Hi,
I am wondering if you have any dances for low numbers of dancers (perhaps 6
or less), when most or all of the dancers are beginners and adults. I am
also wondering if you have any dances (presumably different dances), that do
not require choosing a partner and are good openers for beginner adults.
Thanks as always to all,
Rickey Holt.
I can only speak with reference to calling at NEFFA, as I have never applied to DownEast. As some of you may know that Linda Leslie is NEFFA's program chair, I will note that the program chair does not select performers for contra sessions.
Regarding NEFFA 2007, the following notice is now posted at http://neffa.org/perf_app.html - The Program Committee is not prepared to take your application at this time, since it is too late to apply for this year's NEFFA Festival. Please note that the application to perform is always available during the month of September, with a deadline in October. If you'd like to get an e-mail notice of application availability, send a blank e-mail to NEFFA_Performers-subscribe(a)yahoogroups.com
So you can note on your calendar that September is a good time to check the NEFFA web site, and also arrange for a notice to pop up in your e-mail.
The NEFFA application invites you to come up with a briefly-described theme for your session, with a title of 20 characters or less. IMO, use your own judgment as to how important the theme is. If you are offering a concept that's really meaningful to you, don't be afraid to describe it. If what you really want to do is just call some hot contras, then IMO I wouldn't go overboard on the theme.
Unlike Northwest Folklife, callers and bands apply SEPARATELY to the New England Folk Festival. And I believe that this is a very good thing for beginning callers who hope to have a chance at getting onstage. This mix-and-match policy gives a fresh perspective for experienced performers, and can be an eye-opening experience for newcomers who may get to work with seasoned veterans. I will never forget calling at NEFFA with Northern Spy, a band that has worked with caller David Millstone for 25 years. And where was David during this session? Out on the floor, happily dancing to the music of his own band. NEFFA's selection process made that wonderful hour possible for me.
For what it's worth, the first year I successfully applied I asked for a "Festival Orchestra" slot, which means that instead of calling a themed, hour-long session I called two dances in the Main Hall with the assembled orchestra and then got off the stage as the next Festival Orchestra caller had a turn. IMO, the key here (as well as in submitting a session proposal) is to choose dances that you know by heart, can teach well, fully believe in, and love to share with a crowd. You don't want to have second thoughts as you approach the microphone.
If you're wondering why performer applications are required so far in advance of a festival, note that NEFFA may have 1700 performers, many of whom perform in multiple sessions (perhaps performing alone, and with a participatory dance group, and also with a concert performance group!). You can't doublebook a performer (or larger groups to which she may belong), you have to give her time to move from one venue to another, plus a bunch of other scheduling etceteras that would drive me loony to contemplate further. How scheduling was done in the days before computers is beyond me.
--
Robert Jon Golder
164 Maxfield St
New Bedford, MA 02740
(508) 999-2486
The post on walk-throughs for new dancers got me thinking about
recruiting new dancers. This straddles dance caller and dance
organizer, but I'd like to hear people's responses.
I'm curious about people's experiences recruiting new dancers. I've
seen several dances that do a lower cost for first time dancers to try
to lower the barrier for entry. Has any group tried doing a coupon for
a discount when they come back a second time?
I feel like the venues for dances are usually such that folks don't
randomly wander in. If folks show up for a first time, they've decided
to come (or were brought). Does knowing there is a discount for first
timers help make them come? When there is a discount, how often do the
first timers know that coming in? I'm pondering the scenario where you
charge full price for the first time, when they've committed to coming
out, and then give them a coupon to come back at a discount price
their second time.
I know a lot of people who tried contra once and were hooked, and I've
seen people who try for a little bit and then never come back. Is it
worth trying to up the likelihood of a second experience, at what
fractional cost for the first? Or should the focus be on that first
experience, and making the barriers for entry as low as possible?
If a group has the resources, then it can just say that the first two
dances are cheaper, but I feel like giving someone a reminder,
business card sized, with the website to check for more information,
is a nice way of having them think about the dance at least once more.
