Happy New Year and Thanks for 2008

Hard to believe, but we're calling our SECOND New Year's Eve tomorrow night. Amazing, but true. And what a year 2008 was!

Here are some of our accomplishments in 2008:
1. Four dance writers came out of the Hatchling group, and we were able to call an entire (wonderful) evening of recent dances. This I never expected, but it makes sense that if you unleash creativity, you unleash creativity!

2. We started a new Hatchling dance series with both contra and English dances, and garnered the support of the Childgrove Country Dancers (thank you thank you thank you!). This also, was hardly intended when we started out, but with so many of us discovering how fun it is to call, we needed to create more opportunities to ply our craft. To me, that translates into five more chances to dance in 2008, one in June, then September, October, November, and December. MORE DANCING! Always a good thing.

3. We were invited to be guest callers at 14 Childgrove dances, and called four entire Childgrove dances, two as Hatchlings, one as Chicklings (girl Hatchlings), and then the Karen and Wade night! Tomorrow adds the capstone to a fine calling year

4. Two Hatchlings called English dances at our local ECD group - and several Hatchlings became (new) regular dancers at English.

5. We called at dance weekends - almost two-thirds of the dances at Kimmswick, a whole bunch at Sugar Hill and the Cumberland Dance Week, and the after-party at the Lawrence, KS weekend. There may be others I don't know about!

6. We called at Flash Dances - seven public outings - Borders, Kirkwood Station, Forest Park, the Botanical Garden, Tower Grove Park, Park Palooza at the Arch, and Grand Center.

7. We called at Youth Contras, the Elsah dance, the Jovial Beggars dance in Rolla, at Dance Discovery open mic nights - are there others I've missed?

8. Heck, we even have our own blog!

9. Let's not forget the Calling Parties, about 36, by my count (including two at lovely Reida's house). There may be more. I would not like to venture to count the bottles of wine, the bowls of guacamole, the chips, the chocolate, the cookies, or the after-midnight jokes, but they were all yummy and funny.

10. I would like to add one more accomplishment - you all made our household a happy one - this in spite of all that was working to prevent this outcome! This year saw my father sink further into Alzheimer's and eventually die, my mother become progressively weaker with Parkinson's, and our dear friend Michael take one too many risks, but your generous, creative and loving spirits fill the house with laughter and friendship and dancing and conversation, and we end this year with strength and joy.

Thanks for the dance. Hugs all around.

M
E

English Country Dance calling opportunities in January

Missy has just announced that Dance Discovery, the English Country Dance demonstration troupe, will be holding two special dance evenings for fun and recruitment of new members in January. Here's what she said:

“'Open Mike' Nights in January 2009. Tuesday January 13 and Tuesday, January 27: We are taking a break, and dancing for fun! I am turning the calling over (OK, I do have a couple favs I would like to call) to those who would like to lead a dance or two. Old dances, new dances, easy dances, hard dances! But, please keep them in the genres of this group, i.e., English country, French country, etc. Please contact me with the dance(s) you wish to lead. I will put together a program, and send it out to the group as the requests come in."

So if you're interested in calling English country dances, or know of anyone who would like to learn this wonderful dance form, put these dates on your calendar. We can talk more about it at the calling party tonight. See you then!

--Kay

Calling Party Wednesday December 17

Yes!

Calling Party this Wednesday December 17, 2008.

My house, 7:00 pm. Directions here.

As usual, much to do! Since I do not anticipate having a Calling Party on Christmas Eve (though we could, come to think of it!), this is the last chance to practice before our next three (count them, 3!) calling opportunities, New Year's Eve, the January 2 Youth Contra and the January 3 First Saturday Hatchling Dance.

These, of course, are opportunities to dust off our favorite dances, our tried-and-true dances!

M
E

Calling Party this Wednesday December 10

Yes! There will be a Calling Party on Wednesday.

My house, 7:00pm, directions here.

And yes, we will drink a toast to the memory of my father, who died on Sunday. We're not particularly sad - we miss him, but then we've been missing him for several years as his Alzheimer's worsened. We're glad that he was spared the last stages of that awful disease, and glad that his death was swift. My brothers will be here on Wednesday, and my sister the following day. We plan to eat and drink and tell Dad stories. And laugh.

Your laughter and your dancing are also as welcome as your prayers for us, and we particularly thank you for those! A (gentle) hug for Mom, who graciously opens her house for us to have these parties, wouldn't be completely out of order, either.

We have many calling opportunities open - New Year's Eve, the Youth Contra, and the next First Saturday Hatchling Dance are all within four days at the end of this month!

The theme for the Hatchling Dance is "our favorite dances from 2008", so be thinking which one is yours!

M
E

Dances for December 6 Hatchling Dance

Lovely Calling Party last night. We were able to call most of the dances that we'll be doing on Saturday, and they went quite well. Now the only wild card is how well we can bring along any newcomers. The program is pretty ambitious in places, but we are brave.

Here's the lineup:

1. David — Easier Than Pie — BB


2. Karen — Got Nice Neighbors — BB


3. Dale — Mountain Ridge — BB


4. Kay — Chrystal Saylor — CGJ


5. Billy — Palindrome — BB


6. Bob — Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss — DW

Waltz
Break

1. Karen — Just Another Whim — CGJ


2. Kay — Castigate Your Neighbor - BG


3. Dale — XYZ — BG


4. Billy — Blue Persuasion — CGJ


5. Chrystal — Wednesday’s Whim — CGJ


6. Joe — Back on the Interstate — CGJ

Waltz

Key to the composers: BB is Billy Boyer, BG is Bob Green, CGJ is Chrystal Galacci Jones and DW is Dale Wilson. Congratulations go to all of them for adding interesting and fun dances to the repertoire!

M
E

Youth Contra

Well that was a lot of fun! It was family night at Youth Contra. Of course the Boyers are always there as a family, but some others of us had family home for the holidays. I got to show off my son, Peter, of whom I am most proud, and to meet Martha's offspring. I now have a face to go with the dance "Where's Alex?"

On the hatchling front, Karen and I called (I don't think Larry is a hatchling(?) -- he started the evening.) Karen's dances went smoothly, but I discovered what happens when communication breaks down between the caller and the band -- totally my fault by the way. I couldn't remember how long ago I had given them the "two more" signal and apparently I gave it in the A part anyway. After I wrapped the dance up with a partner swing, the band kept playing. Fortunately the dancers continued too-- I just had to tell them "Dance with the one you're with now" and they made it through one more round. I think "a learning experience" is a kind description of the result.

Otherwise, I was pleased with both my calling and Karen's. We're getting better at this.

And who could fail to enjoy an evening that featured "Joe the Juggler", although Bob was forced to comment that he was so proud of being a juggler that he was a juggler vain.

Calling Party on Saturday at Reida's

Reida has kindly invited us to her house for a Calling Party. Saturday night, 7:00pm.

Bring CDs if you have them! I'll bring some for English, and a copy or two of Bob's, Billy's, Chrystal's, and Dales's dances.

Here's a Google Map to her house.

M
E

Monday's ECD dance to benefit Focal Point

Hey, all. The proceeds from Monday's St. Louis English Country Dance will go to benefit Focal Point. It would be great if all of us could attend and support this great resource for our music and dance community. Tell everyone you know, and bring friends! Location: Focal Point! Workshop at 7:00, dancing from 7:30 until 9:30. See you there!

Calling Party on Wednesday November 19

Thanks to the 15 or so people who showed up to the Calling party tonight! We had a great practice session - so preparations for our two dances (the Chicklings calling this Sunday's Childgrove dance, and the Dec 6 First Saturday Hatchling Dance) are coming along nicely. But we do have our work cut out for us.

Speaking of Chicklings, have you ever seen anything yellow and fuzzy look as tough and, let's face it, cool, as our Chickling badges? Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Watch out, kids, when we come calling...

Today I gathered together all the dances I've been collecting that were composed by Hatchlings and other St. Louis people, and printed them all on cards so we could lay them all out and figure out how to make a good evening out of them. So far, I have about twenty dances - and I still don't have all of Billy's! Wow. Six from Chrystal, five from Bob, two of Billy's, and Dale's Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss, which is causing quite a stir in the dancer cosmos. We also have a dance Andrew Limanni wrote for Karen's wedding to Dan, and two dances, one by Deborah Hyland and one by Ken Johnson, that are published in Midwest Folklore.

If we should happen to run out, we have bunches of good dances from People Formerly From St. Louis, like David Kirchner, Peter Lippincott, and Gene Hubert (okay, not strictly from St Louis, but his parents were from close by). I'm pretty positive this is not a complete list, but asking around and doing a bit of google research has not turned up others. So far.

And don't miss the Jovial Beggar English Country Dance Ball in Rolla this weekend! You will be amazed at the skill and enthusiasm of this young crowd. Seriously, folks, I've been to one of these, and it's worth the drive! See the posting just below for details!

Jovial Beggar English Country Ball

Hello Fellow Dancers!

The Jovial Beggar English Country Ball is coming up This Weekend, Saturday the 22nd.

It's in Rolla, at the Redeemer Lutheran Church. The address is:
1701 Highway 72 East Rolla, 65401

Come in period costume, or nice dress, remember however, to be modest.

It is $5 per person. Only ages 12 and up allowed, please. ;-)

A workshop begins at 5:45Ball begins 6:30 and we'll dance until at least 10 PM.

