[Callers] Calling techno?

[Donna Hunt]

 Yes, to what everyone said.
When I program for techno I try for specific 8 +8 counts throughout the dance or 4+4+8 in a phrase.  I've found that the 4+12 ct of a Balance and swing is usually cut short or a flowing phrase of an allemande/star promenade/butterfly whirl gets interpreted differently by each dancer.    Keep the dances easy and intuitive...dancers want to groove and not think too much.

When calling a techno, I've found that I have a mental metronome of 8 counts running through my brain in the background the entire night.  It's super easy to lose your place (and the dancers as well) especially if the music is a thumpy beat and not phrased at all.
I've also found techno to be mentally tiring (because of keeping track of the counts), and if the room is dark, visually challenging because you cannot see the end of the lines easily.  

Bring a light for your cards in case the organizers haven't provided enough light on stage.  A simple book light might be helpful, but make sure it doesn't "peek" over your notes or it will be in the dancers eyes.
 
Donna
Web Site:  donnahuntcaller.com
Email: dhuntdancer at aol.com
Cell:  215-565-6050


 
 
-----Original Message-----
From: Sivier, Jonathan E via Callers <callers at lists.sharedweight.net>
To: Shared Weight Callers' Listserv <callers at lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Thu, Mar 28, 2019 7:17 pm
Subject: Re: [Callers] Calling techno?

    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

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