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