Do callers doing one night gigs announce local dance options if they
know them? Or do you only talk about it with the folks who come up and
ask? Presumably if a caller has been brought in, the organizer of the
party knows the folks at the party and the local dance scene. Is it on
the caller or the organizer to spread information about other chances
to dance? And do you broadcast wide, or focus on the folks who seem
really in to it. I think culturally, at a societal level, we've lost
the sense that we can dance after our 20s at things besides weddings,
which is a real shame.
--
Luke Donev
http://www.lukedonev.com
Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com
I think Parker is planning to do a 1-caller medley, rather than a
multi-caller NEFFA-style medley. I do this at perhaps half the dances I
call, so I can share what I know.
Guidelines for 1-caller medleys:
1. Calling 3 dances seems to work the best here, and doing 2 dances is
okay too.
2. Choose straightforward dances. You **might** walk through the first
dance, but the rest will be no-walkthrough. Save any tricky stuff for
after you have mastered the basics of doing medleys, and only if you're
sure the experience level of the dancers is appropriate.
3. Pay attention to how the dances flow when transitioning from one
dance to another. Just for example, **avoid** having a dance the ends
with a star left followed by a dance that starts with a
neighbor-allemande-left.
4. Let the band know ahead of time that you plan to do a medley. It
would be great to show the band the dances several days in advance --
but usually I will mention to the band shortly before the start of the
dance that I plan to call a 3-dance medley later on. Perhaps at the
break I'll offer to show them the medley dances, and then actually do
the medley shortly before the end of the evening, often the
second-to-last dance. Since bands generally play 2 or 3-tune medleys
anyway, it's not a great stretch for them to put something together.
5. I usually clue the dancers in to the fact that we are doing a
medley. Between walking through the first dance and starting the dance,
I might say "we'll dance [name of dance] by [author of dance], and other
dances too, so be on your toes..." When I switch dances, I might say
"Listen up -- THIS TIME, do-si-do your neighbor".
6. Call each dance an **even** number of times, except that the final
dance gets called an **odd** number of times. This means that each new
dance starts with no couple out at the top. It's not the end of the
world if you don't do it this way, but it's a bit of a letdown for a
couple to come out at the top just as a new dance is starting.
7. (A consequence of #6...) Signalling the band for the tune switches
may seem counterintuitive for the caller -- when you want to signal two
more times through, at the start of B2, there should be a couple out at
the top. When you want to signal one more time through, there will not
be a couple out at the top. This is the opposite of how you are used to
signalling the very end of a dance! For the final dance in the medley,
the usual rule applies: signal 2 more times when nobody is out at the
top, and 1 more time when 1 couple is out at the top.
8. How many dances? I find that 6, 6, & 5 or 6, 6, & 7 time through
generally works for a 3-dance medley; probably 8&7 or 8&9 for 2 dances.
Adjust those numbers if the lines are unusually short or long.
9. Keeping count. With my hand inconspicuously down at my side, I hold
out 1 finger the first time through a dance, 2 fingers the 2nd time
through, etc., to keep track. When it's the 4th time through, I know to
signal the band "2 more" at the start of the B2. There should be a
couple out at the top when I do this, and that is a little error-check I
do on myself.
And finally, 10, The surprise medley trick I learned from Beau Farmer:
Sometimes I regret choosing a certain dance after it has already started
-- maybe I didn't notice before how similar it is to another recent
dance in the program, or (as happened to me just last week) I
inadvertently chose 2 consecutive dances without a neighbor swing. If
you can think of another dance that starts the same way (for example, a
neighbor balance and swing), then just listen for when the band switches
tunes. When that happens, start calling the other dance. It's a
surprise medley!
Hope that helps,
Mark
> Date: Tue, 28 Dec 2010 09:39:31 -0800
> From: PARKER MANN<M_P_Mann(a)shaw.ca>
> To: "Shared Weight, Callers"<callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: [Callers] Calling medleys for the first time
> Message-ID:<fb8eb41b6a27.4d19b053(a)shaw.ca>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252
> I
> want to try calling a dance medley in our contra group in 2011. ?As
> this will be new for me and all of our dancers I?m writing for advice.