The Hall family will be calling, and the Hibernia Station Band (A great family band full of young people, led by the dad) from Jefferson City will be playing.

If you have any questions please feel free to email us jovialbeggars@gmail.com

Hope to see you there!
One of the Jovial Beggars
~Kimberly

What makes a caller great?

After last night's dance I've been trying to decide what makes Adina Gordon such a great caller. Of course she had a wonderful band to work with. Celticladda played interesting music; the beat was strong; the timing was impeccable. That helps the caller a lot. But even given such powerful music, how did Adina manage to teach so well that many times she only walked us through the dance once, and she was able to drop out after two or occasionally three rounds of the dance. No one seemed to get lost. Even the inexperienced dancers seemed to show up right where they were supposed to be. And everyone was smiling.

The best I have been able to come up with is Adina trusted the dancers. I think I have a tendency to overexplain during the walk-through and maybe over call during the actual dance. Maybe if you expect the dancers to do well they live up to your expectations. Or maybe Adina just has a magic touch.

In any case, it was certainly a fun evening.

What a great dance!

Wow--wasn't it a wonderful dance last night?! And what a crowd--Martha said we nearly broke even, and would have if we hadn't had so many young folks--which is itself a blessing. And a challenge.... I thought everyone did very well, especially considering how many total beginners we had. Wonderful music, good calling, a friendly crowd, and CAKE--it doesn't get any better than that. Thanks to everyone for their efforts. For me, it really was a night to remember.

Hugs all around!

Calling Party this Wednesday October 29

Getting ready for the CELEBRATION!

Dance this Saturday, November 1.

Calling Party to get ready Wednesday October 29.

My house, 7:00pm. Directions here.

M
E

Calling Party October 22, 2008

Again, a wonderful party! Early on, we had a small-but-mighty group again, so we worked out a couple of tricky moves. Slightly later, more folks arrived and we had our requisite ten-plus dancers. Perfect.

One of the problems we're facing is that everyone is getting so comfortable dancing English that even the double figure of eight in Bob's new dance didn't phase us, so we're not exactly preparing for inexperienced dancers!

We're getting ready for the Hatchling Dance on November 1 - here's who's calling:

Bob
Chrystal
Dale
Karen
Kay
Joe
Martha

Kent, Kimberly and David will be out of town. Wade's running sound that night. Billy's got a calling gig.

M
E

Trip to Salem, Anyone?

Hello!

The next Jovial Beggar English Country dance is October 25th, in Salem, and I wondered if there were people who would like to car pool down there. We could take one, or two, cars down and up in one night. Chip in for gas as you like, and have a great time. We'd have to leave St. Louis by 3:30, and we wouldn't get back until midnight or so.

The dance itself is $1 per person. There will be no live music this month, I'm afraid, but we have fun.

Dress is nice casual.

Let me know what you think.

Big Week next week

Goodness. Look at all the dancing next week.

Sunday, Childgrove contra dance. Monday, ECD at Focal Point. Wednesday, Calling Party. Friday, Youth Contra. Saturday, ECD in Salem, MO.

And, for some of us, Gypsy Moon Ball. I'll be there - Indy on Friday and GMB on Saturday. The amazing Seth Tepfer will be giving a workshop in the afternoon on calling to children and other people who don't dance much yet. I know this guy. This will be an amazing workshop. Anyone interested in calling should try to be there.

What a week!

M
E

Calling Party Wednesday October 15

Come to call. Come to dance.

We danced. We called. Then we watched the debate.

M
E

Historical Event

Tonight, I was there when history was made - there was dancing (dancing!) at Missouri Baptist College. It was English Country Dancing, which seems to be catching on among home-schooled kids and definitely caught on at the College Conservative Club at MoBap (who project themselves as non-partisan, who look at politics from a biblical perspective and who get funds from the Republican Party). I asked the college chaperone to dance - he declined, sweetly, saying he had to stick to his chaperoning duties. Yep, those wild English Country Dances really can get out of hand...

It was...a wonderful dance, something I didn't expect. It seemed as if about half of the 80 or so kids there had some prior experience, but maybe they just picked it up really quickly. The caller was Bill McDonald, whose family has been running an English Country Dance for a number of years. Dapper in his tails, he was able to shape a dance that got teenagers from zero to sixty in no time at all. His wife acted as "Dancing Mistress", getting extra couples for triplets, helping stragglers with the moves. His kids were ringers, helping to keep things together too.

I look forward to going to some of the McDonald's dances at Saint Francis Xavier. I understand they are family dances - kids, parents, grandparents. I have to see what these guys are doing that builds such enthusiasm that 200 people come to dance English Country Dancing. He said he decided early on to focus less on "styling" and more on "welcoming" and I say that's a great first step.

M
E

Calling Party October 8, 2008

Again, small but very mighty.

Did I say the perfect number of people at a Calling Party is twelve? Well, seven is another kind of perfect. Three couples - you get one progression, or you dance triplets! Everyone there was bi-lingual so we did a lot of English (Larry, Billy, Kay, Kimberly, Bob, Wade, Martha, and Kent, towards the end). We discussed methods for teaching the Engish "cast", which is one of the three moves that bedevils contra dancers (bedeviled me when I first started, anyway), and basically the group felt we shouldn't worry about it because people eventually pick it up anyway.

Hmph. I didn't agree.

I figure "picking it up eventually" is good enough for people who are already motivated to learn to dance English, but I contend that any move which is confusing makes you feel stupid and clumsy, and is not good marketing to our contra dancers who are only dancing English because they're at a contra dance where some silly new callers are making them choose between dancing English and sitting down. If we can learn how to explain it well, they'll feel clever and graceful for having figured out how to do it.

Bob did a great job of figuring out how to teach Set and Turn Single to contra dancers (balance right, balance left, Gypsy with yourself) and helped me teach Sharp Siding (Allemande left four counts, Allemande right four counts, be sure to start on your "outside" foot, now do it without hands), but the third confounding move, the Cast, is still a bit elusive.

We thought of comparing it to the move in a square dance when the head of the line peels off to march the line around, but alas, you're usually facing in to the line, not up the line, when a cast is called. "Take a Dance" has couples leading down and casting up, or leading up and casting down - that seems to offer good possibilities for learning the cast. We could do that dance, then try doing casting from place without the lead up or down. Maybe that would work. ANYTHING but "turn over your right shoulder if you are a woman or over your left shoulder if you are a man, then walk down the set." Correct as it is, that just makes no physical sense until you've done it for a while and you add the sense of looping. (Face up to go down? I don't think so.) We need find a way to explain it that feels good in addition to being correct, and we need to explain it without using the words "right" and "left" if at all possible.

All suggestions on this point are welcome.

M
E

First Saturday Hatchling Dance #3

Hey, good dance last night, folks! It was small (32 paid, about 40 in attendance) but mighty. Lots of good dancers enjoying an evening of contra and English. The band, too, was small but mighty - I don't usually like playing without another treble player to play harmonies with, but Kristin and Mike were a great backup, so it seemed to work out fine.

I had two personal favorite moments - one was the great reception given to Dale's dance "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss". I'm not sure people even knew it was his dance, and they LOVED it! The other was the fabulous clapping in "Juice of Barley." Kay had the dancers practice just the clap with the music before the dance, on the theory that even if people were late getting back to the place they were to do the clap, they'd clap at the right time if they knew where it came in the music. Boy, did that ever work! As the dance wore on, the clapping got more and more perfectly in time. After a while, we in the band started dropping out on the clap so that the dancers had that moment all to themselves. It sounded GREAT! Afterwards, I invited all of the dancers to join the band.

But really, everyone did a great job of calling. While some of us had small fluffs, no dance broke down, and there were smiles all over the floor. The cueing of the band was terrific. Almost everyone gave us the "two" I had asked for at just the right time (in the B2). I, myself, had a personal milestone - calling a dance without looking at the card. Of course, my dance could be summarized as "side, back, side, back, turn, turn, figure eight", rivalling Roll in the Hey for succinctness and poetry: "circle, swing, circle, swing, lines chain hey".

M
E

List of Callers and Dances for First Saturday Dance

Here's the list. Let me know if there are changes we should make!

1. Karen – Air Pants........................7:30 
2. Dale – Mundane Chain.....................7:43 
3. Martha – Childgrove......................7:56 
4. David - MN-NY Happy Returns..............8:08 
5. Kimberly – The Physical Snob.............8:20 
6. Karen – Rendezvous.......................8:32 
Waltz.......................................8:45 
Break and Announcements.....................8:50 
1. Joe – Another Second Time Around.........9:05 
2. Billy - The Hobbit.......................9:17 
3. Kay – Barbarini’s Tambourine.............9:30 
4. Dale – Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss..9:45 
5. Kay – Juice of Barley....................9:57 
6. Bob – Southern Swing....................10:10 
Waltz .....................................10:22 

Calling Party Wednesday October 1

Time marches on...October already!

Calling party, my house, 7:00pm. Directions here.

The First Saturday Hatchling Dance is this Saturday - we'll focus on the dances we're doing then. I'll print out all the dances you have told me you'd like to do, and we can organize them into a program.

M
E

Dancing down south

Hi Everyone,

I just wanted to let you know when the Jovial Beggars were having their next dances.

October 25th, in Salem. Starting at 6:30, dance until 9:45. $1 per person. (if anyone would like to call a dance or two just let us know.)

November 22nd is a ball, starting at 6:30, and dance until who knows when. I'm not sure where yet, but probably Rolla. $5 per person.

