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.
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6 comments:
I second, that. Deborah's calling was fantastic all evening, but the last contra was truly something special.
Deborah, did you know what type of song they were going to play? If so, I'm impressed; if not, I am in total awe.
I had another thought about last evening that also applies to the dances Martha Kelly called. There were some really fun dances that I'd like to learn to call. Is there any chance we could get a "playlist" of the dances called during an evening? I know it would be an extra burden on the callers, but it would be a great resource for the hatchlings -- to see how an experienced caller puts together an evening.
Dale,
Since your are fairly new to the "hatchling" group, you haven't been around for discussions about calling ethics, but in fact asking a caller to provide a list of all the dances they call in an evening is not really considered polite. Its okay to ask a caller for one or two of their dances at the end of an evening, but asking for more than that is considered greedy. I've seen Deborah sit out entire evenings of dancing (hell, large portions of weekends of dancing too, I think) so that she could transcribe the dances as they are taught and called. Ditto that for many other callers I know. That's how callers get a lot of their material, or at least how they got it before internet use became widespread.
So, if the question is "Could callers in general provide us with the program they called?" I would respond "Don't even ask!" If the question is "Can we in some way get the specific programs that Martha and Deborah called?" I would say in principle, yes, since we typically record the evening of dances. Personally, I'm not particularly comfortable with being put in a position to provide those recordings to people not directly involved. In general I don't distribute band recordings to any one other than band members (I bring a few of those recordings to calling parties because they are good practice material). If you called a dance, I'm happy to give you a recording to help you critique your performance. But in general, I'd say that if you want a caller's program of dances you might consider bringing a recording device to dances that are likely to have interesting dances and record it yourself so that you can transcribe the dances at your own leisure.
Wade
Thanks for your kind words. No, I didn't know what they were going to play and trust me, I was as startled as everyone else :)
This was only my second opportunity where I'd been offered the chance to call the Saturday night dance in all the years it's been going on, so I'd been saving up a bunch of dances just for the occasion.
If you ever want the specific name of a dance or to see a card, feel free to ask me at the end of an evening.
I know that in the "old days", gathering materials was laborious and difficult, so that having dances written down gave a caller an "edge" over others who did not have it. These days, however, the more difficult task is making sure we maintain accurate attributions. This does not give the caller any "edge" of course, so the "edge" has to be the quality of the calling - that is, the quality of the dance experience that is made possible by the caller/band combination. Therefore, any caller who is asked for his or her program or dances could assume that the request is a form of appreciation. Is it possible that in a Web 2.0 world, it is no longer reasonable to be offended by someone asking for your program?
Here's a thought: callers whose dance choices are good could post their programs on the web, so that it would be known that a particular sequence of dances was their invention (also thereby passing along accurate attributions to the dance choreographers). The dances themselves should be posted by their authors. Likewise, a band, having put together some good medleys, could post those medleys on the web, but not the sheet music for recently composed pieces, which should be done by the composers. The band could post their recordings on the web but other people should not, unless they get permission. And so forth.
This way of looking at things may not be common among people who did not grow up using the Internet, so I'm guessing we would all do well to recognize that any particular caller may ascribe to the set of conventions that Wade has described, but -- I don't know -- it seems to me that sharing has brought us all a lot more riches than keeping stuff to ourselves ever has.
These are just some thoughts, probably revealing my newbie status more than I know...
M
E
Most callers are flattered if you single out a dance or two that they called and will be happy to allow you to copy it. Copying an entire program is another thing. That is not as flatering and really says - I am just collecting a lot of dances and does not single out anything as especially a good choice.
In general - the dances are out there for all to use. The program belongs to the caller and duplicating it would not be appropriate.
In the case of the Hatchlings - who would want to analyze a program they enjoyed for 'academic' purposes - that would be fine - but any program you present should be your own - and you alone get credit for its success and (or lack of). That is what provides us with the variety we enjoy from dance to dance.
Gathering dances is still laborious and it's not a good idea just to get them off "Web 2.0."
Last dance, I called a dance from the CDSS newsletter (for which I pay a yearly membership fee), some of Gene Hubert's books (which I bought), dances I've collected at dance weekends, and off the trad. dance caller yahoo group (because I know they've been vetted by other callers).
Even there, I don't take every dance I see. By far, my preferred method is to write them down at the dance and I carry a small notebook just for that purpose.
I'm currently collecting some Missouri square dances by traveling to some of the old-time square dances like they have in Hallsville or Ava (these aren't even close to being on the contra-dancer beaten path).
Anyway, there are so many variables in a particular program (who's there, the hall, the band, the heat, day of week, what else is going on around town) that I'm not sure how any particular program would be useful. I generally don't even reuse my own programs.
In addition, and this is my personal ethos only, I make it a practice not to use the dances I've learned from other local callers at their home dance. For example, I learned "Double Bow Knot" from Mac and use it often in other cities, but I generally try not to call it in StL. Like I said, this is my personal ethos, and I know other callers don't feel the same way.
That said, I'm happy to give you the name and any details of a particular dance. I'd also be willing to come to one of your workshops sometime and discuss how and why I put together a particular program.
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