> ?Specifically:
> What are some sets of dance that work well as medleys?
> What coordination should you do with the band ahead of time?
> What recommendations do you have for instructions during the walk through?
> Anything else (other than screwing my courage to the sticking point?)
> Thanks.
I'm assuming the word has already gone out, but if it hasn't: Mary
DeRosier's house was gutted by a fire yesterday.
All people are ok, but -- if you know her -- you'll know it's pretty safe to
assume that there's been a huge loss of a lifetime's worth of
caller/musician/folk-radio-show-host resources. Does anyone out there have
more specific information? I've heard there's a CD drive starting up to help
her replace music.
<sigh>
A hard thing. What can we fellow callers do to soften it?
-Amy
I
want to try calling a dance medley in our contra group in 2011. As
this will be new for me and all of our dancers I’m writing for advice.
Specifically:
What are some sets of dance that work well as medleys?
What coordination should you do with the band ahead of time?
What recommendations do you have for instructions during the walk through?
Anything else (other than screwing my courage to the sticking point?)
Thanks.
Oh, sorry about the way that the font got switched in translations.
Most of you have probably figured out that 1 ? means 1 and a half.
I'll write those out in future so it doesn't happen. I fixed them
down below.
Oh, by the way, I love the fact that the first uses of this called it
a queen bee hey, because it is so evocative of the dances of the
bees. The bees returning from finding food, or a new home when they
are swarming, make a little wiggling run up a center line, then turn
out and come back up the center line to do it again, and turn the
other way to repeat, while the other bees all watch and touch them
and then participate in the dance when they get it. Of course, it's
the worker bees that actually do all this, the Queen just waits for
the hive decisions. But it's a nice touch.
Martha Wild
On Dec 11, 2010, at 9:00 AM, callers-request(a)sharedweight.net wrote:
> Send Callers mailing list submissions to
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>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: Ricochet hey dances (Ron Nelson)
> 2. Re: Ricochet hey dances (Chris Page)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:13:08 +0000
> From: Ron Nelson <callerman(a)hotmail.com>
> To: <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Ricochet hey dances
> Message-ID: <BAY158-w45C10CE11EE3D2D4B043F5B82F0(a)phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252"
>
>
> Good stuff Martha! Thanks!
>
> Ron Nelson
>
>> From: mawild(a)sbcglobal.net
>> Date: Thu, 9 Dec 2010 21:26:25 -0800
>> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
>> Subject: Re: [Callers] Ricochet hey dances
>>
>> I have a couple that you are welcome to call. Chris Page has written
>> a nice one that perhaps he would share, too. Oh, and I don't know why
>> when I paste from Word I get double spacing or how to fix it, so
>> sorry!
>>
>> King Bee Hey
>>
>> Martha Wild
>>
>> Duple improper February 21, 2004
>>
>>
>>
>> A1 Do-si-do neighbor
>>
>> Allemande right neighbor 1 and a half
>>
>> A2 Ricochet hey (men pass left shoulder, women push off)*
>>
>> B1 Men pass left one more time, swing partner
>>
>> B2 Men allemande left 1 and a half
>>
>> Women join in behind partner for a left hands across star 1X
>>
>>
>> *The men dance the full hey, passing left shoulders in the middle.
>>
>>
>> ^ On the men allemande left, the women have to let the men get around
>> once and then as their partner passes they move in behind him to join
>> the left hand star. A bit of a moving start on the part of the women
>> helps.
>>
>>
>> The first ricochet hey I ever did was a dance called "Huntsville's
>> Queen Bee Hey". The women do the hey, the men ricochet. So I called
>> this one a King Bee Hey.
