My goal with this program list was to make an evening of dances that was very accessible for the first half of the evening, with the second half being a bit more challenging, with energy building as the evening progresses. I've tried to blend in a variety of moves over the evening so that each dance is noticeably different . . . not so sure how well I accomplished that objective. In fact, I don't think that I have either a gypsy or a full hey in the entire program. I've deliberately avoided down the hall 4 in line because I don't think that move works too well at the Monday Club (its best used sparingly there, IMHO). Also, I've tried to include dances I've already called at real dances. I think this would be a fun evening of dances, but it ain't a flirty evening of dances, particularly. It might also be a tad too basic.
OK, here goes. Your comments, critiques, and feedback are welcomed, appreciated, and anticipated.
# Title Author Distinctive figure
1 Swing Fever Tony Parkes NghbSwng /GntsAlmdL/PrtSwng
2 Small Potatoes Jim Kitch LdsChn/DSD/PrtSwng
3 Duck Soup David Kirchner CrcR/ROMrBalances
4 Ben's Brilliance Tony Parkes NghbProm around Ring
5 Comfort Delux Rich Mohr CrcL switch to CrcR progression
6 Fractal Fling Cary Ravitz StarPromL /BtflyWhrl/ StarPromR
Break
7 Dancing With Amy Bill Olsen RghtDiag Ladies Chn / StarLeft
8 The Women's Wall Al Olsen Twist on contra corners
. . . this is Face the Creek?
9 Don't Be Scared Bob Isaacs Balance Line, twirl to swing partner
of Your Shadow
10 Swim,Dance Poop Robert Cromartie
ShrtWvy Ln Bal pass thru return
11 Butter Gene Hubert Slide left, CrcL, Swng
12 Southern Steve Zakon Nice series of allemandes
Swing
8 comments:
Wade, we had talked Sunday about your program & actually only 1 is in my box already. For me, I make my decision based on the whole dance, not just key moves. I have things I want to focus on & things I want to avoid. I'd be happy to meet w/ you sometime to look at the cards together & chat about them.
That said, I wouldn't (and this is just MHO) put Southern Swing as the last dance--it's a great dance, but the B2 is not for the brain dead. Even as the peak dance, it requires the caller to be ready to jump in and assist the dancers.
For me, the last dance is definitely a cool down dance--it should have a satisfying partner swing and be simple enough so that the caller can drop out to let the dancers just dance to the music. It also shouldn't take much time to teach, just in case you're running short. I look for a dance that is smooth & flowing as a finale.
That's just the opinion of one caller though--I'm sure you'll find others differ.
Deborah,
Thanks for the comments. To clarify, I didn't select dances solely on the basis of a characteristic move. That's just a way to try to avoid putting two dances together that are overly similar. Other factors that went into the programming were making certain that the earliest dances stayed within the minor set, trying to include both partner and neighbor swings in the early dances to assist any new "velcro couples" who would otherwise inflict their inexperience on each other from the start.
I'm a little surprised that you only have one of these dances (and I guess that would be Southern Swing?). The one I've listed as "Swing Fever" I've also seen as "Spring Fever", and I assumed that the latter name was a mis-transcription. Of course, I got a lot of these from workshop handouts of fairly recent vintage, which you wouldn't necessarily have reason to consult.
And you might be right about Southern Swing . . . we dance it often enough that its sort of a no brainer for that reason, but yes, the end of the dance is a bit busy (I'd noticed that in looking at the card yesterday, in fact).
Wade
On even further inspection, I see that there is a full Hey in the dance "Butter" (I knew that!). One could argue that by that late in the program, any one still left dancing would know a hey. One could also argue that its too late in the evening to teach a full hey.
Wade
I'm sure you certainly kept a lot of factors in mind; I only meant that I couldn't give you advise based only on key figures--I'd want to see the whole card. Sorry for the confusion.
It's not just that Southern Swing is busy--it's that it has both a ladies chain & a ladies alle rt 1x--which makes for confusion.
