the one who proliferated the excuse "I'm having too much fun dancing to call". Well, we all make mistakes. I is fun to call. I'm pleased to be included in this group. It really is an added dimension to my perspective and understanding of dance group/folk/art culture. I am looking forward to this Saturday (Nov. 10th). It's been a long time since I last called a contra dance. See ya all this Saturday.

Kalloween Party

Beware the ladies in chains, avoid the trouble at Contra Corners, inspect your food for Sir Isaac's maggots, and don't open the boxes of gnats, BUT do be sure to come to the Kall-o-ween Party on Wednesday.

That's this Wednesday, October 31, 2007, at 7:00pm. Martha's house.

There will be treats. There will be tricks. (But feel free to bring one or the other of your own.) There will be a black cat and a broomstick.

Come to call. Come to dance. Come to drink the blood-red wine.

Callers bring a scary dance to call - even if it's just you that's scared. Dancers bring your feet and a drop of the milk of human kindness towards new shaky callers.

Calling Party October 17

I'm always a little surprised at how fun the parties are, and how much we learn, no matter how many or how few people are there. We had five people this week, so we used quite a few brain cycles figuring out how to change each dance to end in a way that switched the ones and twos every time through the dance. Some of our effects were quite...creative. And fun.

Wade and David and Bob and I called, and we four plus Reida danced. We did only contra since all the ECD people (except Bob and me) were not there. We are invited to call at the second Saturday Homecoming contra dance in November, so we each picked a couple of contras we'd like to call to practice. We'll send the list to Mac after the next party (on Halloween!) so he can make up the program.

Anybody know any scary contras or English dances we could do on Halloween? I'm thinking of Triskadekaphobia (fear of 13) or any of the Maggot dances. There must be others.

M
E

More of my Random Thoughts--oh yeah on Calling!

The Queen's Jig (For Reference)
A1 1st corners side, set and turn single
A2 2nd corners repeat A1
B1 1st corners change places (1-2),2nd corners change places (3-4),Partners face, balance back and change places (5-8)
B2 Right hands-across (1-6),Turn single and face the next couple (7-8)
________________________________________________________
So, I did call 2 dances at ECD on Friday's as alluded to in Martha's blog from last Tuesday. Slightly disastrous--I must say I did not feel overly confident of my abilities after the evening's event. First, I called the "Queens Jig" which I practiced and practiced on my own and of course practiced on everyone at the calling meeting. I actually think that one went ok in the fact that it didn't fall apart. I was concerned ahead of time about the fact that the instructions have 6 bars to turn the RH star(which usually only takes 4) before the the turn single. I was afraid that people would over rotate the star because of the extra time. So, I asked for advice from Peter. He told me that because of the balance and the loop into the star that it kind smooths things out. It didnt work out for me. Balance, loop--not having any of it! People ended that star in 4 bars and took the next 3ish to do the turn single and then just stared at the next couple until it was time to start again. Some people did use the extra time to make an extra swoopy turn single. Why waste good music?

NOW--"Chrystal Saylor" (It really needs a new name. It sounds pretentious when I teach a dance with my own name in it.) Here is where I had the new and wonderful sensation of feeling TRAPPED behind the mic. So many things--I dont know where to begin. First of all, why did I feel trapped. I watched people go careeening into each other(problem w/dance construction--original instructions--whew--not my rewrite) and I watched the dance fall apart in the middle. I was there behind the mic and could do nothing to fix it except keep calling thru the end and hope everything would right itself. We had a couple of new people who barely knew the top of the set from the bottom of the set. They had the unfortunate luck of #1-dancing together & #2 starting as inactives. When they got to the top of the set they couldnt remember what to do and as newbies they couldnt process the calls fast enough to get where they needed to be when they needed to be there. This dance has no recovery time. If you are in the wrong spot at the end of a figure. TOO BAD you're pretty much stuck. My best friend(who has only come to ECD maybe 2 other times before she moved to CA) is visiting from L.A. and she told me that when she and her partner(another newbie) got to the top they had no idea what was going on. I told told her--That's why I was up there calling...so you would know what to do. She just shrugged and said they never did figure it out. I could tell definitely tell when the more expierenced people were active--they made it look easy. Except for that last bit where people keep running into each other--must fix that.

The best thing of the evening though...I successfully paid attention to when to end the dance. I remembered NOT to leave the top couple stranded out. I felt we stopped in a good timely manner--not too short, not too long. Maybe--just maybe---I'm getting the hang of this calling thing.

Change in the Schedule to Odd Wednesdays

We talked tonight about going to a Wednesdays-only schedule, since Dance Discovery has gone to an every-Tuesday schedule for the foreseeable future, and there are several of us who are in Dance Discovery.

It was suggested that we do odd Wednesdays - so I've put first, third and fifth Wednesdays on the calendar. Hope that doesn't leave anyone out completely. That does mean that we meet next week on Wednesday instead of Tuesday, then again on Halloween. Anybody know any scary dances?

M
E

Staunton, IL...a humorous anecdote

So, a few weeks ago I went to IL to visit my parents. On my way back into the city, I decided to put on some music and practice a contra I have been working on. There were a couple of spots I was having trouble with the wording, so I thought driving down Interstate-55 at night was as good a time as any to practice.

***Footnote: 3 years ago I took classes @ Lincoln Seminary--Lincoln, IL and coming home I always had a landmark that I looked for to let me know the next exit was mine. It happens to be a hideous neon teal cross affixed to this tall church building. This is when I lived in IL*** Station break is now over and regular programing will resume...

