Two Hatchlings (okay, one newish caller, and one of our folks who has been flying for years) called the second evening in the new Webster Groves English Country Dancers series of dances, and were wonderful, if I do say so myself.
Chrystal started off the evening with four dances, one of which she choreographed.
Then, our beloved mentor, Dr. John Ramsay, called four dances by Loretta Holtz, all written in the last few years. Missy ended the evening with four wonderful favorites. I loved Missy's programming of the end - instead of the usual romp to a wow finish, the romp (Lover's Knot by Jim Kitch to Black and Grey) was the second to last dance, and we ended peacefully with the lovely Elizabeth by Colin Hume. We played Dave Wiesler's gorgeous Saturday Morning Waltz (to which we had danced The Molly Andrew last month) to end the evening.
This month, a respectable forty-five dancers showed up at the dance, and again, danced beautifully. We didn't quite break even - two more dancers would have done it - but Kent said he loved the dance, and he dances on the East coast all the time, so I put this one in the success column.
We (the band) tried to develop a new habit - of playing the next tune while the dancers are lining up, to give them something to help them make sense of the dance instructions. It's hard - we're not used to playing immediately after a dance ends, so there was much scrambling to get our heads in the right place (and the music open) to play the next tune. It's going to take some getting used to for the callers, also, but we think it's probably the right thing to do. I'm hoping the callers get accustomed to it, and begin to ask for it if we forget. So far, however, they forget, and we just barely remember. But I think we managed it 80-90% of the time tonight. It feels funny so far, but I think when we get smooother at it, it will really add to the experience. Next we'll add the rolling start, which isn't as hard as people make it out to be, but you do have to be ready and alert. Doing both the preview and the rolling start doesn't give the band as much down time as we're used to, but hey, you aren't paying us the big bucks for nothing.
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2 comments:
I really liked having the band play the tune while the dancers lined up. First of all it kind of got them motivated to get ready for a new dance, and honestly for me, it helped clear out the old dance from MY head and got me ready to call the next one.
Bob suggested something even better.
When the dance is over, the caller could say "Find a partner and line up for (insert name of dance here)." Then when the band is playing the music, it's a bit clearer that what it's doing is playing the music for the next dance.
But it will take some practice to make it a habit.
Ideally (IMHO), the caller would ask the band to play - "Find a partner and line up for (insert name of dance here), and while you're lining up, let's listen a bit to the music for the dance." That could catch a band a bit off-guard at first, but eventually, it will figure out that it has to be ready. It's what it gets paid the big bucks for.
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