If you are interested in either of these, please email for more information and directions. jovialbeggars@gmail.com

I hope to see some of you there.
~Kimberly

And now, congratulations to Billy!

Today it's Billy's turn in the limelight! It turns out that he called nearly all of the Youth Contra last Friday. That, and organizing and playing the music and writing dances and...and...everything, has earned him his megaphone and official graduation from fledgling to (trumpets, please!) CALLER !!

M
E

Congratulations to Kay!

"What does Kay have," you ask yourself, "that I don't have, other than good looks, loads of talent, and the love of all humankind?" Well, guess what, honeypies, she also has now earned her SECOND PhD, and HER WINGS!

Yessir, in just three days, Kay passed her defense AND called many many dances at the ECD dance on Monday night. Note gold wings and the Doctor Doctor on her new button. That little turtle is now a Certified Smart Little Fledgling. Won't his mommy be surprised!

M
E

The Youth Contra

Martha asked if we had any stories about the dance last Friday night. So I figured I'd write a bit.

I thought Billy did a great job running the dance. I was sorry he didn't dance more often. I know how it is to host dances, making sure everyone's happy, answering all questions, and being the main caller, but then to be playing the music, too? Wow. Also the dances he choreographed were great. Especially one, I forget the name, but I loved it.

I called two English dances. The Physical Snob and Take a Dance. They all really seemed to like Physical Snob, but then most people usually do. I thought they did quite well at both of them.

There was one thing about the youth dance that I noticed, and I've noticed this at my own dances in Salem. The young people come with friends, but then they kind-of stay in their circles of acquaintances, and don't branch out much. I'm not sure how really to fix it, except maybe telling people to ask someone they've never met before to dance, or do a mixer, and have them dance with the person they end up with. Any suggestions? I've seen this doesn't really happen in the older group.

Any way, I had a great time at the youth contra Friday, then again tonight at the contra dance. I hope to do it again.

Good Night everyone.
~Kimberly

Next Weekend September 27-28

Here are the times and places we have been asked to call this weekend, and the names of people who have indicated they would be there (if you told me you would be there and I forgot to put you here, let me know, and please come anyway!):

Saturday September 27, 10-11am at the Arch
Martha, Bob, Dale, Wade, David

Saturday September 27, 1-2pm at Grand Center
Karen, Bob, Dale, Wade, Martha, David

Sunday September 28, 1-2pm at the Arch
Karen, Bob, Dale, Wade, David


Please let me know if you can be there ready to help out!

M
E

Possible Calling Opportunity

I'M JUST PUTTING OUT FEELERS TO SEE IF THE HATCHLINGS ARE INTERESTED...

November 8th. 8-10pm

I was approached by a friend who wanted me to call a square dance for a whole group of beginners. LOL! (I cant call squares!) After telling her I didnt know how to call a square to save my life, she said they would be interested in doing any type of "Barn Dance" because she knew I called. I told her I didnt think I would be able to call an entire evening by myself--especially to beginners--and I dont have music. So she wondered if I knew anybody...I know a lot of somebody's and thus the opportunity has come up if we would like to call collectively.

This is a fun event that's done every fall for a bible study group I was a part of. So here's the plug...

Who? About 100 young adults. Ages 20-35ish
Where? Rockin' J Ranch Eureka, MO (IN THE BARN!)
When? Nov. 8th Calling between 8-10pm.
What? Various "Barn" Dances--SIMPLE STUFF(They only do this once a year)--squares, contras, circles, Virginia Reel.

What's the Kicker? They dont have a band or sound system. In the past they have danced to recorded music. I have a few connections for a sound system, but MUSIC? I dont know a band and I dont own any CD's that are dance-able. I dont even know how much a band costs to hire.

Give me some feedback. If it's a NO-GO they totally understand. They are currently requesting info from other callers in and around the STL area. They thought they would check with us as well.

Calling Party September 17, 2008

Good party! Lots of folks, and Billy brought a good new dance. Kay got us through Haymakers, and I did call Elizabeth (see below for pre-party thoughts). It went okay, though it pointed up how much more space we need to dance English. I won't remember everyone who called, so correct me if I leave you out, but here's at least part of the list: Karen, Bob, Wade, Billy, Kay, Martha, Chrystal...

Bob and Karen will be calling with Eric this Sunday. And we're getting ready for Dancing in the Streets at Grand Center and for Park Palooza at the Arch next weekend. Saturday 10:00 at the Arch, and 1:00 at Grand Center, and Sunday 1:00 at the Arch. See the Childgrove Flash Dance page for time and place.

Here were my pre-party thoughts:
"I'm so excited. After puzzling through Colin Hume's dance "Elizabeth" for a few weeks now, I got to dance it last Friday at ECD when Missy called it. Many lights went on, and I got to puzzling it out again. When I thought I had it, I sent it to several Hatchlings who I knew were interested in, either ECD or arcane minutiae (you know which you are). At the last moment, I included Colin on the distribution list, and, bless his English heart, he answered back and cleared it all up. It would have helped if I had had his directions to begin with, but never mind that...

Anyway, I've recorded a practice tape of the music, so we'll get to dance it tonight to the fifth iteration of my calling card. By George, I think it might just work!"

M
E

Calling after long hiatus

In an attempt to sign into my own blog, I stumbled across, and was surprised to see, that the Jovial Beggars have a blog already. Little did I guess that this was not the Jovial Beggars blog at all, but a much larger cooperative affair in which Kimberly had become involved.

Thanks to Martha’s kindness, I will go ahead and post what I was going to say last week about my recent calling experiences.

I spent much of the last three years in Virginia Beach. During that time, I engaged in almost no English Country Dancing and even less calling. In fact, I may not have called at all. Since returning home in May, I have had two calling experiences.

First, our friends in Bunker threw a small dance there, and I called Draper's Garden. The group was small, the music quiet. There was no need for a microphone. I had full freedom to walk up and down the line calling as I went. I got to re-taste the difficultness of calling, but this was an easy dance, and I think I did alright. At least, I was able to keep most everybody in time with the music, which is a rare thing it seems. I could not help commenting afterwards what a beautiful couples dance Draper's Garden is. So many dances have you dancing half of the dance with your corner. Those dances are great, but sometimes you want to actually be dancing with your partner. This one is such a dance, and it is slow and it is simple. So, if you have something to say while you dance, this dance is a great one during which to get it said.*

Second, I tried calling at a small private dance in the kitchen-dining room of my own home. We only had six couples. I called several dances in a row, dancing while calling. This definitely reaquainted me with the difficulties that can come with calling and dancing simultaneously. I made many many mistakes. But I had a great time nonetheless, and I hope everyone else enjoyed the experience of dancing in my house as well (the floor never caved in, so that's got to count for something...though I had my worries as the twelve of us did our 2 (or 3 or 4) two-hand turns during Yellow Stockings).

*It is possible it wasn’t Draper’s Garden at all and that I’m forgetting the name, and somebody might look up the steps to the dance and say, “What is this quack talking about?”

JBH

Introductory Workshop

I had an opportunity to lead the workshop for new dancers at Saturday's contra dance. Actually, as I walked in the door Mac said that he'd been trying to get in touch with me because I'd been bugging him (er...asking him politely) about leading a workshop. He thought this was a good opportunity.

I've been watching or participating in workshops for the last month or so and noticing how the other callers teach the moves. While I watched, I formed my own opinions about what went well, and what felt awkward. Of course I hadn't brought the notes I had taken or the simple dance I wanted to end with, but hey, a caller needs to be ready at any time, right? I took the plunge.

Overall I think the workshop was OK. There were a couple of things I had intended to cover that I forgot -- a star is the most important of them. And I couldn't come up with a simple dance on-the-fly to end the workshop so it sort of tailed-off rather than having a nice clean finish. [NOTE TO SELF: Always bring your calling notebook -- you never know.]

Some ideas I tried that did work are:

Have the dancers practice asking their partner if they want to dance. I remember the first couple of dances I came to I was very unsure about asking some of the really good dancers to dance, so I'm hoping this simple (almost silly) exercise will help ease that awkward moment.

Avoid over-explaining things. I have a urge to go into great detail -- probably because I'm used to programming computers. Dancers, though, even the beginners seem to be able to figure a lot of things out for themselves, so, for example, I didn't bother to tell the gents to let the ladies walk past them in a ladies' chain. Somehow they all figured it out.

Speaking of ladies chain, etc. The courtesy turn seems to be an awkward teaching moment in many workshops, so I stole an idea I saw a caller use a couple of months ago. I taught the courtesy turn first as a separate movement, then incorporated it into the ladies chain.

To teach a courtesy turn, start with a promenade around the set. Then just move the right hands from in front to behind to get the right position. The dancers already did a turn back into the set at the end of the promenade, so just reinforce that movement by having them courtesy turn all the way around. Once they get that part, explain that the courtesy turn is usually just part of a more elaborate move.

I used the Right & Left across as the first move that includes a courtesy turn. I like this because it starts with both members of the couple doing the same thing, and both of them in position for the courtesy turn without requiring the gent to turn around and anticipate where he needs to be.

After a R&L, the Ladies Chain seemed to happen pretty easily, and most of the gents I watched seemed to understand right away when I mentioned that a step to the right before the lady arrived made the move flow smoothly.

So, I don't get wings for this one, but I do think leading your first introductory workshop is one more step on the path to becoming a caller, and I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to try it.