>>
>> Then I decided to do a few "Worker Bee" heys:
>>
>> Worker Bee Hey #1
>>
>> Martha Wild
>>
>> Duple improper September 24, 2006
>>
>>
>>
>> A1 Down the set four in line (1s inside)
>>
>> Turn as neighbor couples and return*, face center of the line^
>>
>> A2 Ricochet hey@, 2s start passing right shoulder
>>
>> B1 2s gypsy and swing, end swing facing up!
>>
>> B2 Handy-hand allemande ~1 and a half times (2s step inside)
>>
>> 1s swing and face down
>>
>>
>>
>> * A little odd as the men are on the right of the women for the turn.
>>
>> ^ The line is not bent, all just turn to face center, 2s facing each
>> other, 1s behind.
>>
>> @ I thought it would be nice to do the push off of a queen bee hey
>> with one's own partner. In this case, the #2 couple does a full hey,
>> passing right shoulders to start, while the #1 couple meets at the
>> center and pushes off backwards in little counterclockwise circles.
>> If the 1's adjust a little for the 2's while they swing so they are
>> ready for the handy-hand allemande, this works well.
>>
>>
>>
>> Worker Bee Hey #2
>>
>> Martha Wild
>>
>> Duple Improper September 24, 2006
>>
>>
>>
>> A1 Do-si-do neighbor
>>
>> Swing neighbor
>>
>> A2 Four in line down the set
>>
>> Turn as couples, come back up
>>
>> B1 Face in, ?Worker Bee? hey, 1s start^
>>
>> B2 1s gypsy and swing
>>
>>
>>
>> ^ Worker bee hey is as described above.
>>
>>
>>
>> I like version 1 because both 1s and 2s get a partner swing. This is
>> an easier version, but unequal.
>>
>>
>>
>>
> Message: 2
> Date: Fri, 10 Dec 2010 16:40:25 -0800
> From: Chris Page <chriscpage(a)gmail.com>
> To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Ricochet hey dances
> Message-ID:
> <AANLkTi=+UDOoEOVxZ2C0PZW7+6TpfNssmBQWbyqQTwLB(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> There's a lot more out there, in addition to the ones already
> mentioned.
>
> Cary Ravitz has a half dozen on his web page, though he calls it
> "Push Off Hey"
> (Bev's Becket alt, Galax, Hey Weaver, The Millennium Hug, One Way or
> Another, Whirl of Fortune)
>
> Rick Mohr uses one as an eight-beat swing connector in "Ted and Lynn."
>
> Chris Weiler's webpage has "On the Rebound" by himself and Bob Isaacs.
>
> I've written one with Bob Isaacs called "Ricochet Twins" which has the
> ricochet hey/swing transition for both swings.
>
> And I've written:
>
> Double Cat Bounce
> Chris Page
> Improper
> A1 Neighbor balance
> Neighbor swing
> A2 Half ricochet hey (ML, PR, W ricochet)
> Partner swing
> B1 Ladies chain
> Half ricochet hey (WR, NL, M ricochet)
> B2 Circle right 3/4
> Neighbor allemande left 1 & 1/2
>
>
>
> I think the half ricochet hey/swing transition will eventually be well
> known enough to be a good substitute for men allemande left/swing,
> when that transition isn't practical.
>
> -Chris Page
> San Diego
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
>
> End of Callers Digest, Vol 76, Issue 15
> ***************************************
I have a couple that you are welcome to call. Chris Page has written
a nice one that perhaps he would share, too. Oh, and I don't know why
when I paste from Word I get double spacing or how to fix it, so sorry!
King Bee Hey
Martha Wild
Duple improper February 21, 2004
A1 Do-si-do neighbor
Allemande right neighbor 1 ½
A2 Ricochet hey (men pass left shoulder, women push off)*
B1 Men pass left one more time, swing partner
B2 Men allemande left 1 ½
Women join in behind partner for a left hands across star 1X
*The men dance the full hey, passing left shoulders in the middle.
^ On the men allemande left, the women have to let the men get around
once and then as their partner passes they move in behind him to join
the left hand star. A bit of a moving start on the part of the women
helps.
The first ricochet hey I ever did was a dance called "Huntsville's
Queen Bee Hey". The women do the hey, the men ricochet. So I called
this one a King Bee Hey.