I'm familiar w/ many of the titles, but they're not in my box. I generally get my stuff from out-of-town callers. With the exception of discussions on the trad caller's list, I rarely collect dances from printed sources. I like to see a dance in action. Plus, my collecting lately has focused on squares or on ONS material
I tend not to take from local callers, but that's just my personal dance ethos--I figure they collected it, so it's "theirs." Other callers differ in this.
Here's a second stab at an evening's program. I put much easier dances in the first half - your first half would be a good second half for this program. I only have 12 dances in my collection, and found that 5 of them have heys! I like dancing heys, but perhaps I should start avoiding learning dances that have them for a while.
Using just the dances I have practiced (plus a couple of simple ones I just added), here's a program:
Dog Branch Cats Reel – super simple
circle, dosido, swing, down the hall,
Blackbird Pie – simple
circle, star, dosido, long lines, swing, down the hall
Rendezvous – simple
circle, dosido, swing,long lines, slide to progress in B2
The Nice Combination – simple
circle, star, swing,down the hall, ladies chain
Box the Gnat Contra – medium
swing, allemande, ladies chain, box the gnat
Delphiniums and Daisies – medium
circle, swing, allemande, ladies chain, hey for four
Break
Triskadekaphobia – medium
circle, swing, allemande, down the line with cozy return, clover circle
Reunion – medium
circle, swing, pass through, hey for four, diagonal ladies chain
Levi Jackson Rag – unusual formation
circle, swing, dosido, right and left through, promenade, 5-person star to a courtesy turn
Rant and Roar – medium +
allemande, swing, long lines, hey, rory o’more
I kind of like the first half, because the dances are easy but fun, and build skills gradually. I wouldn't be able to do the second half unless the band knew the Levi Jackson Rag, and there are too many Heys, so I'm going to have to come up with some good "distinctive" dances.
My thought on the second half is to first do a dance at the easier end of medium, then ramp it up in difficulty and/or speed for a couple of dances, then do something "different", and end with a couple of rip-roaring no-think dances.
Now that I look back at what you said, I see I've used down the hall in the first two dances, because that's an easy move to understand for newcomers, and because the hall isn't so full at the start of the dance.
One odd thing I noticed on Saturday when we had tons of newcomers is that when you have a dance community that takes care of its newcomers as ours does, starting a dance with a neighbor swing often put two newcomers together right at the very first move! The thought of using a neighbor swing first when you've got newcomers kind of assumes they'll be dancing together, but we've got so many people willing and eager to help out that one good impulse is thwarted by another good impulse. Two positives in this case do, in fact, yield a negative.
M
E
Martha,
This looks like a nice list of dances. For my tastes, there's a bit much of the down-the-hall move, but that's just me. I think your program is an easier first half than mine, which is good. I'll have to take some time to go over it in more detail before commenting further.
I went over my program with Deborah today and she had some good observations. For example, my first dance was of a higher piece count than the second dance, and the third dance was probably easier than the fourth. We also noticed that I had a lot of balance-the-line moves, and perhaps some dances that were harder than the INTENDED level.
So, with these things to consider, I will take some time to amend my program (and see if I can get it so that it can work with Martha's). I should include a dance with a roll away with a half sashay, since that is my favorite move in contra.
Wade
Martha: All but 2 of your dances begin with a circle. Do more dances than I realize begin with a circle?
Oh! The moves in my list are not written in the order in which they are done, but rather go from simplest to more difficult.
The only dances I can think of that begin with a circle are ones that end with "slide left"...
I figure some moves are easy for even non-dancers to understand. If you attended school in the seventh grade, you know how to do a dosido, and circles are pretty easy. Likewise long lines and down the hall.
The only "hard" move in the first two dances is the swing, so that would have to be taught in the beginners' workshop. I also think the ladies chain can and should be taught in the workshop, but most of the other moves in my first half can be explained as the dance goes along without boring the experienced dancers too much.
Or at least, that's what I'm currently thinking.
Post a Comment