Getting ready for the CELEBRATION!
Dance this Saturday, November 1.
Calling Party to get ready Wednesday October 29.
My house, 7:00pm. Directions here.
M
E
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Calling Party October 22, 2008
Again, a wonderful party! Early on, we had a small-but-mighty group again, so we worked out a couple of tricky moves. Slightly later, more folks arrived and we had our requisite ten-plus dancers. Perfect.
One of the problems we're facing is that everyone is getting so comfortable dancing English that even the double figure of eight in Bob's new dance didn't phase us, so we're not exactly preparing for inexperienced dancers!
We're getting ready for the Hatchling Dance on November 1 - here's who's calling:
Bob
Chrystal
Dale
Karen
Kay
Joe
Martha
Kent, Kimberly and David will be out of town. Wade's running sound that night. Billy's got a calling gig.
M
E
One of the problems we're facing is that everyone is getting so comfortable dancing English that even the double figure of eight in Bob's new dance didn't phase us, so we're not exactly preparing for inexperienced dancers!
We're getting ready for the Hatchling Dance on November 1 - here's who's calling:
Bob
Chrystal
Dale
Karen
Kay
Joe
Martha
Kent, Kimberly and David will be out of town. Wade's running sound that night. Billy's got a calling gig.
M
E
Friday, October 17, 2008
Trip to Salem, Anyone?
Hello!
The next Jovial Beggar English Country dance is October 25th, in Salem, and I wondered if there were people who would like to car pool down there. We could take one, or two, cars down and up in one night. Chip in for gas as you like, and have a great time. We'd have to leave St. Louis by 3:30, and we wouldn't get back until midnight or so.
The dance itself is $1 per person. There will be no live music this month, I'm afraid, but we have fun.
Dress is nice casual.
Let me know what you think.
The next Jovial Beggar English Country dance is October 25th, in Salem, and I wondered if there were people who would like to car pool down there. We could take one, or two, cars down and up in one night. Chip in for gas as you like, and have a great time. We'd have to leave St. Louis by 3:30, and we wouldn't get back until midnight or so.
The dance itself is $1 per person. There will be no live music this month, I'm afraid, but we have fun.
Dress is nice casual.
Let me know what you think.
Big Week next week
Goodness. Look at all the dancing next week.
Sunday, Childgrove contra dance. Monday, ECD at Focal Point. Wednesday, Calling Party. Friday, Youth Contra. Saturday, ECD in Salem, MO.
And, for some of us, Gypsy Moon Ball. I'll be there - Indy on Friday and GMB on Saturday. The amazing Seth Tepfer will be giving a workshop in the afternoon on calling to children and other people who don't dance much yet. I know this guy. This will be an amazing workshop. Anyone interested in calling should try to be there.
What a week!
M
E
Sunday, Childgrove contra dance. Monday, ECD at Focal Point. Wednesday, Calling Party. Friday, Youth Contra. Saturday, ECD in Salem, MO.
And, for some of us, Gypsy Moon Ball. I'll be there - Indy on Friday and GMB on Saturday. The amazing Seth Tepfer will be giving a workshop in the afternoon on calling to children and other people who don't dance much yet. I know this guy. This will be an amazing workshop. Anyone interested in calling should try to be there.
What a week!
M
E
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Calling Party Wednesday October 15
Come to call. Come to dance.
We danced. We called. Then we watched the debate.
M
E
We danced. We called. Then we watched the debate.
M
E
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Historical Event
Tonight, I was there when history was made - there was dancing (dancing!) at Missouri Baptist College. It was English Country Dancing, which seems to be catching on among home-schooled kids and definitely caught on at the College Conservative Club at MoBap (who project themselves as non-partisan, who look at politics from a biblical perspective and who get funds from the Republican Party). I asked the college chaperone to dance - he declined, sweetly, saying he had to stick to his chaperoning duties. Yep, those wild English Country Dances really can get out of hand...
It was...a wonderful dance, something I didn't expect. It seemed as if about half of the 80 or so kids there had some prior experience, but maybe they just picked it up really quickly. The caller was Bill McDonald, whose family has been running an English Country Dance for a number of years. Dapper in his tails, he was able to shape a dance that got teenagers from zero to sixty in no time at all. His wife acted as "Dancing Mistress", getting extra couples for triplets, helping stragglers with the moves. His kids were ringers, helping to keep things together too.