Calling Party this Wednesday September 10

During this small (very small) lull in the calling action I had an opportunity to try something I'd been wanting to try. Two things, in fact. I know you're not supposed to choose dances by their names, but it's hard to resist calling one actually named for one of your children. And I couldn't pass up the chance to learn one with my other child's name, too. Luckily, they're both good dances, if a tad difficult.

The first was "Where's Alex?", written by Michael Furst at a Breaking Up Thanksgiving weekend when the eponymous lad was not yet even a teenager. I've danced it only twice - that night, and once in LA when Lisa Greenleaf called it. Otherwise, it's so fiendishly difficult to call that it's just Not Done. It's not really hard to dance, exactly, because it flows well. It's just hard to keep your bearings. There is a half hey which you do with current neighbors, then a half hey you do with your next neighbors, then a gypsy you do with a third neighbor, only to return to swing your second neighbor. If everyone knows which direction they're going, the moves are not all that difficult, but that is asking a lot, and the end effects are tough. I still don't have them figured out. I think you're supposed to stay where you are, but...Anyway, we did actually successfully dance it for a while last night - kudos to the dancers!

The other is Colin Hume's lovely dance "Elizabeth", done to the lovely tune by Colin Hume also called "Elizabeth". There, as in "Where's Alex?" the difficulties are all in the second half. In the second half, the ones cross and cast, then do a figure of eight ending up below the twos. The twos are supposed to do a figure of eight starting up, ending up below the ones, then walking up between them to progress. Think about it. If the ones have ended up below the twos, how do the twos do a figure of eight starting UP? I can't tell if they are supposed to do it with imaginary friends, or what. And another thing. I can't even tell from the instructions when the twos are supposed to begin. One version I have says the twos "meanwhile" drop back a little on a diagonal, then do the figure of eight. "Meanwhile" means "simultaneously with" but that is just about impossible in this case, as near as I can tell. Another version says the twos "wait" and then start the figure of eight. How long is "wait"? I can't find Colin's original instructions, or haven't so far, so I don't know what he thinks about it. He has a tantalizing page on his web site "Dance Technique: Phrasing and Timing" in which he lists 14 dances, including Elizabeth, discusses 13 of them, but leaves out one - you guessed it - Elizabeth. I ended up giving the ones 12 counts to do their thing and the twos the other 12 counts, but I'm not at all certain this is correct.

We also discussed all the calling opportunities coming up: Kay and Chrystal and Missy will be calling at STL ECD this Friday the 12th and Monday the 22nd (it would be great if we would go and support them!), and Billy has offered us the chance to call at the Youth Contra on Friday the 19th. We've been invited to call at Grand Center and at the Arch on Saturday and Sunday September 27 and 28. And the next Hatchling Dance is October 4. Whew!

Think about which of these events you'd like to call at, and let me know!

To our dancer friends: you are most welcome to come, including especially those of you who are new - it helps you get to know people, strengthens your dance skills, and gives us the opportunity to improve our teaching!

M
E

Fledgling!

Thanks to the generosity of Judy, who let me call part of her evening, I now have my fledgling wings! Even though it may seem pretty silly, I have to admit that I'm really proud of my little gold wings. I'm also thankful that the Calling Gods were kind to me and kept me from making any horrible mistakes - just little ones, which good-natured dancers were happy to ignore.

It was rather different to call five in a row instead of one at a time. There's a lot of time where you are just standing there watching for trouble, and it's easy to let your mind wander. Then, when trouble develops, it takes a moment to recover your bearings.

I realize now that I could have easily figured out where trouble was going to occur and be ready to start calling again before it started, instead of waiting until it had already occurred. There were a few dancers who, when any two were in the same group of four, generated enough confusuion for that group that the dance would break down, even when one of the other dancers in the set of four was an experienced dance fixer! I should have been keeping an eye on those folks, and if one was coming from one direction, and one from another, start calling again as they met up.

In spite of having learned at Sugar Hill not to change the dance I was going to call at the last minute, I learned on Sunday to change every dance I was going to call at the last minute. The first dance I planned to do had almost exactly the same moves as the dance Judy called as the first dance, so it had to go. After that, I just kind of went through the cards that I had pulled out to choose from and created a new order, on the fly, doing the hardest one third (of the four dances I thought I was going to call), leaving an easier one for last. Then Judy asked me to call one more. (Gulp!) No guts, no glory, I figured, so I pulled another slightly harder one, and it went just fine (thank you Lord!).

All in all, though, I would say that it was grand good fun to call almost half a dance. It really helps to have dancers and musicians as good as the ones at the dance on Sunday, of course.

M
E

Wow. Great dance, everyone!

Last nights dance sure was a success! Everyone's dance went well, we nearly broke even financially, and people were laughing and smiling all night. Contra people enjoyed the English Country Dancing, and ECD people enjoyed the contras. We're definitely on the right path.

Many kudos to all of you who did such a terrific job of preparing for the dance.

A curious sidelight: before the dance, I made a little schedule, giving about 12-13 minutes to each person, plus about a half hour for two waltzes and a break. Amazingly enough, we were right on schedule almost the entire night, maybe a minute or two off. I suppose I made lucky guesses, but all of us get credit for teaching efficiently and running all 12 dances about the right length of time!

M
E

English Dance Site

Oh my goodness...I just came across the funniest--but good--site! http://rivkinetic.org/flash/ecdflash.html

It's an animated(I think flash) perspective of some ECD moves.

There are 9 moves illustrated. The Hay for 4 leaves something to be desired but overall the presentation is short but neat.

BTW our calling calendar is starting to look like a bag of Skittles!

Hatchling Dance on Saturday September 6

Good practice tonight - there were a few rough spots, but on the whole, I think the Hatchling Dance on Saturday looks interesting and fun.

Here's the current lineup:
1. Bob - Jefferson and Liberty
2. Karen - Scout House Reel
3. Martha - Auretti's Dutch Skipper
4. Bill - Carey's Demo Dance
5. David - Beckett Reel
6. Kay - Yellow Stockings
Waltz
Break
1. Billy - Little Kate's Contra
2. Dale - Angular Motion
3. Bob - Mage on a Cree
4. Joe - Comfort Deluxe
5. Chrystal - Fenterlarick
6. Karen - Hey in a Barn
Waltz

Let me know if you think there should be any changes!

M
E

Calling Party on Wednesday September 3

Several events this weekend! We have the SWGNA Flash Dance at the Pool Pavilion in Tower Grove Park right before the First Saturday Hatchling Dance.

By the way, fellow Hatchling Lyndon Blaylock called a really wonderful Workshop at the Morris Ale in Colorado that Lyndon and Gitry and Charles and Rin and Bob and I went to over the weekend. Some of the dances at the Ale were definitely in unusual formations -- I think some (very carefully chosen) Morris Dances would be fun to do at a First Saturday Dance.

I also ran into former St. Louisan Barb Kirchner, who is now living in Boulder. One of the folks who's also a contra dancer in Colorado paid her what I consider to be the highest compliment of them all: "She's one of those people who can get lots of people doing the right thing with very few words." Congratulations, Barb!

M
E

Wade's Sugar Hill calling

I only called Saturday night at Sugar Hill. I could have signed up to call when I arrived Friday, but I was more concerned with setting up my tent and eating, and by the time that was done it was dance time and who knows where the sign-up sheet was anyway. 

While Martha's post mentioned that the other Hatchling callers had early calling times as a result of early lottery drawings, I think my draw was before Bob and Martha. I chose to call at 2:00 AM because I wanted the option of calling something uneven and the lines would be shorter then. As it turned out, another complication came from picking that slot: late night band change! It was actually around 2:30 AM by the time I got to call, and the band was changing, so my concern was that if it appeared to be taking too long to start the dance we'd start losing dancers. So I started yammering to the dancers to get a partner and line up well before the band was ready. I did that for a couple minutes, people lined up, and I started teaching. I called "Don't Be Scared of Your Shadow" and the un-named medley opener I stole from Kathy Anderson. The thought had flitted into my mind during the second dance that I could try changing the dance to the second part of Kathy's medley (which I've never done before), but I'd really let it run too long to try that. Both dances went very well, it seemed.

Despite the late hour, I did not call Roger Diggle's "Crazy Eights", which is proper and uneven (but highly cool). Two callers later Michael Fuerst got up to call and said "We haven't done a proper dance all weekend, so now we're going to do one!" Made me wish that I HAD called "Crazy Eights", but Michael's dances were fun too.

Wade

Calling Party tonight, Wednesday August 27

Much to do! Much to do!

This was another of those evenings with twenty people in attendance. Even though only about ten to twelve people can dance at a time in our family room, no one really seemed to mind sitting out, since there was a small feast in the kitchen and lots of conversation to be had.

We ran the dances a little short tonight so that we could fit in more callers (isn't this wonderful?). The evening was a nice mix of dances we've done before and new ones that needed some attention.

I should mention at some point something about the music at the Calling Parties. I've collected a bunch of stuff over the years, so there's always a bin or two of CDs to go through to pick something to play. But Wade often brings wonderful recordings of our local old-time groups, and Billy's been making special mixes just for the purpose, and other people occasionally bring things as well. If we know what band we're going to be calling to soon we try to have something from them, just to get acclimated to the sound.

M
E

Sugar Hill 2008

This was the best Sugar Hill since the old days. The music and the dancing was as hot as the traditionally hot August weather. There were so many good bands - and so many young people in so many good bands - that I became quite sure that the future of contradancing in the Midwest is finally safe.

