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.

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