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.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
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
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
Thursday, November 15, 2007
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
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
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
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
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
Monday, November 12, 2007
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!
Sunday, November 11, 2007
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
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!!
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!!
Saturday, November 10, 2007
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
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.
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.
Thursday, November 8, 2007
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.
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