I mentioned in my facebook status that I had called a dance without a card. Of course I didn't explain that it was 'cause I forgot to bring my cards to the Hatchling party (oops).
Jerome responded via email with a message I think may be of general interest so with his permission, I'm posting it here:
Dale,
Congratulations!
Is calling without a card a movement among the hatchlings? If so, I welcome it. I believe it's a natural progression for a caller to begin setting aside the cards after having called for a year or two. (OK, it's unnatural for some, but with effort it can be done).
Two things that got me thinking this way:
1. Prior to attending Dance Callers Week at the John C. Campbell Folk School (Brasstown NC) with Bob Dalsemer, we filled in a questionaire about our goals and such. One of the questions was: You've arrived at a gig and realize that you've forgotten your cards. Which dances do you know well enough to call without cards? I came up with about six at the time, but now that I'm concentrating on memorizing sequences I've got dozens of contras and squares memorized. (It's great fun at parties as well as at dances to reach into my metaphorical back pocket for something I haven't done in a while).
2. Reading the book Calling New England Squares by Tom Hinds. Tom recommends to memorize every square as you prepare to call it: memorize the prompts and where they go, memorize where the dancers are at any stage of the dance. Squares in particular are horrible if the caller has his/her face in a card, because so much is about timing calls just as the dancers are almost finished with the prior move.
I have called entire dances using the cards only to keep track of which dance I had planned to dance next, but not to teach from or prompt with.
Not every caller can memorize easily, but the skill of visualizing entire sequences is important for callers to develop, and memorizing is certainly one way to develop that skill. If I had a good place to practice, I'd like to start developing my "hash-calling" skills (as in Modern Western Square Dancing), i.e. using modules (memorized sequences) connected by sections of improvization, and then resolving from certain formations using modules. I do it in the car while listening to contra music, but not at dances.
You're welcome to share these ideas on the Hatchlings blog if appropriate.
--Jerome
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10 comments:
I agree - calling without a card is a important step. I once attended a workshop taught by Fred Park who strongly encouraged me to reduce my reliance on cards. Here are a few tips I find help me remember dances.
Do not just memorize a bunch of moves in sequence. Each figure has a purpose. If you recognize that purpose you will know why that figure has to be where it is.
Know where everyone is during the dance. Jerome mentioned resolving squares. To do that you need to know where everyone is all the time and who they are with. The same is true of a contra - it also has to resolve - everyone must be progressed and on the right side of the set at the end of the dance. Recognize what it will take to make that happen.
Know which part of which phrase you are in at all times. This will especially help you if you find you have written down a dance and missed something. In most cases you can reconstruct the missing part this way.
As I am learning a dance - I also keep track of how many times each person crosses the set - for the dance to properly resolve - everyone must cross an even number of times. If they don't - I missed something. Once I feel comfortable calling the dance - I don't worry about this as much. It is helpful when someone asks you to look at a new dance or one they have written down after dancing it.
Here is an example how I remember a dance:
Beneficial Tradition
A1 sets up the partner swing and ends with that swing
A2 sets up the neighbor swing and ends with that swing
B1 - sets up the zipper (the defining figure in this dance) by chaining the ladies back to their pratner (so everyone is back on the side where they started) and then uses long lines to finish the phrase and give everyone time to catch up and start the zipper together.
B2 is the zipper - and it ends with the ladies reaching for a new neighbor to start A1 and setup the partner swing again.
If you leave out any of these parts the dance doesn't work - it is just a matter of understanding why the is the case.
How many times did we cross the set in each phrase?
A1 - 0
A2 - Gents 0, Ladies 1
B1 - Gents 0, Ladies 1
B2 - 0
Total Gents 0 Ladies 2
Mac
At this point, I'm not sure I could call anything without a card. I'd be pretty dang scared to try. I follow along on my cards during the whole dance, even after I've stopped calling, or at least I try to. I think maybe as I gain more experience, that would be something I could try, but if it were the criteria for me calling now, I'd probably have to bow out. Congrats to those who can manage it, though!
~Karen
Karen,
Memorizing is certainly not required, it's more of an exercise or challenge. And for a hatchling, that challenge may be some time in the future.
Callers have so much to pay attention to -- the music (signals, tempo, where are we in the music), the dancers (the little clump of confusion, the ones in the back who maybe aren't hearing me). To be able to use your eyes and ears on those things and less on the card is a goal.
Instead of picturing yourself on stage without a card (eek! panic!), just relax and think about some of your favorite dances. Can you picture the sequence, or most of it, without consulting a card? I'm betting you can.
What a great thread!
I've never heard those ideas that Mac outlined (How many times do you cross the set? What's the point of the move?) WOW!!!