Then I decided to do a few "Worker Bee" heys:
Worker Bee Hey #1
Martha Wild
Duple improper September 24, 2006
A1 Down the set four in line (1s inside)
Turn as neighbor couples and return*, face center of the line^
A2 “Worker bee” hey@, 2s start passing right shoulder
B1 2s gypsy and swing, end swing facing up!
B2 Handy-hand allemande ~1 ½ times (2s step inside)
1s swing and face down
* A little odd as the men are on the right of the women for the turn.
^ The line is not bent, all just turn to face center, 2s facing each
other, 1s behind.
@ I thought it would be nice to do the push off of a “queen bee” hey
with one’s own partner. In this case, the #2 couple does a full hey,
passing right shoulders to start, while the #1 couple meets at the
center and pushes off backwards in little counterclockwise circles.
If the 1's adjust a little for the 2's while they swing so they are
ready for the handy-hand allemande, this works well.
Worker Bee Hey #2
Martha Wild
Duple Improper September 24, 2006
A1 Do-si-do neighbor
Swing neighbor
A2 Four in line down the set
Turn as couples, come back up
B1 Face in, “Worker Bee” hey, 1s start^
B2 1s gypsy and swing
^ Worker bee hey is as described above.
I like version 1 because both 1s and 2s get a partner swing. This is
an easier version, but unequal.
On Dec 8, 2010, at 9:00 AM, callers-request(a)sharedweight.net wrote:
> Send Callers mailing list submissions to
> callers(a)sharedweight.net
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> callers-request(a)sharedweight.net
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> You can reach the person managing the list at
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>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Callers digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Teaching a Ricochet Hey (John Sweeney)
> 2. Re: Teaching a Ricochet Hey (Ron Nelson)
> 3. Re: ricochet or push-back hey - Tapsalteerie (Lisa Greenleaf)
> 4. Re: Teaching a Ricochet Hey (Martha Edwards)
> 5. Re: Teaching a Ricochet Hey (Andrea Nettleton)
> 6. Re: Ricochet Hey (John Sweeney)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 17:43:13 -0000
> From: "John Sweeney" <info(a)contrafusion.co.uk>
> To: <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: [Callers] Teaching a Ricochet Hey
> Message-ID: <CA0CE9090DD943DB981F833BFF1A9940@JohnT400>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> The key thing for the caller to understand is that when the two
> dancers
> ricochet they take each other's place in the hey, and are now going
> backwards.
>
> This means that they must NOT just bounce back the way they came,
> or to
> a neutral position on their own side - they have to follow the looping
> flow of the hey.
>
> I never actually explain that though. I just tell them to bounce back
> at the opposite angle to the way they came in. Describing it as a
> triangle usually helps. And one quick demo usually solves 90% of the
> problems.
>
> The other 10% of the problems come from people who bounce back and
> then
> stop! They are still part of the hey and have to keep moving.
>
> So instructions like these sometimes work: "As you come to the middle
> you will meet someone on a diagonal; bounce off that person and head
> backwards on the other diagonal, then move left* and come in again;
> you
> are going around the same triangle over and over again."
>
> *or right, depends on the dance.
>
> Note: As you bounce you change direction by just under 90 degrees,
> it is
> very easy to let that rotation continue and throw a couple of spins in
> :-)
>
> Happy dancing,
> John
>
> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
> 07802 940 574
> http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events, Instructional
> DVDs and
> Interactive Maps
> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 17:57:38 +0000
> From: Ron Nelson <callerman(a)hotmail.com>
> To: <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Teaching a Ricochet Hey
> Message-ID: <BAY158-W162F5D0B4F05A84D3CAA57B82C0(a)phx.gbl>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
>
>
> Very perceptive description John. It helped me considerably as I
> prepare to teach this movement.