So I am thoroughly enjoying this CD my great roommate loaned me and I am calling my guts out to this wonderful group of imaginary dancers that are dancing to across the dashboard of my little car to the wonderful tunes being poured fourth by the fabulous band, when I look up and thru the dark night sky shining like a beautiful blue beacon I see--you guessed it--the teal neon cross. I was in a great mood enjoying the music, I was getting those rough spots worked out and my merry thoughts drifted to, "Huh, I didn't realize that I passed this church on my way baaaacck hommmmmme--OH CRAP! CRAP! CRAP! (realization dawns)" I might have even shouted out loud. The dancers on my dashboard have now dissipated into thin air and my band is just a CD again.

I was so intent on fixing those rough spots, that I had driven to Staunton, IL. For those of you who never visit IL, that's exit 33. YEP! 33 miles the WRONG direction. I would like to blame it on the fact that it was 10pm when I left and it was dark. Yes, yes merging onto 55 from 255 is tricky in the dark***insert eye roll here***.

The bright side? I had 33 MORE miles to practice! Happy calling everyone.

Calling Party October 10

Good party tonight. Wade and Chrystal and Bob and Susan and I practiced inventive progressions until we were suddenly graced with Lyndon, Gitry, Charles and Rin, who came over after a Capering Roisters gig (they're doing some 30 gigs this month!!). We were finally able to do the triple minor that I've been wanting to call, the one with the cross hey. I think I'm ready to call it now if I remember to practice a lot.

Susan called a dance she wrote - AND wrote the music to! It's a lovely, flowing ECD, lots of fun to do. I cranked up my sound editing program, Audacity, and recorded the tune a couple of times through so I could dance, too. People have often danced to a single fiddle, but I sure prefer a larger band.

We did Bob's XYZ dance at fast tempo and found we couldn't always get the last couple of moves right enough to be ready to start over again at the right time, so we discussed about eleventy-seven ways to get a couple from the side of a set to progressed improper position in eight counts. Not for the slow of mind.

Wade is really getting ready for the big time, IMHO. Which is coming up. I think several of us will be calling a dance at the homecoming dance on November 10...

And Chrystal is putting the final elegant touches on calling a dance (or two) for the ECDSTL dance this Friday. I think she and Kay and Susan will all be calling. I'm only sorry that we'll be having fun contradancing at the City Museum on Friday and will miss it.

M
E

Stage Four

4. "I just called my first dance!"

Ok, "just" is not quite accurate. Try 2 weeks ago. September 24th is more like it, but truth be told I havent had time to put this all down until now. At the break someone said to me..."Hey Chrystal, why dont you call Chrystal Saylor next half so you can have a little practice for the 12th." Oh yeah...progressing on to Stage 4.5 very quickly(will explain later). Got to put that calling meeting stuff to practice. I called! I did it! With minimal to no apologies.

So, I got up there and the first thing I thought was, "OH CRAP! I've never called with a live band before--I cant stop and start over! OH NO! When do I--how do I end this thing?" Best answer in life....ask for help. I just told Paul, Charles & Peter that I have never ended a dance before and I would need help with ending it. Easy as that. They pointed out to me not to leave the top couple stranded at the end of the dance and suggested a time to end and we did.

Soooooo....the walk-thru. Martha you would have been disappointed in my walk-thru. It took 3 maybe 4 times. I just kept thinking--taking too long, taking too long. But I figured out why. Because of the way the dance is set up, I needed to orientate everyone in the set FIRST OFF as to who their actual corner was because later each dancer is dancing with his/her corner(who is now right next to you and appears to be your neighbor). I think I have figured out a way to streamline the walk-thru so people get less confused--Are you confused yet?

So now I am quickly progressing to Stage 4.5. Friday Oct. 12th I will be calling several (3+/- given the time) dances since our regular caller Peter is out for the evening. So, it's not quite half, but definitely new experiences to be had.

Weekend in the Mini-Apple

Well, Mac was right. We really should get Susan Kevra down here to call.

I played with Stringdancer in St. Paul, MN, last weekend, with Susan calling. She called a contra on Friday, two English workshops and an English dance on Saturday and a mixed contra/English dance on Sunday.

Every dance had short, clear instructions, followed by a second walkthrough at tempo. She deedles, she sings, she chants, calling so rhythmically during that second walkthrough, that people got, not just the "with whom" and "where" but the "how" and the "how fast" in under five minutes every time.

Susan's contra calling is wonderful, but it was her English calling that really wowed me, now that I have suffered personally from its difficulties. She started each English dance by having the music played through, just once (it takes 30 seconds, on average). She knew exactly how each dance fit with the music, and would sort of sing the bits of the music in between the calls. The resulting precision in the dancing was particularly beautiful when seen from the extremely high stage in the hall...

Be still, my heart.

I did ask her just one pointer - about the cross hey in "Portland." She said the usual difficulty people have is in believing the mixed-gender arrangement and the fact that the hey is done on the side of the set. So I've been practicing (in my head) having the first couple cross down between the second and third couple and just stand between the two people on the other side, enjoying the attention of two members of the opposite sex, and orienting themselves up and down that line. Then they go back, and (still in my head), execute a perfect cross to a hey.

Calling Party - ohmgosh!

We didn't quite have a quorum for dancing, so Wade and Bob and I started out by looking at some dances and talking about how to teach various moves. We assumed a "usual" Childgrove mix of mostly experienced dancers, but with enough new people that some of the moves would have to be taught.

