[Callers] Calling techno?

[Martha Wild]

I’ve called to a techno contra once - but the person who put the techno tracks together was smart, contra savvy, and mindful of phrasing, and used pieces that had good 8 count beats, and made the transitions work so that they were at proper junctions and could sync people up again. It was therefore relatively easy to get the hang and keep things flowing. It really depends a lot on the skill and knowledge of the person/people putting the music together. Bad techno tracks make for a bad contra, just as a poor band that mixes up As and Bs or doesn’t keep a steady beat messes things up. The DJs or whoever is setting up and putting together the music should not be hired if they are known to put bad tracks together that make it impossible for people to dance in time to the music and with each other.
Martha


> On Apr 3, 2019, at 2:04 PM, Read Weaver via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> Definitely this. I’ve largely stopped going to techno contras because it’s so hard to keep the phrasing. The pleasure of contra (and English) dancing for me is hugely tied up with everyone on the floor moving together, so when that doesn’t happen it doesn’t much interest me.
> 
> Read Weaver
> Jamaica Plain, MA
> http://lcfd.org
> 
>> On Mar 28, 2019, at 7:17 PM, Sivier, Jonathan E via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>> 
>>   Keep calling.  My experience has been that techo music has plenty of 
>> beat and no phrasing.  So dancers don't know when to stop the current 
>> figure and start the next one.  Some figures like circles, stars and 
>> lines forward and back have a kind of natural timing so dances with 
>> those figures work well.  Some other figures such as heys, chains and 
>> swings are less well defined as far as timing goes, and dancers tend to 
>> rush heys and chains and go long on swings.  So the dancers will all 
>> take different amount of time for them.  This means that if you stop 
>> calling the various parts of the lines will start to diverge in where 
>> they are in the dance and soon there will be parts of the room dancing 
>> the A1 part while others places in the room they are dancing the A2 or 
>> even B1 part.  I think swings may be the biggest issue.  Everyone likes 
>> to swing and many dancers will go long on each swing, but they'll all go 
>> long by a different amount.
>> 
>>   Choose dances with figures that have really well-defined timing and 
>> don't stop calling and you will be OK.  You may be able to reduce the 
>> amount of calling, but you will probably need to say something from time 
>> to time to re-synchronize the dancers.
>> 
>> Jonathan
>> 
>> On 3/28/2019 4:13 PM, Maia McCormick via Callers wrote:
>>> Hey folks,
>>> 
>>> I haven't called all that many techno contras, and I'm slated to do so 
>>> this weekend. Any tips or things to keep in mind about how techno 
>>> differs from your standard contra evening? (Particularly curious about 
>>> anything relating to dance choice and dance length.)
>>> 
>>> Cheers,
>>> Maia
> 
> _______________________________________________
> List Name:  Callers mailing list
> List Address:  Callers at lists.sharedweight.net
> Archives:  https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/