>
> Thanks,
> Ron Nelson
>
>> From: info(a)contrafusion.co.uk
>> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
>> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 17:43:13 +0000
>> Subject: [Callers] Teaching a Ricochet Hey
>>
>> The key thing for the caller to understand is that when the two
>> dancers
>> ricochet they take each other's place in the hey, and are now going
>> backwards.
>>
>> This means that they must NOT just bounce back the way they came,
>> or to
>> a neutral position on their own side - they have to follow the
>> looping
>> flow of the hey.
>>
>> I never actually explain that though. I just tell them to bounce back
>> at the opposite angle to the way they came in. Describing it as a
>> triangle usually helps. And one quick demo usually solves 90% of the
>> problems.
>>
>> The other 10% of the problems come from people who bounce back and
>> then
>> stop! They are still part of the hey and have to keep moving.
>>
>> So instructions like these sometimes work: "As you come to the middle
>> you will meet someone on a diagonal; bounce off that person and head
>> backwards on the other diagonal, then move left* and come in
>> again; you
>> are going around the same triangle over and over again."
>>
>> *or right, depends on the dance.
>>
>> Note: As you bounce you change direction by just under 90 degrees,
>> it is
>> very easy to let that rotation continue and throw a couple of
>> spins in
>> :-)
>>
>> Happy dancing,
>> John
>>
>> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
>> 07802 940 574
>> http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events, Instructional
>> DVDs and
>> Interactive Maps
>> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Callers mailing list
>> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
>> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 3
> Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2010 12:58:42 -0500
> From: Lisa Greenleaf <laleaf(a)verizon.net>
> To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] ricochet or push-back hey - Tapsalteerie
> Message-ID: <9B6B880F-78F1-42C9-A29B-F4CBB2E9FC71(a)verizon.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
>> Adam Carlson's Queen Bee
>
>
> A little history here: Adam was the first to take this dance
> flourish and put it in a dance. He called it the figure a Queen
> Bee hey after a neighborhood in Seattle. I liked the move but
> wanted a name that reflected the action of the figure, so I called
> it a ricochet hey and wrote a dance with the same name; the dance
> is a riff on Tony Parkes' Flirtation Reel.
>
> My original dance had alternating 1s and 2s, but that worked only
> with experienced or up-for-anything crowds. I don't call this any
> more, as other folks have written much better dances!
>
> Ricochet Hey Duple Improper
>
> A1 (8) Down 4 in line , 1s in middle, turn alone (8) Up, face N (1s
> BTB in middle)
> A2 (16) Passing Neighbor R, 1s whole hey, 2s Ricochet
> B1 (16) B&S N
> B2 (8) For & Back (8) 1s Sw, face down
>
>
> Lisa Greenleaf
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 4
> Date: Tue, 7 Dec 2010 15:32:52 -0600
> From: Martha Edwards <meedwards(a)westendweb.com>
> To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Teaching a Ricochet Hey
> Message-ID:
> <AANLkTikPqPe2xhMfu3fuLO2ckOyeERGBpnSi71ThgRpm(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8
>
> I find that if it's a regular hey (ladies start by the right
> shoulder) a
> ricochet hey feels a bit like a reverse Mad Robin - walking a sort
> of dosido
> track while facing across - adding, of course, the push-off...
>
> M
> E
>
> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 11:43 AM, John Sweeney
> <info(a)contrafusion.co.uk>wrote:
>
>> The key thing for the caller to understand is that when the two
>> dancers
>> ricochet they take each other's place in the hey, and are now going
>> backwards.
>>
>> This means that they must NOT just bounce back the way they came,
>> or to
>> a neutral position on their own side - they have to follow the
>> looping
>> flow of the hey.
>>
>> I never actually explain that though. I just tell them to bounce
>> back
>> at the opposite angle to the way they came in. Describing it as a
>> triangle usually helps. And one quick demo usually solves 90% of the
>> problems.
>>
>> The other 10% of the problems come from people who bounce back and
>> then
>> stop! They are still part of the hey and have to keep moving.
>>
>> So instructions like these sometimes work: "As you come to the middle
>> you will meet someone on a diagonal; bounce off that person and head
>> backwards on the other diagonal, then move left* and come in
>> again; you
>> are going around the same triangle over and over again."