I mentioned that "Right and Left Through" seems to stymie new folks, so we talked about ways to make it simpler. Bob offered his method of helping new ladies figure it out, which is to reach pretty far around the person he has just given his right hand to so he get his partner's left hand before she has a chance to wander off, then do the usual backing up so she has a shorter distance to travel. It's a bit harder to help an inexperienced man :-), so we will often have to walk all the way around him, fishing for his left hand and helping him turn that last little bit back into the set.

We also talked about the square-through, and the difficulties presented by the words "right" and "left" and by the contra-jargon word "minor set", and came up with "give right hand to your partner (if it's your partner), balance...and pull by. Turn back in and pull by your same sex neighbor. Turn back in and meet your partner. Balance....and pull by, then turn back in and pull by your same sex neighbor and go on to the next." (Does that work?)

We marveled again at the news that in a hey for four, the loop on the end takes up just as much time (four counts) as the walking across does. Doesn't seem right, somehow, but it is...

I learned some especially interesting things about "box the gnat" and "California twirl." We ladies may complain about people trying to break our arms when they are new at those moves, but I discovered that I had been contributing to the bad habit that can lead to pain by lifting the new guy's arm for him and walking under. Apparently the secret to a safe and successful box the gnat is for the two hands to start DOWN, and only after the turn is under way to lift the arms up. I don't think there are words to describe how to do it. You probably have to demo it.

It was a surprisingly interesting discussion. We had all learned these moves years ago, but revisiting them from the caller's perspective was instructive.

M
E

The Nine Stages of Becoming a Caller

1. "I really don't want to call. I just want to dance."
2. "I'd like to be able to call, but I just couldn't get up there and do it."
3. "Hey, that was fun!"
4. "I just called my first dance!"
5. "I just called half an evening!"
6. "I just called a whole dance. Thank goodness they knew what they were doing!"
7. "I called an evening where twenty new people show up in a group after the workshop was over!"
8. "I just called a wedding!"
9. "I only call if I get paid for it."

Calling Party Wednesday, September 26

Again, a good time was had by all. We invented many new "progressions" besides having the first couple run down the line to be the second couple...

Everyone got a chance to call - Bob and David and Larry and Kay and Chrystal and Martha. Kay and Chrystal had tales to tell of their calling at the last St Louis English Country Dance, and Larry told us about his demo of Youth Contradancing at the Lindy Hop Dance last week.

David gets the Most Improved Since Last Week award, and I got the Most in Need of Help This Week award.

Our most interesting puzzle was helping Kay figure out why people get confused with Colin Hume's dance "St Louis." It's a really wonderful dance when you know it cold, but although Kay herself knows it really well, and explains it clearly, there are just a couple of points at which dancers who aren't listening closely can make wrong assumptions, and, well, screw it up royally. We thought some of it might be because the A part is so simple - basically forward and back, a cast and a two hand turn -- followed by a fiendish B part. Lulled into satisfaction, you can't believe you are suddenly crashing and burning. But I think we identified the main points at which people's usual "half listening" causes them to become confused.

The next calling party is next Tuesday, October 2.

M
E

Calling Party Tuesday September 18, 2007

Another successful evening! Again, we were a small but mighty group: Kay, David, Judy P, Bob, Martha, Sue, and Chrystal. Everyone, EVERYONE, (okay, except Bob, who was attending an online class in the other room at the same time) called a dance!

We did a grand mixture of Contra and English, we Contra folks struggling sometimes to learn "English as a Second Language", but agreeing that English dances are "just as fun".

We learned the difficulties of dancing twice through a dance with just four dancers, but there was much laughter and, um, inventive choreography while we tried.

When and How to Call the Moves
For me, the most interesting conversation was the one about When and How to call the moves. I keep saying that you need to figure out just what words are the important ones (the who what where words) and to plan exactly which beat of the music you're going to say them on, usually the strongest musical point before the move, which is beat 5 (out of 8) for a four-count call, or beat 5 or 7 for a two-count call.

JudyP, rather reasonably, asked for a less left-brained approach, and in the ensuing conversation, my take on what emerged is this: Deedling the music may be more effective than counting (it doesn't matter if you deedle on pitch, just so the rhythm is suggestive of the tune that will be played) and that it does really matter how you use your voice. Sue offered the observation that you should speak smoothly if you want the dancers to dance smoothly, speak emphatically if you want them to dance with punch, and if it matters to you that the dancers dance on time to the music, call the moves in time to the music.

If others recall the conversation differently, please add your views!

Caller Hubris
I'm hoping Eric will share his marvelous story of caller hubris and the crashing and burning it can cause. (BTW, I wasn't at the event he described, but others who were there do not remember any crashing or burning -- perhaps a small fender-bender.) The aftermath can be hard to bear, but I think we all experienced the blessings of his speedy recovery on Sunday, when he called a bunch of interesting (read unusual, therefore HARD) dances really well.

I shared the outlines of the story with Ted, who said "Oh yeah, I remember going through that." It would be great if of the experienced callers would tell us their similar cautionary tales about the need for continued preparation and practice even (and especially) at the point that we begin to feel pretty jaunty about our own calling.

How Long is Too Long?
We also talked about the length of dances - how long to let them run. Some people have noticed that callers sometimes let dances run a tad long. So, we asked ourselves, just how long should a single dance be?

