Thursday, March 27, 2008

New Order of Dances for April 6

We had a wonderful Calling Party last night - lots of good folks were willing to help us get ready for the dance. I think we were about 15. I didn't do a count, but I seem to remember three foursomes dancing, one person calling and a couple of people sitting on the couch sipping wine, didn't we?

Anyway, the dances went mostly okay, though there were some scary spots. We have revised the list a bit - here's the new version:

1. Blackbird Pie by Joseph Pimentel - Martha
2. Reel Easy by Cary Ravitz - Joe
3. Al's Safeway Produce by Robert Cromartie - Chrystal
4. Rendezvous by Dan Pearl - Kay
5. Right Hand Lady - traditional Square - Wade
6. Al's HeyDay#2 by Al Olsen - Joe
Waltz

Break

7. Blue Persuasion by Chrystal Gallacci - Chrystal
8. You Can't Get There From Here by Carol Ormand - Wade
9. XYZ by Bob Green - Bob
10. Chain the Swain by Becky Hill - David
11. Delphiniums and Daisies by Tanya Rotenberg - Martha
Waltz

As I sit here, I'm wondering if we shouldn't make the first half shorter. We went through the easy dances pretty fast and yet people were ready for a break after the fifth dance. Maybe that's an omen. Also, we sometimes manage to get a clogging performance out of Leila and Ellie, which would take up some more of the time, so I'm wondering if we shouldn't put one of the dances in an optional spot in the second half.

M
E

3 comments:

Chrystal said...

We could put Al's safeway Produce on the optional list, but if we end up putting it back in then I would be calling right before the break, and right after. And again with the allemande issue. Both of those dances have mucho allemando. OR I could have Exit 33 ready as the "optional" Just throwing out some ideas/thoughts.

contrawade said...

I think we can do 6 before the break if we are careful. That assumes that each "slot" occupies about 12 minutes and we start spot on 7:00!

Right now, my square is a big problem, time-wise. It would have taken over 8 minutes last night, so I've gotta shorten the break at the very least. That square is easy to teach, unlike some, so teaching it was fast. I could opt for a different square, if I must (Right Hand High, Left Hand Low I could call in my sleep, it doesn't have allemandes, but we do it almost too often).

I don't really like the idea of scrapping "Al's Safeway Produce" at this point. If we did do it as an optional, I'd see no problem with Chrystal calling on both sides of the break, FWIW. But how does Exit 33 go?

As far as variety goes, "Can't Get There From Here" is nothin' but allemandes, though very interesting with all the balances and wavy lines. I too could look for a dance with some other moves.

Wade

Unknown said...

I'm feeling pretty sanguine about our program at the moment - which is great, because the previous week's practice left me a tad nervous.

The substitutions seemed really good, and most of the calling was well prepared, so unless we face an unusual situation, we should be okay, don't you think?