I look forward to going to some of the McDonald's dances at Saint Francis Xavier. I understand they are family dances - kids, parents, grandparents. I have to see what these guys are doing that builds such enthusiasm that 200 people come to dance English Country Dancing. He said he decided early on to focus less on "styling" and more on "welcoming" and I say that's a great first step.
M
E
It was...a wonderful dance, something I didn't expect. It seemed as if about half of the 80 or so kids there had some prior experience, but maybe they just picked it up really quickly. The caller was Bill McDonald, whose family has been running an English Country Dance for a number of years. Dapper in his tails, he was able to shape a dance that got teenagers from zero to sixty in no time at all. His wife acted as "Dancing Mistress", getting extra couples for triplets, helping stragglers with the moves. His kids were ringers, helping to keep things together too.
I look forward to going to some of the McDonald's dances at Saint Francis Xavier. I understand they are family dances - kids, parents, grandparents. I have to see what these guys are doing that builds such enthusiasm that 200 people come to dance English Country Dancing. He said he decided early on to focus less on "styling" and more on "welcoming" and I say that's a great first step.
M
E
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Calling Party October 8, 2008
Again, small but very mighty.
Did I say the perfect number of people at a Calling Party is twelve? Well, seven is another kind of perfect. Three couples - you get one progression, or you dance triplets! Everyone there was bi-lingual so we did a lot of English (Larry, Billy, Kay, Kimberly, Bob, Wade, Martha, and Kent, towards the end). We discussed methods for teaching the Engish "cast", which is one of the three moves that bedevils contra dancers (bedeviled me when I first started, anyway), and basically the group felt we shouldn't worry about it because people eventually pick it up anyway.
Hmph. I didn't agree.
I figure "picking it up eventually" is good enough for people who are already motivated to learn to dance English, but I contend that any move which is confusing makes you feel stupid and clumsy, and is not good marketing to our contra dancers who are only dancing English because they're at a contra dance where some silly new callers are making them choose between dancing English and sitting down. If we can learn how to explain it well, they'll feel clever and graceful for having figured out how to do it.
Bob did a great job of figuring out how to teach Set and Turn Single to contra dancers (balance right, balance left, Gypsy with yourself) and helped me teach Sharp Siding (Allemande left four counts, Allemande right four counts, be sure to start on your "outside" foot, now do it without hands), but the third confounding move, the Cast, is still a bit elusive.
We thought of comparing it to the move in a square dance when the head of the line peels off to march the line around, but alas, you're usually facing in to the line, not up the line, when a cast is called. "Take a Dance" has couples leading down and casting up, or leading up and casting down - that seems to offer good possibilities for learning the cast. We could do that dance, then try doing casting from place without the lead up or down. Maybe that would work. ANYTHING but "turn over your right shoulder if you are a woman or over your left shoulder if you are a man, then walk down the set." Correct as it is, that just makes no physical sense until you've done it for a while and you add the sense of looping. (Face up to go down? I don't think so.) We need find a way to explain it that feels good in addition to being correct, and we need to explain it without using the words "right" and "left" if at all possible.
All suggestions on this point are welcome.
M
E
Did I say the perfect number of people at a Calling Party is twelve? Well, seven is another kind of perfect. Three couples - you get one progression, or you dance triplets! Everyone there was bi-lingual so we did a lot of English (Larry, Billy, Kay, Kimberly, Bob, Wade, Martha, and Kent, towards the end). We discussed methods for teaching the Engish "cast", which is one of the three moves that bedevils contra dancers (bedeviled me when I first started, anyway), and basically the group felt we shouldn't worry about it because people eventually pick it up anyway.
Hmph. I didn't agree.
I figure "picking it up eventually" is good enough for people who are already motivated to learn to dance English, but I contend that any move which is confusing makes you feel stupid and clumsy, and is not good marketing to our contra dancers who are only dancing English because they're at a contra dance where some silly new callers are making them choose between dancing English and sitting down. If we can learn how to explain it well, they'll feel clever and graceful for having figured out how to do it.