Sugar Hill 2008 photo
by Dan Klarmann

There were about ten of the Hatchlings there, and four of us (Bob, Karen, Wade and I) called, collectively, 14 dances, of which exactly 14 were danced beautifully. We had gone in with the idea that we would kind of hang back and let the experienced callers have prime time, but it didn't completely work out that way. On Friday, we did call late, after 2:00am, but Saturday's calling is by lottery - and Karen was picked FIRST, Bob was picked about fourth, and I was about sixth. So what the heck. The band lottery is held before the caller lottery, so we were able to choose which bands we wanted to call to. Karen chose one of the coveted PigTown Alley spots (at midnight), Bob picked one of the U4 spots (at 10:00pm), and amazingly, the opening 8:00 spot was still open, so I picked that one. A respected authority had told me I should try to call first to give me a splash in the deep end, and Bob had wanted to call early, too, so we could pull out some of our easier dances.

My personal calling experience was mixed. The good news first - because I opened on Saturday night, I got to say "It's Saturday Night at Sugar Hill!" to a cheering happy crowd. And the band was the Corn Stalkers, Matt Turino and Ben Smith, the two amazing young fiddlers from Champaign-Urbana who played at Childgrove a couple of weeks ago. With Matt and Ben playing great dance music, I had the pleasure of calling, as a no-walkthrough dance, Gene Hubert's The Nice Combination, considered by some people to be the best easy dance ever written and Bob called Roll in the Hey, possibly the most popular easy(ish) dance ever written. The night was off to a great start.

(Hmmmm...Think I'll add the bad news in the comments. Maybe some of you won't read it.)

One of the things I learned for certain this weekend, is that callers are by and large invisible when they do an okay job. So I was really lucky to be first up and get to say "It's Saturday Night" and do a no-walkthrough dance, because people remembered me. Why did I need to be remembered? Because I did something so embarrassing on Friday night that I was sure my calling goose was cooked forever. (Cary Ravitz, whose dance I had muffed, kept reminding me the next day, while I was still suffering from the shame of it all, that "your first impression stays with people forever". Thanks a lot, Cary! )

So our eight o'clock dances went well. Our ten o'clock dances went well. (It was U4 playing, remember...) And though I'll leave their stories for them to tell, Karen's 12:00am dances went well, and Wade's 2:00am dances went well. The Hatchlings had a great Sugar Hill outing! Wahoo!

Oodles of kudos to you, Martha!

Thanks so much for your wonderful infusion of energy into our dance community, Martha! It is a deligthful joy to read your posts of every sort! It's great to have so many on board, eager to learn, share, expand they way they participate in the organization of the contra and English country dance groups.

I appreciate your invite to the blog and look forward to being a more active participant as time allows.

Eileen

Calling Party Wednesday August 20

Much to prepare for! There's a Flash Dance we've been asked to call for at the Pool Pavilion in Tower Grove Park on Saturday September 6 in ADDITION to the Hatchling Dance at the Monday Club that night! The Tower Grove Park dance is from 6-7pm and the Hatchling Dance is from 7:30-10:30pm. We'll need to plan carefully so people don't have to drive too fast from one to the other!

And, on Sat/Sun September 27 and 28, we have been asked to call at the Grand Center Opening and Park Palooza. To get the times and dates straight, I'm recommending the Flash Dance schedule page. Be sure to follow some of the links. There's some cool stuff going on those days!

Just so you know - there were at least 20 people at this Calling Party. Even though there's really only room for 10 to dance at a time, I think we had 12-14 dancing for a while, and it didn't really feel like anyone had to sit out who didn't want to. Maybe it was the lure of the peach cobbler.

M
E

English!

Bless Missy for giving us a chance to call some English Dances at a Dance Discovery rehearsal on Tuesday. I called Elverton Grove and Key to the Cellar, and Bob called Mage on a Cree. Missy called several dances (really well, too), let's see...Fenterlarick, and Fandango, and Lillibulero and another one or two) Mark, Missy's husband, called Winter Solstice, which contains a grand square done with an extra couple in the middle. The grand square is great fun, but the surprisingly lovely move is a series of curlicue promenades cascading around the set.

Goodness, I love dancing English, particularly when there's enough room. We had twelve people in a large church basement, so we could really walk way out to make those grand moves that so many English dances have.

Then last night, Wednesday, we were practicing at the Calling Party some of the dances we'll call at the Hatchling dance on September 6, and Bob tried out some of the "contrafied" versions of English dances. There were enough of us who have done the English versions now that we wanted to dance them, too. Bless me if these heavy-duty contradancers didn't decide they liked the English versions better. Forgive me if I smile...

M
E

Hatchlings in the Garden

Interesting calling experience yesterday.

Several of us called dances yesterday at the Flash Dance at the Missouri Botanical Garden under somewhat less than ideal circumstances - our sound systems were not really happy working under battery power, and we had many brand new dancers, not exactly the situation we had imagined. But the callers, notably Karen, David and Billy, did well, everything considered, and we eventually figured out a method that might work well in the future if we found ourselves in a similar situation - antiphonal calling, with one caller stationed in the middle of the line, one at the head, and one at the bottom. So long as we all knew, or had the cards for, the same dance, it would work fine!

Fabulous Music, Spectacular Calling

I don't usually report on our fine St. Louis callers, but last night, Deborah Hyland called one dance that will live in my memory as one of my very favorites. Fueled by the fabulous music making of Matt Turino and Ben Smith, who played an unexpectedly delicate, cool, smooth tune for the last dance of the evening, Deborah made her voice match that incredible music - seductive and liquid, softly crooning the calls, but when we needed it, quietly crisp and perfectly timed.

Now THAT's what I'm after - calling that matches the music and helps us do the same with our dancing. In case I hadn't mentioned it.

September Hatchling Dance - Early Planning Phase

Before I lose the piece of paper I wrote the names on, here is the list of people who would like to call at the Season Opening First Saturday Hatchling Dance:

Bill C
Bob G
Chrystal G
Dale W
David K
Joe F
Karen J
Kay T
Martha E

If there is anyone who wasn't at the Calling Party on Wednesday who would like to call, email me at meedwards@westendweb.com.

I seem to have collected a ton of easy dances, so I'd be happy to open and/or close the dance. I would also like to call an English dance, or a Sicilian Circle dance like Walpole Cottage. Oh, I forgot, I'll be playing, so I should just call one -- I'd rather do an English one.

Someone should think about going first and being the first welcomer and teacher-of-any-new-people. There is no workshop. Do we want to try the Each One Teach One method? That's where you (and perhaps a partner) walk up to a newcomer or two and ask if they'd like to be shown any of the moves. You walk through a circle, star, dosido (back to back), swing (two-hand first, then ballroom), set-and-turn-single (balance, balance, gypsy with yourself), pass through. Other people are doing the same thing with other newcomers. Or we could make the first (or second) dance a circle dance, and use it to teach newcomers on the spot without them knowing that's what we're doing.

Let me know what dance(s) you'd most like to call. If we all choose early enough, we can see what might be missing, or what might be too similar to other things, etc.

Actually, while we're at it, it's not too early to think of the whole season - between now and, let's say, January 3! That would be six dances. Even though there aren't enough spots for everyone to call two dances at each dance, if we all thought about what dances we might like to do if we called a whole evening, we could each prepare 12 dances, call between 6 and 12 of them over the course of the next six months, and have an entire evening ready if someone were to ask!

M
E

Calling Party on Wednesday August 6

Great party last night! Wow. We have three (3!) choreographers in our midst - two of them brought dances to try out, and one of them wrote a dance just sitting there while we snacked and dished.

Through the amazing process of Self Selection, we ended up with Nearly Perfect gender balance right from the start - not that it particularly matters, but it makes teaching a difficult dance easier when you have an obvious marker. On the other hand, when my partner and I waited out at the bottom wrong once, I simply swung the person who came at me, who happened also to be a lady, and my partner, for the first time that I can remember, without skipping a beat, simply swung the gentlemen who came at him! We continued in crossed-over genders for a while, then switched back smoothly during a swing. Even though that's the nicest thing to do in a situation like that, I've never before danced with a group of people who managed it. Most people act all worried and whiney until everyone rattles and bumps their way back into their properly appointed girl/boy places. Go Hatchlings!

To save time at Calling Parties, I like to try out several easy dances at once as no-walkthrough dances. The ones I picked worked great except for one where the "actives" swing in the middle at the end. At that point, everyone had been up and down the line enough to have become thoroughly unaware of whether they were ones or twos - a simple "the couple below swing in the middle" would have solved it, and that's what's on my card now.

Speaking of cards, did I tell you about my new toys? I switched from my book of 8.5x11 pages (folded) to the more traditional 4x6 cards, found a GREAT set of nesting clear plastic card holders and some cute little binders for cards at some OfficeMax/Depot/Staples place on the way to Cumberland, along with an adorable "mobile printer" that now sits on my desk an arm's length away so I don't have to walk ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE ROOM (about 6 feet) to the big All-in-One printer over there. I've posted the templates I use for the cards (and the ones I used for the 8.5X11 sheets of paper). The page is linked from the right-hand column --> under Card and Dance Planning Templates.