I too, feel I can't call without a card. My excuse is that I'm so used to paying attention to things around the outside of a piece of paper while I'm looking at it (watching an orchestra conductor, for example, with peripheral vision) that I feel I can use the card like a piece of music. Hey, my cards are written out with the calls where they would come in the music. I'm surprised I don't use musical rests in between the words. (Hmmm...hadn't thought of that one before...)
But that said, I think I'm going to try in small ways (at first) calling without a card. I'm newly aware that I memorize the dances almost immediately when I dance them, even one time through. Is that because that's what I'm used to doing? Is it that my brain knows it wants to remember, so it does? Or that my body is smarter than my brain?
So I'll memorize the dance itself first, just walk all the parts through until I've learned it that way, and then try calling as much of it as I can while I'm walking it through. Not worrying if I can remember it all, just remembering as much as I can.
I'm guessing it's not as hard as I think it is.
The underlying worry, however, is that I'll blank out - I do that more and more - so I think I'll probably always have the card handy. And when the dance breaks down because there are clumps of inexperienced dancers, it may be better to focus a bit on that card --not be distracted by the chaos I see -- and just keep making the calls at the right time so people can get back on track.
M
E
You may not think you are ready to call an entire program without cards - but how about just one dance? Have the card with you as a back up - but avoid looking at it. With a little effort - you should be able to get comfortable with one dance. I bet many of you could call 'Roll in the Hey' from memory right now.
Calling squares requires that your attention be focused on the dancers - which makes it difficult to follow along on a card. Calling a contra or two without a card may be the first step to resolving some of the anxiety about calling a square.
Mac, could you help us compile a list of a few "breaks"? Or is there a list somewhere online of these breaks?
I like the one that goes something like "Join hands and circle to the left. Break that circle with a neighbor swing..." What's the patter for that one?
M
E
Martha,
I like the rhymey ones:
"Break that ring with a corner swing (beat beat beat beat), join hands, circle left (beat beat beat beat)."
--j
Karen,
Yes, indeed it was scary. The only thing that let me go thru with it was it was a hatchling party. I knew if I melted down everyone would just laugh it off and we'd move on to the next caller.
One thing I didn't mention was that because we were short on dancers that evening I ended up dancing at the same time I called. I thought that might make it even harder, but actually I think it helped.
Mac,
Thank you. Not only for this post, but for the time at a flash dance when I was verbally rehearsing the dance I was getting ready to call and you said something like: "You've got to get the gents back over to their own side so they can progress." The lightbulb that went off was the idea you mentioned in your post -- every move has a purpose and to understand the dance you have to understand why there has to be a Ladies Chain right there in the dance.
Thanks for the excellent suggestions, Mac! I agree that it's important to understand how a dance works whether or not you're using cards. Unless you really understand how the dance works, you risk saying the wrong move because you looked at the wrong place on the card - I've done this way too often! And once you understand how a dance works, it's really not hard to memorize it. In fact, you almost HAVE to memorize a dance to some extent in order to give the dancers proper attention.
As someone who's relied heavily on cards in the recent past, I'd like to share some anecdotal benefits I've received as I wean myself from them.
Lately I've been calling fairly often for beginners. This past weekend, I called a kid's barn dance for a friend's party. The inexperienced dancers took so much of my attention to manage, that I was hardly able to look at the cards at all. In effect, the dancers forced me to memorize the dances as I was calling them.
At one point during the evening, a dance really started breaking down. Some beginners had jumped in during the dance, and a couple had left the line to ask me a question! At first, I didn't know what to do - I'd been calling as clearly as I could. Then I remembered a really easy circle mixer that I'd memorized awhile back. So I said, "everyone find your partner and promenade anywhere". Then I asked them to make a circle with the lady on the right, and started calling the circle mixer. Success! Much more fun for the dancers than a "mercy killing" anyhow.
It's a very freeing experience to call from memory. I think many of the other hatchlings would enjoy it. One easy way to memorize a dance is to ghost walk it as you call. You can also practice calling with a contra music CD...
Bily
I see this thread is quiet. As a newbie both to calling and this list, I'd be interested in any further ideas on memorizing calls.
As a singer, I often start at the end of the song and work backwards. But most of my singing has been 'a capella' solo or singing lead on simple choruses - pretty easy stuff! Songs have both music and rhyme to help with the memory task and do not require the multi-tasking of trying to keep track of where the music is and where the dancers are. Not to mention that dances have a limited set of figures and start to blend into one another.
I think the key might be to using different types of memory. Singing is mostly auditory (my strongest function). With calling there is a strong visual and kinesthetic (body memory) component. I like the idea of ghost walking the dance, while calling it and listening to music.
I've also tried diagramming the positions after each figure:
e.g.
L1 G1
G2 L2
Well this is an awful long comment for my first one. Please forgive and thanks for the discussion.
David Baril
Almonte ON
Canada
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