After last night's dance I've been trying to decide what makes Adina Gordon such a great caller. Of course she had a wonderful band to work with. Celticladda played interesting music; the beat was strong; the timing was impeccable. That helps the caller a lot. But even given such powerful music, how did Adina manage to teach so well that many times she only walked us through the dance once, and she was able to drop out after two or occasionally three rounds of the dance. No one seemed to get lost. Even the inexperienced dancers seemed to show up right where they were supposed to be. And everyone was smiling.
The best I have been able to come up with is Adina trusted the dancers. I think I have a tendency to overexplain during the walk-through and maybe over call during the actual dance. Maybe if you expect the dancers to do well they live up to your expectations. Or maybe Adina just has a magic touch.
In any case, it was certainly a fun evening.
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4 comments:
Dale - you are correct - learning how far you can trust the dancers and then how to use that trust allows you do to some of the things you mentioned. In general, I think the Hatchlings tend to over teach and call too long, but that is far better than erroring in the other directions. Experience (including observing callers like Adina) will give you the confidence to reduce your calling and teaching.
Other factors include:
Choosing very good dances. Some dances are much more intutive than others. There are lots of well written dances out there so there is no reason to call the awkward ones. Learning to identify them is also a learning experience - but as a dancer you have the opportunity to experience the full range of dances.
Adina is very charming. Everything she says is positive, uplifting and fun. You enjoy listening to her - so you listen more carefully. I don't think this characteristic is discussed much - but it is very important. I am sure there callers you enjoy listening to more than others. What are they doing that works?
Mac
I had an interesting conversation with Eric, our guest keyboardist last Saturday, who talked about the good callers he's been playing with, and how they all seem to have a different "public" face than their "private" one. Adina corroborated his observation, and in fact, teaches it in her calling workshops. No matter how private or down or self-effacing you really feel, when you stand up (really stand up - tall and commanding, which has nothing to do with your height) you breathe in and put on your caller persona, which should be, what, friendly, confident, welcoming, competent, and (your adjective here).
Yes. I'm not an experienced caller but I have done a lot of public speaking. It's the same idea--the moment before you get up there on stage, you put on your confident, friendly (your adjective here), presentation persona, and off you go. For some, it's just a natural thing. For others, it can be like putting on a mask, in the sense that it allows you to temporarily become "someone else." Some of the best public speakers I've ever met are painfully shy in person. Perhaps that's true of callers, too.
It goes the other way too - some folks who are overbearing and even mean to people around them can walk out onto a stage and be incredibly welcoming, loving, and inclusive. I knew a nationally prominent choir director who was that way - and the fabled Arthur Fiedler, who was warm and grandfatherly when he faced the audience and the tv cameras, would turn around and insult the musicians when his back was to the audience.
I actually think this should give us hope! No matter what our personalities, if we practice being positive, uplifting and fun, people will listen to us and learn more quickly.
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