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