Remember that there are multiple calling opportunities coming up: email Greg if you want to call at the Flash Dance this Sunday at the Garden, contact any of the Childgrove callers if you want to call a dance or two at a regular dance, and don't forget the First Saturday Hatchling Dance coming up in September. Already we have nine callers signed up for that one! We have a standing invitation to call at Cape Girardeau, and Larry Boyer often welcomes us to call at the Youth Contras too. And, as if that were not already riches enough (now how much would you pay?) there is another Flash Dance we can call at before the Hatchling Dance on September 6, and we have been asked to call at the Grand Center and Arch celebrations the weekend of September 27-28.

Any of us who are learning to call English too should contact Missy to call a dance at the Dance Discovery Open Calling night August 12. Even if you don't plan to call, I hope you'll let her know how much we appreciate the opportunity. If you're a member of Dance Discovery, and haven't been for a while, this would be a good one to attend! If you think you might enjoy dancing English-y dances as part of a performance dance troupe, talk to Kay or Chrystal or Missy about it - they can fill you in.

M
E

Cumberland Dance Week

What a Week!

I'm back from the Cumberland Dance Week, tired but happy. The week was just brimming with good folks, fine musicians, experienced dancers, and wonderful callers. On the calling staff we had Bill Litchman, Bob Dahlsemer, Chris Bischoff, Diane Silver, Susan Taylor, and Bob Tomlinson - and among the attendees were other good callers, Michael Barraclough, for example, and Kappy Laning, and our very own Eric Schreiber. Bob and I called three dances each during the late-night dances, and three of his and two of mine went quite well!

The big surprise was Bill Litchman. I don't believe he was really mentioned as a caller in the advance materials, or else I missed it. He was listed as a clarinet player. Now, I haven't always had great experiences with clarinets -- violin and clarinet is a tough combination, sonically, and I'd had a kind of bad experience with a clarinet-playing sourpuss when I was younger, so I was a little wary of Bill at first, but by the end of the week, he was one of my very favoritest people, uh-huh.

Bill has a dry, subtle wit, and he chuckles a lot and laughs easily, so he was an absolute dream as a band partner. When he said things, they were always so...wise and funny and smart. Little did I know in the beginning that he was in the callers' Pantheon, maybe even the Zeus of callers. So, while I had to miss the Callers' Workshop with the redoubtable Bob Dahlsemer, I was getting my very own tailor-made workshop with my stand partner, Zeus. ("Bill Litchman?" folks would tell me. Didn't you know? "He's the very best of the best.")

I gave him the short version of my adventures in English Country Dancing (we were playing the ECD class at the moment) about how frustrating it was to hear the calls only after the figure had already started, how it stopped my momentum and created a kind of chaos when other dancers were as clueless as I was as to what came next. "Oh, cadence calling," he said. "What?" I said. "Cadence calling. Like singing squares. You call the figure as it's being done. Of course, that only works when everyone already knows what to do, but sometimes, the calls are just part of the current action." At that moment, I felt two tectonic plates shift. A bit more description of the situation led him to agree that calling an English Dance to a group with some new people was not the time to be doing it, or else (get this) the dance was too difficult for the group. That is, if the dance were easy enough (very easy indeed, in my case) the dancers would remember the dance, so the calls being synchronous with the figures wouldn't cause a problem. See what I mean about the wisdom? I was going around "knowing" that Late Calls were simply Not Done, when, as so often happens, the truth is a lot more subtle than what I "know".

From Bill and from a delightful Englishman named Michael Barraclough, I enlarged my understanding of what the (British) English call ECD - it's a lot like the First Saturday Hatchling Dances we are planning! That is, there's really no special division of dances between "contra" and "English". It's all "Country Dancing". Circles, squares, longways, triplets - almost any patterned dance would be acceptable. American Contras are a special subset, as are Kentucky Running Sets (the ones brought back to England by Cecil Sharp). I forgot to ask about the vocabulary - whether or not everyone understands "Back to Back" to be the same as "Dosido"? Or "pull by right, pull by left" to be the same as "rights and lefts"? but my guess is that everyone is so bilingual in this regard that they wouldn't particularly notice, just as we might not notice if a caller called us "ladies" instead of "women" or vice versa.

The English apparently also have E-Ceilidhs, or, translated from Gaelic, "English Parties", which I understand to be filled with traditional English dances (including waltzes, schottisches and polkas) danced to somewhat traditional tunes, albeit with a Rock-and-Roll influence and played on modern electronic instruments, and "Barn Dances", which are like our wedding dances, or one-night-stand dances with easy dances for mostly non-dancers.

Alas, the one English dance I called at Cumberland, "Knives and Forks", did not go well. Nothing broke down, mind you, I just managed to suck the life out of the evening, even after my brilliantly stupid joke ("We would have had a Spoon, too, but the Dish ran away with the Spoon."). It was one of those dances in three, which for some strange reason I find difficult to call. I got just a tiny bit lost and wasn't sure I was in the right place, so my calls lacked a certain... confidence. Once again, I failed to prove that ECD is not slow and boring. Luckily, Susan Taylor is such a lively and non-boring English caller that she set the whole camp straight on THAT for an entire week, and my misadventure did not have any lasting effect.

The two contras I called, "Boomerang" and "Dancing Sailors" went very well, thank you very much, so the bruises to my personal reputation were pretty much healed by the end of the week, but I'm kind of determined to figure out a way to call "Knives and Forks" well.

M
E

Hatchling Dinner?

Martha Kelly - our caller this Sunday - is interested in getting together with local folks to have dinner and talk about caller stuff. She would be available around 4:00 Sunday. I am open to suggestions - but a good "St Louis" place is Blue Berry Hill.

It would be nice to have some kind of idea of the number of people - so email me - even if you can't come so I know how many people have read this and can try to find the others.

mac@macandmarsha.com

Guest Callers at Childgrove

With Martha and Bob off enjoying a week of dance at Cumberland Dance Camp there's nobody to congratulate the Guest Callers at last night's Childgrove Dance, so I guess I'll do it.

It wasn't a typical Childgrove dance. We always get new dancers, but last night there were so many dancers in the beginners' workshop that Mac actually formed two contra lines. This is most certainly a good thing, but it meant that all evening long there was a lot more teaching going on than usual.

Karen called her first dance in public, Salmonchanted Evening, by Steve Zakon. She did very well. Her timing on the calls was admirable. The only complaint I had as a dancer was that she continued to call throughout the entire dance. When I asked her about it later, though, she said she had to. With so many new dancers in the group, whenever she stopped calling the dance started falling apart.

My dance came a little bit later. I sat out the square dance that came right before my dance just to get my thoughts in order. Unfortunately, people were having trouble with relatively straightforward square dance movements (like "circle left!"). Mac finally had everyone go back home and started again with a much simpler square.

I was not feeling confident at this point. Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss is a fun dance (I hope) but it is not a beginners dance!

The good news is that the band, The Mound City Slickers, had agreed to play the old-time song after which the dance was named. Since that was the song I had been using to practice the call, I was on familiar ground.

Of course, the dance used a couple of moves for the first time that evening which meant they were brand new for some of the dancers. "Hands across Star" wasn't a big problem, but we had to do an extra walk-through of the "Ladies pass-left-shoulders-in-the-center hey."

The real problem during the walk through came at the two places during the dance when I wanted to stop and talk. At both these places the gents and ladies were doing different things and they could dance it faster than I could talk it. Once you get dancers moving it's hard to make them hold still (grin).

When all was said and done, however, the dance went well. It was a little bit ragged throughout -- I was able to stop calling, but I still had to add gentle reminders to get people back on track when the dance started to drift away. By the end of the dance, I was feeling pretty good about the whole thing.

Now I'm eager to hear how "Fly Around..." was received when Bob and/or Martha called it at Cumberland.

Hatched!

Woo hoo! Karen joins the Hatchlings, calling two dances at Reida's last night. Great job, too. Dan caught one of them on pixels and put it up on YouTube. Didn't we just have fun?

Dale called his latest revision of Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss, then called the one just before the last one (he called it n minus 1). We pronounced n-1 a keeper.

Can't tell you how proud I am that we Hatchlings are able to call for house parties, Flash Dances, spontaneous events, beach parties on deserted islands...

Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss

As those of you who were at the hatchling party last night found out, I've tried my hand at writing a dance. Martha suggested that I post the dance here so people could comment.

First of all, thanks to the guinea pigs (er.. I mean willing volunteers) who helped me try it out. Your feedback (lots of it!) was helpful. Based on that feedback, I made some adjustments to produce this version that I think is almost ready to go.

Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss
(V0.4 Beta)
Dance: Dale Wilson (with a little help from his friends)
Song: Traditional
Improper duple contra

A1
(8) Left hands across star once around.
Gents, when you get back to your place turn out to the right to give the ladies room to continue the star.
(4) Ladies continue the star 1/2 way until you see your partner.
(4) Right hand allemande your partner 1/2 way

A2
(16) RIght hand pull by your partner sending the ladies into a full hey -- ladies pass left shoulders in the center.

B1
(8) Gypsy your partner
(8) Break down into a partner swing.

B2
(8) Right and left through with a courtesy turn
(8) Circle left three places and California twirl to new neighbors (left hand across star)

Last B2
Right and left through
Balance and swing your partner

I'll attach the version I called at the party as an comment to this post. The major change addresses a timing problem at the end of A1/start of A2. Because of the fix, the ladies start the hey rather than having the gents do it. This also means the gents don't have to start a hey while facing the wrong direction (oops.) The rest of the fixes are cosmetic -- improving the descriptions of the moves.

