[Callers] Calling at Free Folk Festival

[Nick Cuccia via Callers]

On 05/31/2017 06:41 PM, Claire Takemori via Callers wrote:
> Hi everyone. 
> I’m looking for advice.  I’m calling a FFF next Sat and live in SF Bay Area, where the average person has never heard of contra dance.  I got advice from Alan Winston, who called the contra dance a couple years ago when it was a 2 day event and the contra was Sunday evening.  Now it’s a 1 day festival and the contra is Sat 630-10pm.    The other dance that evening is Blues/Fusion, which I expect will have a HUGE crowd.   There is also a contra dance about 30 minutes South of the venue and a waltz evening 30 minutes East, so I’m not confident that a bunch of experienced contra dancers will show up. I’m sure some will, as many are also musicians who will be volunteering that day. 
>
Claire, I've called that evening dance a small handful of times,
including calling squares as part of Alan's cavalcade two or three years
ago.  That year (and in years previous to that), the festival included
an hour-long introduction to contra dance during the afternoon prior to
the evening dance; that was where I got my introduction to contra dance
twenty-mumble years ago, and I taught that class a couple of years ago. 
Unfortunately, the festival planners don't appear to have scheduled such
a class this year.  Anyways, because of that class, the evening dances
didn't usually feature much of a newcomers' lesson, since that was
covered by the workshop earlier in the day.

Given the standard mix of dancers that dance has had (a combination of
fresh-off-the-street newbies, folks that are familiar with contra
dancing but are not regular dancers, and regular dancers in need of
their "fix") in the past, your planned approach (easier dances with low
piece counts and that avoid things like heys and courtesy turns,
combined with a short newcomers' lesson) seems like a reasonable
approach.  If you haven't already, I would also suggest raising your
concerns with the folks that booked you, to ensure that they are with
you on this; at the very least, the festival organizers should consider
that not having a proper contra teaching session earlier in the day can
impact how the evening's dance proceeds.

--Nick