I offered a friend's observation that her husband, a wonderful caller, always ran the dances about 17 times. He denies doing any counting of the times through at all, but she says they nearly always come out that long anyway.

Apparently, some callers look at the active couple in the longest line, and stop the dance when that couple had made it all the way down the line and back up. We also noted that if the lines are really short, or extra long, that might not work.

I will also say that, if you're calling to a New England style band that plays medleys, and the band has just changed to the third (and hottest) tune, if you try to stop them, they'll beg for more times through. (Some bands have been known to just keep playing. Cheeky bastards.)

Thanks
I don't know how the rest of you felt, but I especially enjoyed last night. We had the chance to work on difficulties, both personal and choreographic, and we had the chance to dance some interesting dances. This is exactly what I hoped would happen when we got together!

Roger and Me

Roger Diggle's pretty much a star now. But you knew that. He comes in, fairly big and shaggy these days, looking intense but behaving gently. He called a dance I was playing with Stringdancer in Minneapolis. There were well over 100 dancers there, and the beginner class beforehand had about thirty or forty people in it, with very few ringers. Ouch! But he handled it really well, except for one problem at the beginning.

The beginners didn't quite get broken up and spread around before the first dance, so the first dance was rocky (just in their line). I think it would be interesting to discuss what we think we should do if we found ourselves in that situation. Forty newcomers, right in the middle of the hall, and a bunch of experienced dancers at the bottom and sides, already lined up and ready to go.

Hmmm...

I found out that Roger's dance "Roll in the Hey" was NOT made up to teach beginners a hey, as I've always thought. He just wondered what would happen if you came out of a hey into a circle left. He was testing just that move with some folks, and made up the quickest dance he could think of to fill in before the move - and was pretty surprised when it got popular. These days it's almost always on people's Greatest Hits list.

It's funny. Roger's become such a legend (the dancewriting, the calling, the whistling, the late night whistling-calling-guitarplaying) that I actually felt a little like I was around royalty or something. I mean, I didn't say "Yes, your majesty" or anything, but there was a little self-conscious shyness that crept in.

M
E

Calling Party September 12, 2007

7:00pm, Kay's House. Email me if you need directions.

Come to dance. Come to call. Come to talk about dancing and calling.

M
E

Calling ADDance

Once about a year ago when I got home from work I found in my mailbox one of those promotional videos addressed to me about adult ADD. One of my 4 roommates(maybe all of them) thought it was a good joke--sort of. My roommates used to call me ADD girl. Why you may ask am I writing about ADD on the Callers' Blog. OK, so--ADD and calling.

Observation: Calling is to dancers like driving is to car. If I get distracted by one thing--even if that thing was myself--suddenly it's the sound of tires in the gravel. So, there I was staring down the set at some very patient people who suddenly put their trust in me to set them in motion with out crashing them into each other. Can I just say that standing in front of a room of rowdy teenagers is easier than staring down the set at all of you. Maybe it is because you are actually listening. Hmmm....anyway--I felt like a couple of times I was distracted by something around me and I sort of let go of the steering wheel--forgot something or was late. I really have to keep going because-duh Chrystal-the music keeps going. Other wise its tires on the rumble strip for everyone.

Anyway...it was fun times on Tuesday. I was actually quite terrified to give calling a try but now that I have had a go at it I am looking forward to trying again. Feedback? Observations?

I set before you my novice but honest reflections,
~chrystal

An afterthought:
I definitely do not recommend dancing the first time one tries calling.

Calling Party on September 4

Another fun time! I got home a little late from teaching, but Bob had done a great job of hosting the party, and everything was in full, uh, swing, when I got there. Bob's dance XYZ looked like it is ready for prime time. Wade called - Mr. Quiet turns out to be a good caller...give a guy a microphone and watch out!

I think I'm just about ready to try calling my one English dance in public. I've finally practiced it enough (on my walks, in the car)to be able to remember it, mostly. I worked on reducing the number of syllables I say (ala Bruce Hamilton) by saying, for instance "First man and second lady cast around the others" instead of "First man cast down around the second man and second lady cast up around the first lady."

Chrystal called an updated version of "Female Saylor" which we want to call "Chrystal Saylor". It worked great. I played the tune, which sounds like the Christmas carol "Master in the Hall". We were short just one dancer, so Chrystal called while dancing. Talented, that's what she is...

Kay called a contra with some very interesting bits in it. Drat, I can't remember the name of it. The hey started from the middle - and we learned that it's a dance best done to music that isn't super fast. We then tried out various versions of the ricochet hey that the trad-callers list was discussing last week.

Good group, this one: Eric and Wade and Bob and Lyndon and Reida and Gitry and Kay and Chrystal and I - the requisite nine!

Next week, Wednesday at Kay's house!

M
E

Welcome to Judy and Weekend Observations

Welcome Judy! JudyB became our fifteenth dance-caller-blogger last week!

Over the weekend, Chicory played a dance Champaign-Urbana with Bill Sudkamp, a fine caller from Chicago. Bill has been calling for umpteen years, and has a reputation as an excellent square dance caller (in addition to being a good contra caller) and frankly, I was a bit worried that he wouldn't like us all that much because he really likes old-time music, and my bands mostly play in a kind of New England, contra fusion style.

But I made friends with him at Kimmswick, when he looked over at Stringdancer and said "Oh, I guess I should call a contra," and I said "We can play old time square dance music, you know. We can even play fast." He grinned and said "Okay, then." We played so fast that I'm still getting complaints from dancers several months after the dance, but Bill was happy, so we were happy too.

