I like to try to feel out the crowd when deciding when to end a dance. It's been
suggested by many callers that the excitement of dancing a contra is almost like a
bell shaped curve. The excitement goes up and then comes back down. The trick is
to end just before the excitement starts to drop off.
Tom
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> Today's Topics:
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> 1. Card boxes and Dance ending (David Giusti)
> 2. Re: Card boxes and Dance ending (Peter Amidon)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 13:30:04 -0500
> From: David Giusti <David.Giusti(a)oberlin.edu>
> Subject: [Callers] Card boxes and Dance ending
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Message-ID: <f951c77935ce.35cef951c779(a)oberlin.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> Hello,
> So most callers have dance cards, and all dances have to be ended at
> some point. I have my ways of doing it, of course, and I've asked a lot
> of callers about theirs, but haven't found anything I'm quite happy with.
>
> Basically, how do you organize your box of dance cards and why do you
> like it that way?
>
> And,
> How do you figure out when to end a dance? Of course finish with all
> couples in, but how do you decide when it's about time to end it?
> Some callers simply set a timer, or count a number of times through, or
> end when couples have come back to where they started. What do you do?
> Does anyone try to gauge the energy of the dancers on the floor and end
> when it seems right?
>
> Thank you very much,
> David Giusti
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Sun, 14 Jan 2007 14:25:05 -0500
> From: Peter Amidon <peter(a)amidonmusic.com>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Card boxes and Dance ending
> To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Message-ID: <p06230950c1d02f6221db(a)[192.168.1.100]>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed"
>
> David Giusti wrote:
>
> >Hello,
> >So most callers have dance cards, and all dances have to be ended at
> >some point. I have my ways of doing it, of course, and I've asked a lot
> >of callers about theirs, but haven't found anything I'm quite happy with.
> >
> >Basically, how do you organize your box of dance cards and why do you
> >like it that way?
>
> Hi David
>
> I am very happy with my database way of organizing dances. I do not
> have dance cards. I do have a comfortable working knowledge of
> using databases; I use them in all of my work as a freelance musician.
> I use Panorama, but I would recommend anyone starting out to use
> Filemaker Pro.
>
> The short story is that I keep all of the dances on a database. The
> actual dance is recorded in eight 8-beat fields:
>
> A1a
> A1b
> A2a
> A2b
> B1a
> B1b
> B2a
> B2b
>
> Other fields, other than the obvious, include the date that I entered
> the dance,
> whether it is in my current repertoire, what the difficulty level is, whether
> I've ever called it. Of course there are a lot of other fields you could make:
> e.g. swings: how many and with whom, etc.
>
> I can easily select out dances that I want to memorize to build my repertoire;
> I export the dance instructions and a separate page that has just the
> titles and
> choreographers names. I drill and practice the dances until I can remember the
> whole dance just from the title.
>
> To prepare for an evening contra dance I might print out a big list
> of dances from
> which to choose from which to make the dance list for that night.
>
> Once I have chosen and sequenced dances for that evening, I number
> the dances I've chosen
> in the database from, say, 1 - 11, put them in order, and export the
> dances, the
> choreographer's name, and instructions for the band (what kind of
> tune - that is another
> field I have in the database), and put it all on one sheet that I
> print out and give to
> the musicians ahead of time so they can more easily plan the evening.
> I print, for
> my own use, the instructions to all the dances I am calling that
> night. They fit
> on two sides of one sheet; I usually only use this if I am calling new dances
> that are not yet ingrained in memory.
>
> I also print out a list of a bunch of alternate dances I might call in case
> I need to vary from the planned program. These dances are already memorized,
> so I do not need to print out the dance instructions to these.
>
> For a festival or dance weekend where I am calling a lot, I print out a couple
> of booklets of my current dances. One page has all of the titles and
> authors listed,
> and I sort the dances into three categories of difficulty. The other
> pages have
> all of the dances' along with the dance instructions. Again, this is an easy
> import from the database; I just choose which dances and fields to export and
> then format the resultant text in MS Word.
>
> Best,
>
> Peter
> --
> Peter Amidon
> peter(a)amidonmusic.com
> 20 Willow Street
> Brattleboro, VT 05301
> 802-257-1006
> cell: 917-922-5462
> http://www.amidonmusic.com
> http://www.dancingmasters.com
>
> I have never been lost, but I will admit to
> being confused for several weeks.
>
> -Daniel Boone
>
> ------------------------------
>
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> End of Callers Digest, Vol 29, Issue 1
> **************************************
Hello,
So most callers have dance cards, and all dances have to be ended at
some point. I have my ways of doing it, of course, and I've asked a lot
of callers about theirs, but haven't found anything I'm quite happy with.
Basically, how do you organize your box of dance cards and why do you
like it that way?
And,
How do you figure out when to end a dance? Of course finish with all
couples in, but how do you decide when it's about time to end it?
Some callers simply set a timer, or count a number of times through, or
end when couples have come back to where they started. What do you do?
Does anyone try to gauge the energy of the dancers on the floor and end
when it seems right?
Thank you very much,
David Giusti
