Congrats Hatchings! I think we did really well. Glitches are expected, our recoveries were right on. Let's do it again. (Do we have any dancer feed-back yet?)
I certainly agree - it didn't go with overly polished, machine-like perfection, but the dancers had a good time, the missteps were small enough we could laugh at them, and we were incredibly on schedule, thanks to Wade's stopwatch.
I talked with the musicians afterwards, and they felt we were as good as, or better than, some of the experienced callers they've worked with! (None of ours, of course.)
Since we were working this time just for the price of admission, somebody figured out that our new motto could be "Cheep Cheep, Fun Fun!"
I too think that we did a really good job. Were there mistakes? Oh yes (most of 'em by me!), but when they happened we dealt with them sufficiently well.
In particular, Chrystal had a little trouble teaching Blue Persuasion, but this was to be expected and when it happened she calmly did an extra practice run, sensed that it would probably work and started the dance: as far as I know, the dancers got it (I actually got distracted in a conversation so I didn't watch the dancing closely).
I had some small problems with the square dance. I got a little confused in calling the breaks for the square, and probably left out part of the figure one time through, but these problems were not fatal. Despite teaching my contra well, I lost control of the dance early on but eventually realized I had a lost cause on my hands (I couldn't tell where we were with the music, I couldn't tell where any of the dancers were in the dance, and it looked as though the dancers were in different places on different parts of the floor). Didn't seem like I could do anything but cut my losses and stop the dance and re-group or call it quits (probably I should have stopped it earlier). And I have to credit the musicians here, PARTICULARLY Jim Nelson, because I just asked them to start over again, but I'm pretty sure it was Jim who suggested that they switch tunes. Switching tunes made all the difference in the world (and I'm not trying to blame the breakdown of the dance on the tune: its a tune that I'm familiar with, it's probably danceable but maybe not very good with that dance . . . I've not yet listened to the recording). So I had my first big bust on a dance, but recovered with my dignity essentially intact!
After my debacle with "You Can't Get There From Here", Bob opted for his easier dance. I don't know if my dance was the only reason he went with "Roll in the Hey", but this was really a very wise decision on his part. The dancers needed a dance that was not a struggle at that point, and he gave it to them.
Likewise, for the last dance Martha saw that we had plenty of time for a walkthrough on the dance and did not opt for running it as a no-walkthrough, despite having practiced it that way, and in so doing put the dancers needs first (i.e. she didn't feel the need to try to dazzle the dancers).
And for Joe, Kay, and David, I can't recall anything AT ALL that was amiss with your teaching or calling (again, I haven't listened to the recording yet). I think that people used the mic well, spoke in a loud and clear voice, and had a sense of "command" when on stage.
So, yes, I think we can be proud of how the evening went (realize, this is coming from a person who is usually trying to find the dark lining in the silver clouds!). Practice paid off and helped us feel at ease on stage, and when things didn't go as planned we responded well and dealt with the problems.
Choice of dances worked out well with this band. When Geoff heard we had new callers – his first comment was “do they know about this band?”
Callers did a very good job of recognizing when they could stop calling. Some times you could have shortened the calls before stopping – but it worked well.
Special recognition for Wade’s workshop and square.
Picky minor stuff:
Calls were at times too wordy. Cary Ravitz talks about this in his notes on calling - don’t use extra words – ‘circle to the ceft’ should be ‘ circle left’ Listen to the recordings (there are several) and see if you can spot areas of improvement.
Have a back-up dance handy – you shouldn’t have to shuffle through files on stage to find a dance.
Dance times were very consistent. Timing was probably necessary to get all the callers turns in, But in a normal event use your judgment more. I danced the first dance as an inactive and only was active 2 times thru. That dance started with 2 very long lines. Since it was unequal – 3 shorter lines might have been better.
The square ran longer than most contras – nothing wrong with that – just interesting.
I sent the time summary to Martha on a spreadsheet.
Doing it again
Sure – talk to Peggy – but she is probably booked into July. I hope you all plan to call at Kimmswick.
I think we may all feel that only we were the ones to make the most mistakes - I left out a move early in my first dance, and failed to recognize that the second line hadn't had time to take hands four before I started the teaching of Delphiniums and Daisies. I thought they had, but...