This time he said (with a twinkle), "You don't have to play quite that fast..."

Bill was smart. He figured out that he could call a "Chestnut" and a strange but fun five-part dance because, as long as we have the written music, the band can play just about anything. The Chestnut was "Chorus Jig," famous for being neither a chorus nor a jig (and for being one of the first dances to use contra corners), and the five part dance had 80 counts instead of the usual 64!

When and Where to Practice

Deborah said to practice in the car.

I, myself, practiced on the back patio, listening to music through ear buds so I wouldn't notice that the neighbors could probably hear me. I've done it a bit on my walks in the morning, too, but there I'm a little more afraid they'll call the men in the white coats to take me away.

I just read this, in the trad-dance-callers list (a Yahoo group Deborah told me about - highly recommend signing up.) "Jim" is a new caller, whose first dance was for beginners - talk about starting at the top!

I think it helped a lot that I started practicing in May in the truck on the way to and from work and was able to teach every dance and call the entire evening to my wife as we drove out to Massachusetts and back on vacation the week before the gig.
Jim

But seriously - where can we practice?

M
E

Calling Party August 29, 2007

I love having people over. I read every article in the grocery store checkout line on removing clutter, but it's only when people are coming over that I can see what needs to be done at my own house. And today? The house looks and feels great.

We fit eight dancers, a caller and a fiddler into the family room. Perfect.

Let's see. We had Don and David and Wade and Bob and Mac and Kay and Judy and Sue and Jeanne and Martha.

• The group helped me work out a style point in the English Dance I've been working on, then danced it beautifully.


• Bob called his improved version of XYZ (inspired by Beneficial Tradition) and Mac added a suggestion which fixed the one remaining small awkwardness. I'd say it's ready for prime time if the dancers are experienced!


• Mac then tried out a move in a contradance which looked weird on paper, but which worked beautifully in practice. The ladies had to roll away their neighbor, then chain to their partners. We tried it with the men rolling the ladies away instead, and though it worked, it wasn't nearly so beautiful a move as when the ladies rolled the gents away, even though that's the more usual thing to do.


• Sue called a lovely modern English Country Dance, and I played fiddle. (I've really got to start building my collection of recorded ECD music.)


• Kay called a contra, which went off without a hitch. We're still using the Kimmswick CD Face the Creek for most of our practices, since it has lots of dance length tunes, in mostly old-time style.

It was great fun, we sat around afterwards and talked about calling, and dancing and problem dancers and...

M
E

Is there an echo in this hall? Echo in this hall?

I attended a dance last weekend in another city far far away, and learned a thing or two about calling. The caller was good, the band was my band with Jill Allen, Summer Lightening, and there was a wooden ballroom floor to die for.

Unfortunately, there was also an echo in the hall, and the dancers were less experienced than expected. Here is what the caller wrote to me:

I've thought of a new name for [deleted] ballroom: Caller Humbler Hall. But hey, it's just a dance.

Here's what I wrote back:

The hall is very kind to musicians, and hell on callers. We had the same problem at Kimmswick and solved it (sort of) with quilts.

I did pay attention, though, and learned a lot about calling. When a caller is as good as you are, things should just go off without a hitch. Unless, of course, the dancers can't HEAR the caller. Unless, of course, the dancers are [deleted].

So, note to self: when the dancers can't hear you because you are speaking basically into a large stadium sound system that echoes long enough that a violinist can play a duet with herself, you use fewer, precisely chosen words and you say them very...far...apart. And when the dancers are that [deleted], well - paddle dance, anyone? Patty cake polka?

On the extremely bright side, however, you got contra dancers to do an English Country Dance without them even knowing it, except for the teenager, who, somewhat unaccountably, loves ECD, and thought the dance was "awesome".

Jill, herself a really excellent caller, offered this:

I know totally what you are talking about. For me it's that feeling of "why did I choose this dance? ...but...it should be fine... it's normally fine..."

I know it must seem obvious, but one of the lessons for me was to think even more carefully than even I thought possible about the exact words one uses to teach. In fact, it might not even be "thinking" that is necessary. To draw from my own profession, web design, where usability issues are a big part of what we think about all day long, the only way to find out if your words work is to test them. You try hard to figure out what will work, but if it fails in the doing, or even just causes mild confusion for a moment, then it's NEVER the dancer's fault, no matter how [deleted] you think they are. It's back to the drawing board.

M
E

Teddy Bears and Salt Shakers redux

Who needs salt shakers when you have saucy little fruits lying around the house?

Kay and I worked out another dance from George Washington's Birthday Ball called "Portsmouth". It's a fairly simple English Country Dance, with a lovely tune, and it widened my understanding considerably (given how little I know, that's not too hard). It introduced me, for example, to the marvels of the "triple minor" set, and to a lovely move called a "crossover hey."

We worked it out with a lemon, two limes and three tomatoes, but realized we really needed another couple to be able to see the progression, so another tomato volunteered, um, his services, and a tarty red pepper was invited in as well. You could just feel the lemon and limes disapproving, but we got the dance figured out. What you see in the picture is the end of the second time through the dance. I'll put the dance in the comments.

M
E

Sugar Hill and Dance Books

Well, several of us were at one of the best Sugar Hills in recent memory. Even the Friday night bands were good (and plentiful) and Saturday night was amazing. I apparently missed the best one, which was the combination of the Cosmic Otters and U4 at about 3:00AM Sunday morning. Apparently, it was, ahem, Cosmic Euphoria.