I plan to try this out again at the next hatchling party so speak now if you have ideas for improvement. The floor is open for comments.

The Three Minute Rule

Here's a terrific way to deal with (us) callers who take too long in the walkthrough: Notes on the Three Minute Rule
(by Gene Hubert, commented by Dot Kent).

Spontaneous Calling Opportunities

I knew there was a reason we are doing this. I used to think I wanted to learn to call dances so that if I was ever on a deserted island with eleven other people, we could contra dance. Now I realize that you don't need the deserted island for calling opportunities to just pop up. A Flash Dance does just as well.

And, of course, just as our Flash Dances are carefully planned spontaneous events, complete with backup plans in case of rain, it helps to bring your cards and a battery-operated speaker system, and a group of five boomboxes all playing the same thing at the same time, thanks to an iPod and an FM transmitter. Add dancers and you've got yourself a dance!

Here's where we were dancing last night. Minutes before I got there, it was thundering and lightening and raining like crazy. During the time we were there, the sun came back out.

Mostly we waltzed, but I got to call "Joy Ride" (shown here on YouTube) and "Boomerang", and Bob called "XYZ". As always, calling is super simple when the dancers are good.

Still, notice that it seems that a lot of people cut the Mad Robin and the half poussette down to about six or seven counts each, causing the hey to start early, yet they finished the hey at almost the right time. Does that mean that the "half a hey plus the men passing left shoulders one more time" (Gaye said it was a three-quarters hey for the men) cannot be done in eight counts? I believe it does. By my count, a three-quarters hey should take twelve counts. I begin to think the hey in this dance actually should be started as many as four beats early, meaning we should call it early too! (horreurs!)

Here's the dance as it's written:

Joyride - Erik Weberg Improper

A1: 1. Neighbor Gypsy
2. w/Neighbor Mad Robin

A2: 3. 1/2 Pousette clockwise (Gents backing up to begin)
4. 1/2 Hey (Gents st L sh); finish Gents passing Left

B1: 5 & 6. Partner Swing

B2: 7.Ladies chain;
8. Star Left to next Neighbor

No one will mind (or notice, probably) that the moves in Joy Ride don't always fit the phrase of the music since it flows in such a curvy smooth way. There are exactly NO points of punctuation, no balances, no long lines fwd and back, no Petronellas! Except for the brief time that the men wait while the ladies chain, no one ever stops moving. So although the timing is crucial, it can be unusual. Instead of the expected ||8-8-8-8||16-8-8|| timing, it can be something rather more like ||8-6-6-12||16-8-8|| or ||8-8-6-10||2-14-8-8|| or sometimes ||8-8-8-8||4-12-8-8||, causing the end of the hey to take place at the top of the B1 during partner swing time.

P.S. I found two clips of Joseph Pimentel, that fabulous caller, calling Joy Ride. In the first, at Huntsville weekend with music by Ed and Elsie, he takes the Poussette way wayyyy out so that it takes a lot more than 8 counts, which kind of has the effect of making the hey start just four counts before the top of the B1, so that most of the hey is in the first 8 counts of the B1, with the swing only 8 counts in the second half of the B1. It works...

The other one, taken at the Ann Arbor Dawn Dance, is closer to the ||8-8-6-10||2-14-8-8|| that I now think is probably The Answer for this dance. The music by the Great Bear Trio for this one is especially slow and dreamy, which may be the best kind of music to make this dance really put you into that fabulous trance state we have come to know and love.


M
E

No! No calling party this week.

No (sniff!) there is no calling party this week (July 9, 2008).

Next week! And the week after that! Yes!

M
E

Yes! Calling Party this week July 2

See you on Wednesday!

M
E

Flash Dance: The hatchlings spread their wings

Since Martha hasn't blogged about it yet, I'd like to report:

There wasn't an "official" caller at the flash dance last night. And since (wo)man does not live by waltz alone, the hatchlings stepped up (literally.) Each of us called a dance or two (I called the only one I know.) Martha pulled off The Levi Jackson Rag in spite of the claim by someone who shall remain unnamed that "that dance never works." Even with a fair number of first time dancers we were able to "leave one, pass one, get one" with style.

It wasn't a perfect venue -- doing a hey between those posts was a bit, er, intimate, but it came mighty close. Even the St. Louis weather cooperated.

Dale

No Calling Party June 25 - sort of

We didn't have a regular Calling Party on June 25 - Dale and Billy and I got together just to go over the basics. Since they're both musicians, figuring out where "1" and "5" are was easy-peasy, so we moved on to figuring out just where we might say what in order to get the dancers moving in time with the music. We used Gene Hubert's "The Nice Combination" for the project, writing down the moves in a special dance grid I got from some folks in Columbia MO, then writing down the calls in the preceding four counts, then using our notes to call the dance a bunch of times. At the end we compared what we came up with, with what I had used to call the dance at Childgrove. I liked the new things we came up with better, and have changed my card...

M
E

Hatchlings' dance

I really enjoyed the dance Sunday night. The dances went smoothly and the new dancers did well, too, so your instructions worked! (Sorry, Bob, I missed your dance.) Here's to the Hatchlings!

Calling Parties in June

We've had some terrific parties here these last few weeks. Enough of our wonderful dancer friends have been showing up each week to give us more than enough folks to fill the room (Note to self: make room bigger!), and we've had some fine wining, dining, dancing and conversation.

The universe continues to conspire not to let me do any English dancing, but I did have the pleasure of playing for Chrystal and Kay's English dances (and remind me, why did I buy all 14 Bare Necessities CDs? :-)). We did The Bishop to both its original (?) music (a lively jig called The Bishop) and to Miss Dolland's Delight (a more dignified and stately, if syncopated, march-like tune, which is suggested in Barnes for The Bishop). Interestingly, while I preferred the jig, the dancers seemed to prefer the other tune.

Last night Dale made his second debut, with cheers greeting his efforts. He'll be calling at the Childgrove dance with the rest of us on Sunday. Wahoo!

Here's the list we made up last night for this Sunday:

1. Broken Sixpence - Wade
2. Simplicity Star - Dale
3. Box the Gnat - David
4. Dosido and Face the Sides - Wade
5. Evil Duane - Joe
6. Boomerang - Martha
Waltz

Break

1. Chain the Swain - David
2. Eric's Second Date - Joe
3. XYZ or Symmetrical Force - Bob
4. Catch a Falling Star - Martha
5. Roll in the Hey - Bob
Waltz

M
E

Stories from Paula

Paula McFarling, one of our good caller friends from Columbia, MO, told me a couple of tales from the time she spent learning to call, and I thought they were well worth passing along to the rest of us.

Here's the first:

"I have been reading the hatchling blog periodically and really enjoy reading about all of you growing as callers. It was so scary for me at first! For several years our local dancers would rib me about the time I called long lines forward and back over and over until the music and dance matched again. But I didn't quit!"

Here's the second, about the Columbia Callers' Jams they held for a while:

"We started meeting in an apartment building’s meeting room and later met in our basement. There were 3 experienced callers who tried out unusual dances and moves. We invited any person who wanted to try calling or needed help or encouragement to call a dance or two. For music, we started with tapes but moved to having at least a fiddle player and usually several musicians. For awhile, our “slow jam” group of musicians was learning contra dance music and it was a perfect pairing. They were thrilled to try out tunes on dancers and needed practice in tempo and longevity.

The first year the Callers’ Jams were spontaneous and occurred every few months. Year 2 and 3 we had a schedule so people could plan on it and we met once a month. We had a flyer at the dances for each semester’s schedule. The first year we had a lot of dancers. Later, we had a core group of dancers who came, about 8-10 dancers. It’s great for new dancers because they learn more about how the music fits with the calls and the moves and helps them become better dancers. But an affair and a divorce and group fatigue all contributed to its demise. It was really a lot of fun!!

I had only been calling a few years so it was a huge help to me to figure out how to explain a move and then how to call it so the dancers would understand what I wanted. We had great dialogue between dancers and callers and musicians."

Sounds a bit like our Calling Parties, except for the part about the affair and the divorce. Don't think I didn't want to ask more about that! But I think I'll let it just hang in the air as a mysterious hint of intrigue.

M
E

Diabolical Dilemma

The dance last night (June 7, 2008) was a wonderful success. For a first dance of its kind, mixing (quel horreurs!) contra and English, with limited advance warning that it was even happening, an attendance of 33 people was Great News.

I watched the floor particularly during the English dances we did, to see how many dancers could comfortably fit on the Monday Club floor. It looked to me as if about 5 sets of four were just about right, and that 6 was still okay, but a tad crowded. We know that we could not fit 3 lines and still do the sweeping moves of English, so that means that the maximum number of people who could comfortably dance English there at one time is 48.

As it happens, the number of people needed to break even financially is 47.

And so the dilemma: fewer people, and the business plan doesn't work. More people, and the dance gets crowded.

We could do mostly contras, which pack together more comfortably, and suggest that each person sit out just one of the English dances. If there were 64 people, and four English dances, that would mean that, on average, 16 people would be sitting out each English dance, leaving just 48 to dance.

Well, let's just hope we can have this problem one day...

M
E

Dance!

Here's a link to the flyer for our dance this Saturday, June 7, 7:30 pm at the Monday Club: Hatchling Dance

It looks as if we have 3-4 English dances, 5-6 Contras, one Hybrid (Jefferson's Remorse) and one Dance in an Unusual Formation, the Levi Jackson Rag. I just found out tonight that the Levi Jackson Rag was commissioned by our very own John Ramsay. John's such a star...