I think the reason Bob called Roll in the Hey instead of XYZ is that he sounded out the band and got the impression that they would not have been as happy playing a slower tune as letting 'er rip.
I was dancing Blue Persuasion about half-way down the line in front of the caller. I could see that Chrystal was just about to pull out Plan B when a bunch of people shouted "No, no, let's do this one." The rousing applause she got at the end shows the gamble paid off.
Kimmswick! That's right! We can call at Kimmswick!
And if we're ready to move up a rung on the ladder of caller exellence, we now have invitations from Cape Girardeau and the Youth Contra. Do Hatchlings become Fledglings?
Seriously, I miraculously managed not to make any serious mistakes...this...time! However, did anyone notice that I started to call Reel Easy a second time? I thought that the dance seemed a little too familiar. Everyone was very kind not to razz me about that one. Thanks
I had that back-up dance sitting on the floor ready and open in case I needed it. I knew I had bitten off probably more than I could chew. Seriously, there were people up by the stage that were rolling their eyes during the walkthru. It was seriously intimidating. That's why I wanted to put it away. I was SHOCKED everyone wanted to try it!
In all, it just goes to show what a patient, willing group of dancers we have. They knew we were hatchlings and they came and had a good time. We picked some fun stuff and some tough stuff and we took stuff home to practice and some lessons well learned. Thanks for making me stick with it.
Joe - one suggestion on your wrong dance thing - you sort of left the dancers hanging when you realized the problem. You started a walk thru and then just stopped and started going thru your files. You should have let them know why you stopped - missed a good opportunity to share the joke with the dancers and have a little fun with it. Instead they were just confused.
I really struggled to try to be there, and I'm so sorry I missed everyone's debut. I worked from 12-6 on Sunday and came home to a stack of papers that needed grading for my Monday morning class.
Try not to beat yourself up too much. It sounds like everyone had a good time and no one got hurt--all anyone could ask for.
This blog was started when a bunch of us got together and decided to learn to call dances. The siren lure of Facebook drew us away, but from time to time, it seems necessary to say a bit more than a small paragraph, so we keep the blog.
We're contradancers. And English Country Dancers. And musicians, some of us. And callers. We welcome anyone who believes you're never done learning. We want to encourage good calling, good dancing, good music, traditions, evolution of traditions, and fun.
11 comments:
Congratulations to everyone on a job well done!
I certainly agree - it didn't go with overly polished, machine-like perfection, but the dancers had a good time, the missteps were small enough we could laugh at them, and we were incredibly on schedule, thanks to Wade's stopwatch.
I talked with the musicians afterwards, and they felt we were as good as, or better than, some of the experienced callers they've worked with! (None of ours, of course.)
Since we were working this time just for the price of admission, somebody figured out that our new motto could be "Cheep Cheep, Fun Fun!"
OK, so can we call our line-up of dances a "pecking order"?
I too think that we did a really good job. Were there mistakes? Oh yes (most of 'em by me!), but when they happened we dealt with them sufficiently well.
In particular, Chrystal had a little trouble teaching Blue Persuasion, but this was to be expected and when it happened she calmly did an extra practice run, sensed that it would probably work and started the dance: as far as I know, the dancers got it (I actually got distracted in a conversation so I didn't watch the dancing closely).
I had some small problems with the square dance. I got a little confused in calling the breaks for the square, and probably left out part of the figure one time through, but these problems were not fatal. Despite teaching my contra well, I lost control of the dance early on but eventually realized I had a lost cause on my hands (I couldn't tell where we were with the music, I couldn't tell where any of the dancers were in the dance, and it looked as though the dancers were in different places on different parts of the floor). Didn't seem like I could do anything but cut my losses and stop the dance and re-group or call it quits (probably I should have stopped it earlier). And I have to credit the musicians here, PARTICULARLY Jim Nelson, because I just asked them to start over again, but I'm pretty sure it was Jim who suggested that they switch tunes. Switching tunes made all the difference in the world (and I'm not trying to blame the breakdown of the dance on the tune: its a tune that I'm familiar with, it's probably danceable but maybe not very good with that dance . . . I've not yet listened to the recording). So I had my first big bust on a dance, but recovered with my dignity essentially intact!