Don and Kay and Bob and I worked out a couple more kinks in the Hay Makers, so I'd like to try it again at our next meeting.

I found a copy of one of the Dance A While books that Ted mentioned at our last meeting on Amazon, and ordered it. I also downloaded a couple of the Ralph Page Legacy Weekend Syllabuses from the University of New Hampshire Library of Traditional Music and Dance - they are great!

Then there are those copies of Larry Jennings' books Zesty Contras that I bought from the CDSS bookstore at the Cumberland Dance Week. I hadn't realized they would be full of such wonderful commentary as well as dances! For example:

If getting your dance across take you more time than it does other callers, do not make the excuse that you are being more thorough; admit that your words are not well chosen. Or, conceivably, you are not being sufficiently authoritative. This is a marvelous example of addressing a fake problem (that the dancers need extensive help) instead of the real problem (you have not prepared your words and/or your delivery of them).

And this:

A large amount of encouragement and help is available to you if only you undertake your project with confidence.

M
E

Why We Don't Need to be Afraid to Call

Mac told me an astonishing thing today. He said that quite a few people told him that the dance a couple of months ago with all the newbie callers was one of the most fun dances in a long time.

Go figure.

It was probably the band (the Mound City Slickers), but it might have been that the crowd felt that little thrill you get when you're just a little worried on someone's behalf - the way watching Triple A baseball can be more fun than watching a major league game, because it is simply not assured that the outfielder is going to catch the fly ball.

What this means for us is, of course, that we should tell our fears to go take a hike, at least long enough for us to actually get up and call a dance. Just one dance. The fans, apparently, will think it's fun.

M
E

Calling get-together Wednesday, 7:00

Hello,

Here are directions to get to Ted and Judy's house for our calling discussion at 7:00 on Wednesday evening:

Prerequisite:
Locate University City on an area map

Option 1:
Take Hanley Road to Delmar Blvd.

Option 2:
Take Delmar Blvd to Hanley Road.

The final approach:
From Delmar and Hanley, proceed one block north on Hanley to Gannon Ave.
Turn east (right) on Gannon, to the end of the block (or nearly so). Look left.
The second-from-the-end house on your left is 7421 Gannon. Look for the flag flying over the driveway.
Park and come on in.

We'll expect you around 7:00 pm. Bring your calling cards, notes, ideas, and (if you wish) an eatable or drinkable to share. (We'll have some, too.)

We'll be dancing on a wooden floor in the living room, so we'll ask for no shoes. Thanks.

Ted & Judy

We Did It!

We did it! We had a calling party. We called, we danced, we talked, we ate and drank and we want to do it again. Next week!

We danced for a while on Kay's back deck, but soon abandoned the 100-degree temps for the coolness of the living room. The deck was later taken over by a troupe of raccoons wondering why they felt like doing California twirls.

Once inside, we held a sort of caller's circle, and discussed lots of the basics: how to call at all, what to say at the beginning, the importance of the teaching, how to deal with bands, how to use a microphone (and how to breathe to project), the differences in calling English and Contra - and other things (commenters please fill in here). Ted was our true expert, but lots of people contributed really helpful observations.

We tried group calling. Won't do that again.

We tried the Lisa Harris trick, where each person in the couple out at the top calls a line or two. That was promising.

Bob tried out a new dance he's writing. It'll be terrific when the kinks are worked out. I tried calling an English Country Dance. That was...instructive. I'm kind of like a person who has had a semester of High School French trying to speak French in France, or maybe in Sweden (since we were mostly contradancers). Thank goodness Sue was there to help straighten things out. I have much to learn. But we knew that...

Many thanks to everyone who came - Kay and Larry and Marianne and Bob and Martha and Ted and Judy and Chrystal and Don and David and Wade and Sue!

Next week we'll meet on Wednesday (August 15) at 7:00pm at Ted and Judy's in University City. Anyone who wants to will bring a dance to call, and we'll try to fit in as much actual calling as we can.

M
E

Welcome to Mac and Ted and Don!

Welcome to three new dancer caller-bloggers! We're so glad you're here.

We're going to have a sort of official first meeting on Wednesday (August 8) at Kay's house. Write to me or Kay for directions if I haven't already sent you some.

Come any time after 6:30pm. Well, within reason.

M
E

Back from Cumberland - Let's get together!

I'm back from the Cumberland Dance Week, tired but happy. Fabulous musicians, wonderful dancers, and a great intergenerational community spirit make this a very special week. My buddy (and Eric's) Ben Schreiber absolutely outdid himself - Beau of the Ball, I'd say. Spectacular fiddling.

Eric and Bob and I all called dances at the Late Night After Dance, and I will say this: it sure is easy to call dances to really good dancers. I'm beginning to realize that the truly excellent callers are the ones who can call for beginners and children. With this crowd I had the feeling I could have simply read them the card and they could have done the dance. These friendly folks also helped remind me to tell them the basic things I would forget (hands four, ones cross over, things like that)... What a treat!

I called Kay's debut dance, Delphiniums and Daisies, and The Nice Combination, a Gene Hubert lovely. Very simple dances. I wrote out the calls on my specially prepared scratch paper and asked Eric and another experienced caller about a call I wasn't sure about. It ended up as "Face down the hall, go four in line," and the suggestions were "Four across, go down the hall," and "Walk down the hall in a line of four". All would have worked well, but I was worried about getting people going in the right direction after a Swing, so settled on "Face down...etc".

