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