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
1 comment:
Yes. A fabulous evening. Those of you who haven't attended one yet, please do--you'll have a blast!
One of the best things, to me, about the calling group is the way it makes me more aware of things in the dance that I never paid attention to before--the structure of the dance and the music, the way the moves flow into one another, or don't.... It will not only help me be a better caller, but a better dancer, too, I think.
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