Bob invented a terrific new move for his dance "Gypsy Camp", called (gosh, can you imagine?), "the Flirt and Twirl". It's a gypsy contra-corners thing - not a beginner move, but the momentum is perfect, and it feels really good to do.

So. The time has come for us to find a time to get together. I can do any night but Sundays and Mondays, and I'm kind of thinking Saturdays might be good to aim for, or Sundays some time before the contra dance. What's good for you?

There's a Flash Dance at the Botanical Gardens on August 12. Maybe we could do a group calling thing or something.

M
E

Mind Game?

I was emailing with Greg just now about what it was that made Sunday's contra such a fantastic experience for me. He asked if it was "Gaye's calling? The complexity of the dances? The great music? The competent dancers from all over the US?" My answer was "all of the above"--it's a synergistic kind of thing, of course.

One of the dances in particular stands out for me. I think it was the one called "Lost in Space" (or it might have been the one right before or after that one). Those of you who were there will probably know which one I mean--it has you doing an allemande with your neighbor, I think, then pulling by your partner, the next person, turning the next one left and coming all the way back.... Something like that.... (Can you tell I'm not a caller yet?)

Anyway, the point is that the energy of that dance was so high that I wasn't the only one yipping and shouting for the sheer joy of it. And I wonder if Gaye, our fabulous caller, pulled a little trick on us to set us up for that experience: As she taught the dance, she kept saying that she'd seen it break down many, many times, and that we'd do it until somebody fell down, and then she'd ask the band to quit. She actually said that about a couple of dances, as I recall. At the time I wondered why she was "scaring" us, but now I wonder if she was deliberately adding to the anticipation, and to the exhilaration when we actually did it right. I mean, she knew she had a hall full of really good dancers who could more than likely pull it off....

What think, you all?

Memorable Callers

Who’s the best caller you’ve ever danced to? Any dance form, any time in your life. What made them memorable? Can you put down in words just what the experience of dancing to their calling was like?

I remember a square dance caller—wish I could remember his name—who called for our club in Downey, CA (a suburb of Los Angeles) back in the early 80s. Dancing to his calling was exhilarating—the tempo was fast, but the moves flowed so perfectly into one another, and he always seemed to let you know what to do next at the precise instant when your free hand was ready to reach out for the next person, or your body was ready to turn. There was never any sense of waiting for a cue—you never stopped moving. And squares rarely broke down, even when the dancers weren’t all experienced. “Flow.” That’s maybe the most important word. It all just flowed.

I square danced for years when I lived in LA, to probably 50 different callers, but he’s the only one I remember. There was just something that set him apart from all the rest. He used to do a singing call to “Sweet Fantasy” (any old-time square dancers in the group might know this one) that I still dream about—it put me into a state of ecstasy.

Dance Diagrams

Here for your amusement is what I meant by the circles and arrows. I was trying to figure out where your next neighbors would be in the dance "Roll in the Hey" when you were getting ready to do the hey. Be warned: I think I got it wrong.

I used an eight-point star and a circle with a plus for the number one gent and lady, and a six-point star and a circle with a minus for the number two gent and lady. Color coding might work better. Or perhaps a different approach, using a different brain...

Teddy Bears and Salt Shakers

Tonight at Dance Discovery, Missy referred to having worked out the dance she was teaching with her stuffed animals. I thought that was a hoot!

Bob tells me that he was dancing with Becky Hill when someone called a dance she wrote. She said she had never danced it before, and that it sure seemed different from when she was doing it with salt and pepper shakers.

How do people work out dances before they have dancers to play with? Those online animated diagrams are cute, but do you find them hard to follow? I do.

Sue said she walks every person's part through. That sounds workable, though requiring lots of extra brain cells.

Have any of you heard of, or do you use, any other methods?

M
E

Welcome to Eric and Larry and David and Lyndon and Susan and Deborah!

Welcome to our three, no, four, no, five, no, six new members! You made it all the way through blogger.com's forms, and you're here! Yay!

Feel free to add your comments to any thread, or start your own. I find I have to click "Sign In" even if I'm already signed in, if I want to add a new post. If anyone knows a better trick, let us know!

Be sure to look at some of the links to caller resources on the side. If you know some good ones, please share.

It's good to have you aboard...

M
E

Calling Card Thoughts

Click on the title, by the way, to see the whole thread. This one has some good comments...

Here's something I'd like to share. This is one of the ways a traditional caller's card might look:

The moves that are done in each part of the music (each 8 counts) are shown in a grid - In the A1 section of the music, 8 counts for the circle left, 8 counts for the neighbor swing; in the A2 Section, 8 for the circle left and 8 for the partner swing.

Then in B1, 8 counts for the long lines forward and back, and 8 counts for the ladies chain. In B2, the hey for four takes all 16 counts.

That's 64 counts from beginning to end, just like all contra dance tunes, and quite a few (though not all) English Country Dance tunes.

I found another way to write down the calls for this dance in a book by Tony Parkes. He shows an 8-count grid, with the A1 A2 B1 B2 form just like the music, that writes the words in BEFORE the moves, in the place where they are CALLED, instead of in the place where they are DONE, like this:

There's an Intro line for the call you do before the music starts. "Get ready to circle left and swing your partner when the music starts."

Then you say nothing through the A1 section until the last 4 beats, when you say "circle left three quarters". Compare this notation with the card above, and you'll see what I mean.