Bob did a great job of figuring out how to teach Set and Turn Single to contra dancers (balance right, balance left, Gypsy with yourself) and helped me teach Sharp Siding (Allemande left four counts, Allemande right four counts, be sure to start on your "outside" foot, now do it without hands), but the third confounding move, the Cast, is still a bit elusive.
We thought of comparing it to the move in a square dance when the head of the line peels off to march the line around, but alas, you're usually facing in to the line, not up the line, when a cast is called. "Take a Dance" has couples leading down and casting up, or leading up and casting down - that seems to offer good possibilities for learning the cast. We could do that dance, then try doing casting from place without the lead up or down. Maybe that would work. ANYTHING but "turn over your right shoulder if you are a woman or over your left shoulder if you are a man, then walk down the set." Correct as it is, that just makes no physical sense until you've done it for a while and you add the sense of looping. (Face up to go down? I don't think so.) We need find a way to explain it that feels good in addition to being correct, and we need to explain it without using the words "right" and "left" if at all possible.
All suggestions on this point are welcome.
M
E
Sunday, October 5, 2008
First Saturday Hatchling Dance #3
Hey, good dance last night, folks! It was small (32 paid, about 40 in attendance) but mighty. Lots of good dancers enjoying an evening of contra and English. The band, too, was small but mighty - I don't usually like playing without another treble player to play harmonies with, but Kristin and Mike were a great backup, so it seemed to work out fine.
I had two personal favorite moments - one was the great reception given to Dale's dance "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss". I'm not sure people even knew it was his dance, and they LOVED it! The other was the fabulous clapping in "Juice of Barley." Kay had the dancers practice just the clap with the music before the dance, on the theory that even if people were late getting back to the place they were to do the clap, they'd clap at the right time if they knew where it came in the music. Boy, did that ever work! As the dance wore on, the clapping got more and more perfectly in time. After a while, we in the band started dropping out on the clap so that the dancers had that moment all to themselves. It sounded GREAT! Afterwards, I invited all of the dancers to join the band.
But really, everyone did a great job of calling. While some of us had small fluffs, no dance broke down, and there were smiles all over the floor. The cueing of the band was terrific. Almost everyone gave us the "two" I had asked for at just the right time (in the B2). I, myself, had a personal milestone - calling a dance without looking at the card. Of course, my dance could be summarized as "side, back, side, back, turn, turn, figure eight", rivalling Roll in the Hey for succinctness and poetry: "circle, swing, circle, swing, lines chain hey".
M
E
I had two personal favorite moments - one was the great reception given to Dale's dance "Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss". I'm not sure people even knew it was his dance, and they LOVED it! The other was the fabulous clapping in "Juice of Barley." Kay had the dancers practice just the clap with the music before the dance, on the theory that even if people were late getting back to the place they were to do the clap, they'd clap at the right time if they knew where it came in the music. Boy, did that ever work! As the dance wore on, the clapping got more and more perfectly in time. After a while, we in the band started dropping out on the clap so that the dancers had that moment all to themselves. It sounded GREAT! Afterwards, I invited all of the dancers to join the band.
But really, everyone did a great job of calling. While some of us had small fluffs, no dance broke down, and there were smiles all over the floor. The cueing of the band was terrific. Almost everyone gave us the "two" I had asked for at just the right time (in the B2). I, myself, had a personal milestone - calling a dance without looking at the card. Of course, my dance could be summarized as "side, back, side, back, turn, turn, figure eight", rivalling Roll in the Hey for succinctness and poetry: "circle, swing, circle, swing, lines chain hey".
M
E
Thursday, October 2, 2008
List of Callers and Dances for First Saturday Dance
Here's the list. Let me know if there are changes we should make!
1. Karen – Air Pants........................7:30
2. Dale – Mundane Chain.....................7:43
3. Martha – Childgrove......................7:56
4. David - MN-NY Happy Returns..............8:08
5. Kimberly – The Physical Snob.............8:20
6. Karen – Rendezvous.......................8:32
Waltz.......................................8:45
Break and Announcements.....................8:50
1. Joe – Another Second Time Around.........9:05
2. Billy - The Hobbit.......................9:17
3. Kay – Barbarini’s Tambourine.............9:30
4. Dale – Fly Around My Pretty Little Miss..9:45
5. Kay – Juice of Barley....................9:57
6. Bob – Southern Swing....................10:10
Waltz .....................................10:22
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