After my debacle with "You Can't Get There From Here", Bob opted for his easier dance. I don't know if my dance was the only reason he went with "Roll in the Hey", but this was really a very wise decision on his part. The dancers needed a dance that was not a struggle at that point, and he gave it to them.
Likewise, for the last dance Martha saw that we had plenty of time for a walkthrough on the dance and did not opt for running it as a no-walkthrough, despite having practiced it that way, and in so doing put the dancers needs first (i.e. she didn't feel the need to try to dazzle the dancers).
And for Joe, Kay, and David, I can't recall anything AT ALL that was amiss with your teaching or calling (again, I haven't listened to the recording yet). I think that people used the mic well, spoke in a loud and clear voice, and had a sense of "command" when on stage.
So, yes, I think we can be proud of how the evening went (realize, this is coming from a person who is usually trying to find the dark lining in the silver clouds!). Practice paid off and helped us feel at ease on stage, and when things didn't go as planned we responded well and dealt with the problems.
Hooray for us!
Very nice job – everyone had a great time
Especially notable:
Choice of dances worked out well with this band. When Geoff heard we had new callers – his first comment was “do they know about this band?”
Callers did a very good job of recognizing when they could stop calling. Some times you could have shortened the calls before stopping – but it worked well.
Special recognition for Wade’s workshop and square.
Picky minor stuff:
Calls were at times too wordy. Cary Ravitz talks about this in his notes on calling - don’t use extra words – ‘circle to the ceft’ should be ‘ circle left’ Listen to the recordings (there are several) and see if you can spot areas of improvement.
Have a back-up dance handy – you shouldn’t have to shuffle through files on stage to find a dance.
Dance times were very consistent. Timing was probably necessary to get all the callers turns in, But in a normal event use your judgment more. I danced the first dance as an inactive and only was active 2 times thru. That dance started with 2 very long lines. Since it was unequal – 3 shorter lines might have been better.
The square ran longer than most contras – nothing wrong with that – just interesting.
I sent the time summary to Martha on a spreadsheet.
Doing it again
Sure – talk to Peggy – but she is probably booked into July. I hope you all plan to call at Kimmswick.
Mac
I think we may all feel that only we were the ones to make the most mistakes - I left out a move early in my first dance, and failed to recognize that the second line hadn't had time to take hands four before I started the teaching of Delphiniums and Daisies. I thought they had, but...
I think the reason Bob called Roll in the Hey instead of XYZ is that he sounded out the band and got the impression that they would not have been as happy playing a slower tune as letting 'er rip.
I was dancing Blue Persuasion about half-way down the line in front of the caller. I could see that Chrystal was just about to pull out Plan B when a bunch of people shouted "No, no, let's do this one." The rousing applause she got at the end shows the gamble paid off.
Kimmswick! That's right! We can call at Kimmswick!
And if we're ready to move up a rung on the ladder of caller exellence, we now have invitations from Cape Girardeau and the Youth Contra. Do Hatchlings become Fledglings?
M
E
Maybe this is one case when it's OK that talk is cheep?
Seriously,
I miraculously managed not to make any serious mistakes...this...time! However, did anyone notice that I started to call Reel Easy a second time? I thought that the dance seemed a little too familiar. Everyone was very kind not to razz me about that one.
Thanks
I had that back-up dance sitting on the floor ready and open in case I needed it. I knew I had bitten off probably more than I could chew. Seriously, there were people up by the stage that were rolling their eyes during the walkthru. It was seriously intimidating. That's why I wanted to put it away. I was SHOCKED everyone wanted to try it!
In all, it just goes to show what a patient, willing group of dancers we have. They knew we were hatchlings and they came and had a good time. We picked some fun stuff and some tough stuff and we took stuff home to practice and some lessons well learned. Thanks for making me stick with it.
Joe - one suggestion on your wrong dance thing - you sort of left the dancers hanging when you realized the problem. You started a walk thru and then just stopped and started going thru your files. You should have let them know why you stopped - missed a good opportunity to share the joke with the dancers and have a little fun with it. Instead they were just confused.
Mac
I really struggled to try to be there, and I'm so sorry I missed everyone's debut. I worked from 12-6 on Sunday and came home to a stack of papers that needed grading for my Monday morning class.
Try not to beat yourself up too much. It sounds like everyone had a good time and no one got hurt--all anyone could ask for.
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