The important words are spoken ON the COUNT. It's a bit of a task to find the right words to be super clear on, fit them into four counts, and make sure the important syllables are accented, but surely that's what we're supposed to do.

When I was practicing for my Big Calling Debut (even now I can feel the jitters, and it's over!) I couldn't believe how often the calls came up too fast for me to even think about getting them out of my mouth. The several hours of practice I did just for this one simple dance were all about trying to get my brain to believe that there was not much time between "chain the ladies" and "ladies pass right in a hey for four". The darn music just wouldn't stop while I pondered my next call.

What I've noticed about all the callers people pay money to bring to dance weekends is that they call rhythmically. When Bruce Hamilton calls English Country Dances, he often "deedles" the music so it's clear how much time you have for the moves and the transitions. On the other hand, I asked Chris Bischof if he called "musically" on purpose, and he claimed he didn't. I think some callers are completely unaware that they're doing it - they just do, and people like it. I don't know any big-name caller who doesn't.

M
E

Calling Party

Lots of new things at once--blogging and calling--hmmmm.....

I have got to admit that being a newbie on the dance scene, I just assumed callers were really talented musicians or dancers who just knew how dancing should go and were able to pick up a card and read the instructions appropriately timed to the music. The concept that callers actually practice/studied ahead of time never entered my mind. (You may now all chuckle wisely at my novice perceptions)

For those of you who don't know, I'm a completely new dancer(unless you count the grapevine from our high school production of "You're a Good Man Charlie Brown"). In a hundred years I never expected to be dancing, let alone with more than one group--and LOVING it! So I still find myself in a state of amazement to think that I just spent a great afternoon discussing the role of a caller, how a caller might prepare for calling a dance, the dynamics that a caller can use to influence the dancers, and actually putting some of those things into practice.

This afternoon Martha and I met at Kay's house to do precisely the things I just mentioned. I must say that I learned quite a lot this afternoon. First of all, I realized I didn't even know where to start. I mean...I know what the caller does...I cant do my part as a dancer without a caller unless it's something I have memorized, but....how do I get from the floor to the callers spot? Well, we chose a dance we all know to practice with--Jefferson and Liberty. They let me do the walkthru, so I had to imagine that there were people in the room who didn't know what was going on and "teach" it to them trying to keep things clear and concise. (good imagining on Kay and Martha's part too since I think they could do that dance deaf and blindfolded) We also took turns practicing timing the words with the music. When I am on the floor, to me there is nothing more frustrating than getting the call 2 beats into the music when I already should have started, or I am already doing it. Getting the right words out in time is harder than it looks/sounds I found out--heaven knows the music wont wait for me to get it right. Kudos to those callers who make it sound easy.

Anyway...this is getting to be a novel...so...I had a great time today. We worked thru different ideas, laughed a lot when we couldn't spit words out fast enough and just had a fun time. I hope more people can come next time--more brains to pick for info/ideas and of course bodies are better than ghosts even if it is just practice!

Who should try calling?

Charles brings up a good point.

He says he would like to participate as a musician and dancer, but that he wouldn't make a very good caller. I think a lot of us feel that way. I know I do.

Leaving aside the fact that the rest of us think Charles would make a good caller, we don't really know who could be a caller until they've tried it long enough to give it a good go. Our purpose should be to provide a safe place to just try it out - with kindly delivered constructive comments, and round-table discussions of what we're aiming for. Experienced callers who are interested in improving should also be invited into the group to try new dances and to help the rest of us with their expertise. But mainly, we should be looking for dancers (and musicians?) who haven't tried it before, and encourage them to do so.

In such an atmosphere, who knows what talent may emerge?

At the same time, I do also think we should welcome those who really prefer to support the aims of the group by dancing or playing music. Given enough time and laughter, they may change their minds - and become the next Joseph Pimentel or Bruce Hamilton - but on their own schedule!

Comments?

M
E

And they're off! (but you knew that)

Last Sunday, Bob and Kay and I got our feet wet as contradance callers. Bob had called a couple of times before, so he was our expert. We got together over dinner and, after dinner, roped in one of our dinner companions to make a fourth for testing out contra dances. Bob called a dance he had written, which worked great in the living room - then he realized that the partner swing was up and down the line, not on the side, so he rewrote it on the spot.

Kay and I got together one more time after that to practice calling to the music. Well, they say that if you have a bad dress rehearsal, the performance will be good...I think we each practiced in our back yards a couple of times, but by Sunday we were good and nervous about it. It seemed to go off okay, though. The fans were forgiving and supportive, and I only made one truly glaring error, easily corrected by the dancers, and Kay claims she lost track of where the music was, but you couldn't prove it by me. I was sitting on stage behind the curtain keeping track Just In Case, but finally left the stage when I realized she just wasn't going to get lost.

So we all managed it. I missed Bob's calling, but he was still smiling when I saw him, so that's a good sign. For me, it was my first time calling (unless you count the time I had Becky Hill by my side, feeding the words in my ear and giving me a nudge every time I was supposed to call), so just surviving was good news. It was Kay's first time calling contra, though I hear tell she's called English before... She was a natural.

Who are we? Why are we here?

We're contradancers. And English Country Dancers. And musicians, some of us. And basically newbie callers. We want to encourage good calling, good dancing, good music, traditions, evolution of traditions, and fun.

To that end, we have started to get together in hitherto undisclosed locations to practice the ancient and dark art of contradance and English Country Dance calling. This blog will serve to alert us to our double secret meeting locations and times and to give us a place to collect together the resources we need for our task.

M
E