We had a good time on Wednesday trying out all the dances - we changed out a couple we thought might have the potential for dancer confusion, so I think we've got a good program. I've made a first pass at putting them in order, and will send it around for comment tomorrow.

M
E

Calling Party Wednesday May 28 - Getting ready for three dances

Yes, Virginia, there is a calling party tonight.

We have three dances coming up to get ready for: the Youth Contra on Friday (May 30), the Hatchling Dance on June 7, and the Childgrove dance on June 22.

...time passes...

Great party tonight. John and Kathy from Cape Girardeau used some of their vacation time to stop by - they added a lot to the discussion. We all had a lot to hash over after our Kimmswick weekend, and we also watched the barn dance section of "Farmer Wants a Wife". Some pretty funny stuff in them there footage.

We danced a lot of contras - some a bit more complex than would work at a regular contra (or the Hatchling Dance) but lots of fun. We did just "Mage on a Cree" for English.

There were about 15-16 people tonight - far more than I expected on an "extra" night, and a smart, fun group. Sometimes I just think these Calling Parties are turning out better than I had any right to expect.

M
E

M
E

Kimmswick Weekend

Wow!

What a weekend for the Hatchlings!

Wade, Bob, Chrystal, Kay, David, Larry and Martha called during the weekend, as well as our good friends, experienced St Louis callers Mac, Deborah and Judy. We were also treated to calling by our Cape Girardeau cousins Kathy and John Coffmann, as well as the Gail Hintze and Michael Fuerst from Illinois, Jerome Grisanti from western Missouri, Jim Williams from Kansas, and David Kirchner from Minnesota. Dan from Illinois led a workshop on dances in unusual formations.

My lord, we learned a lot. We learned that, if you call a no-walkthrough medley, you should call each dance an even number of times (an odd number leaves someone out at the top). We found out that some dances just can't be danced in a crowded hall or one where people inevitably bunch up in one corner of the hall because you can't get across the set when you're closer than shoulder to shoulder. I'm not sure if we learned what to do about it, but we learned that some moves don't work too well on a slick floor, either.

On the whole, I was really proud of our contribution - in less than a year, six of the Hatchlings were good enough to provide a third of the callers at a great dance weekend.

Okay, one dance broke down but was recovered with aplomb without the band stopping at all. Quite a few times we hadn't planned how to get back to your partner to end the dance with a partner swing, and our communication with the bands about going out wasn't always, um, perfect, and we didn't always get the calls out before the moves, but honestly, even in the presence of other really excellent callers, we didn't look so bad! Of course, with such good dancers, all you really need to do is read the card right.

One set of calls went awry, but provided one of the most fun events of the weekend. The dancers, who had gotten the dance into muscle memory, refused to dance to the wrong calls, but instead started calling the dance themselves. The band was playing "Liza Jane", and the crowd was lustily singing the lyrics ("Going down to Cairo, goodbye, goodbye, Going down to Cairo, goodbye Liza Jane"), mixed in with the calls ("Swing!", "Long Lines!", "Hey!"). When the calls from the microphone converged with the calls from the floor, the crowd cheered mightily. We discussed how we could make something like that happen on purpose. Someone remembered that George Marshall sometimes gets dancers to call the moves while they're dancing. I'd love to find a way to do that.

The English with Contra Subtitles workshop went swimmingly. There were about fifty or so attendees, but I counted only seven from St. Louis! Either my count was wrong, or we have a lot more work to do to convince St. Louis contra dancers that English is a wonderful dance form - and part of the contra tradition. But the workshop surely proved that we have a shot at doing just that! Bob and Chrystal and Kay did a great job of getting everyone moving and enjoying the pleasures of sweeping moves done to joyful music. (The Tu'Penny Uprights: Kristin, Paul, and Martha, plus Pam from Cincinnati, played the music). We got a lot of positive feedback afterwards, and there were certainly a lot of smiling, laughing people who were cheering at the end of the workshop. So I'm counting it as a win.

I'm bone-weary from a weekend of little sleep and lots of paying attention, but so happy to have smart, talented and loving friends, and a FINE dance community. Bless you all.

M
E

Calling Party Tonight Wednesday May 21

Two days until Kimmswick, but who's counting?

Calling Party tonight at 7:00pm, my house. Here are the directions.

Kay and Chrystal and Bob and I have been working on a workshop for Kimmswick, scheduled for Sunday at 1:00pm, titled "English with Contra Subtitles". We'll want to try a few of our ideas out on you tonight...

Also, I hope that those of us who are calling at Kimmswick will bring a list of dances we'd like to call just so we can avoid calling the same ones. It's inevitable that some caller or other will call a dance we had our heart set on calling, but at least it won't have to be one of us!

I have talked with Peggy about finding a time for a separate Hatchling Dance - one where we get to call whatever we want, contra, English, squares, odd formations - and she has gotten back to me with an offer to let us use the Monday Club on first Saturdays. I've talked with most of the Hatchlings who have already called at least once to see if they'd be ready to start in June 7, and the answer seems to be YES!

You experienced callers are also invited to participate, of course. It can't be a paid gig until we find a following, but you can get in for free if you call.

M
E

Welcome Missy! (Does this mean I have to pick some English dances to call!?)

Calling Party May 14

Good party tonight!

Special guest Missy graced us tonight - and we got to dance several English dances in preparation for our Kimmswick workshop. It was a good test. Enough of us are not familiar enough with English moves that they needed to be clearly explained, so we were able to see that we're going to have to make it simpler than we thought (okay, or we have to get better...).

And it's not just English. I tried calling Where's Alex again, this time understanding (and teaching) it better, and I still couldn't get everyone to remember what to do. So I guess I'm going to have to scrap it for Kimmswick this time, but I'd sure like to figure out what I have to say to make it easier. Lisa Greenleaf could...

So, one more party before Kimmswick. Must figure out what I want to call...

M
E

What to Call at Kimmswick

Martha asked "Is it generally okay to call slightly harder dances at Kimmswick?"

Sure, generally. But you might want to keep the following in mind:

• Is the dance hard but interesting? Or is it just hard? Why not pick one that's just interesting?
• Keep in mind the temperature, time of night, night of the weekend, etc. At a certain point, even the most hotshot dancer gets brain dead and can use a break.
• Did the caller before you struggle at all? Maybe you want to look good in contrast--go w/ a dance you know cold.
• If the band is particularly hot, why not let folks just enjoy moving to the music instead of racking their brains?
• A good general rule for most things in life is "Just because you can doesn't mean you have to."

That said, pick whatever you like. You'll be sure to learn something from the experience either way.

Calling at Kimmswick

Different dance weekends do things differently, but here's how I've coordinated the Kimmswick calling in the past. Please note that I took over the caller coordinating from someone who used to write the available time slots on a sheet of paper, fill his name in at the peak spot, and then hang it up on the wall for anyone to sign up. So I've tended to manage things a little more closely. Not saying it's better.

• I look at the list of attendees for callers I know, ask around for new callers, and then generate a list each night.
• I keep a lot of factors in mind: reputation, parents who need to put toddlers to bed, squares or contras, old-time or other, etc. Callers who are prone to being dance-killers (the ones where people will decide just to go off to bed rather than suffer through interminable walk-thrus) never ever get to go late at night.
• I never ask callers what exact dances they want to do, but I do know who likes to call squares and try not to put them back to back w/others who like to do squares. That way, a caller could do 2 squares if he or she wants to & not have to worry about the next caller wanting to do the same thing.
• I also "program" only to the extent that I like to slot in at least 3 of the more dynamic callers in a clump near to the peak of the evening.
• I will often go first as I know it's not a favorite slot, but if someone is willing to go early or very late, I'll make it up to him/her the next night. As we get older, it's getting harder to find late-night callers.

How can you get to call? You can let me know here that you're interested, look for me at the event, or send me an email. I will just keep your name in mind until I set up the schedule on the first evening.

Slots are on a half-hour basis and you should be able to get 2 dances done during that time. Generally speaking, it's bad form to go over time. If we start late, the breaks go long b/c of some variety show, another caller takes a year and a day, or whatever, I may ask you to really focus on making up some time. If so, keep it short, keep it simple. Doing so is a service to the community, not some personal affront on my part.

Some other things:

• If you're not feeling up to doing 2 dances, that's totally fine & I appreciate your honesty and effort. You can split with any other caller of your choosing.
• There will be a lot of great bands there, so generally speaking, please don't insist that I put you with a certain band. If there is one you like particularly, feel free to let me know, but it may not be possible to work it out. Trust me, they're all good.
• Depending on how many callers are there, you may not get to go every evening (odds are good you will though).
• Being willing to go really early or really late get you bonus points, especially if you keep it relatively simple at the late ones. When I was learning to call, odd times were one of the many things that I did in the name of "paying my dues."
• If you decide to go to bed and are still on the list, please let me know.
• If you want feedback on your calling, I'd be happy to give it, but only if asked. Other callers, I'm sure, will also give you feedback if asked. I hope you take the opportunity to talk to many of the callers and bands that weekend.

Hope that helps answer some of your questions. If you have more, by all means, post them here.

edited to add: I've got to leave now to call a dance out of town, and will have sporadic email for the next few weeks. If I don't get back to you in the nanoseconds that the internet seems to demand, my apologies. I'll be catching up every few days.