>>
>> *or right, depends on the dance.
>>
>> Note: As you bounce you change direction by just under 90 degrees,
>> it is
>> very easy to let that rotation continue and throw a couple of
>> spins in
>> :-)
>>
>> Happy dancing,
>> John
>>
>> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
>> 07802 940 574
>> http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events, Instructional
>> DVDs and
>> Interactive Maps
>> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Callers mailing list
>> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
>> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>>
>
>
>
> --
> For the good are always the merry,
> Save by an evil chance,
> And the merry love the fiddle
> And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 5
> Date: Tue, 07 Dec 2010 18:09:34 -0500
> From: Andrea Nettleton <twirly-girl(a)bellsouth.net>
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Teaching a Ricochet Hey
> Message-ID: <4CFEBEAE.4050903(a)bellsouth.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> I teach a ricochet hey like a slice of pizza. You go in up the
> side of
> the slice, angle back out down the other side of the slice, and curve
> back to place along the crust. The other dancers dance the crust
> first
> then either cross, or in a double ricochet hey, go into the center and
> back out along the sides of the slice of pizza. Worked when I
> taught my
> dance, Mambo, to my skit cast for West Side Contra. I wrote a move
> which I believe is novel, which I called a Half Ricochet Allemande
> Hey.
> It actually returns all participants to their original places,
> which are
> already progressed, but gets them moving in the right direction.
> In it,
> the ladies travel the pizza slice as described above, but the
> gents, who
> are across the set from their partners, travel the crust first, and
> instead of passing by the right to cross over, continue the circle
> they
> began by allemande-ing back to place and on to meet their new
> neighbor.
> It has a beautiful flow, the circle folding in on itself like waves
> tumbling over one another in the ocean. Here is the dance, not as we
> danced it in the skit, which we had to do shifted forward a half
> phrase
> to accommodate the hits in the music, but as you would teach it to a
> hall of dancers, but probably not one full of newbies. :-)
>
> MAMBO! (Improper)
>
> A1 Partners face and Mad Robin
>
> Circle L 1x
>
> A2 Balance the ring, Spin R 1 place (Petronella)
>
> Partner Swing
>
> B1 R & L Through
>
> Ladies Chain
>
> B2 1/2 Ricochet Allemande Hey [OR California Roll] *See below
>
> New Nbr. Gypsy
>
> *In a 1/2 Ricochet Allemande Hey, the Ladies, who are coming out of
> the
> Courtesy Turn following the Ladies Chain, go into the center, ricochet
> (push one another back and to the left.) They arrive at their Nbr's
> place turn and curve out and towards their starting place, then beyond
> for the gypsy. The Gents curve back and to the right then into the
> center for an Allemande L (some would call it a 1/2, some 3/4, I say
> till they are back where they began the 'Hey'), and continue past the
> starting place to Gypsy a New Nbr. to Gypsy. It isn't exactly a Hey,
> though that's where I started with the move. It does have a nice
> folding quality to it and spits everyone out moving toward the New
> Nbr.
> I think of the Ladies as doing a slice of pizza, making the tasty
> point
> first, ending with the crust, while the Gents do a whole pie, starting
> with the same bit of crust the Ladies will later do. Tasty for all.
>
> To do the California Roll in this dance: when the Ladies come out of
> said Courtesy Turn, all free up their hands and face into their
> original
> hands four as they would if they circled, with Partners standing
> across
> the set. Partners take the handy hand, which is the Lady's R, the
> Gent's L, lift joined hands, the lady curls in toward her partner and
> walks under while he walks past, to swap, reverse direction, and face
> New Nbrs. Not yet proper, they immediately do a Roll Away with a Half
> Sashay to swap places but continue to face the New Neighbors, whom
> they
> might then Gypsy. I used the move to end the dance. It gives very
> elastic and satisfying connection with the partner for such a purpose,
> but could also function as a perfectly good progression. It is less
> good in that capacity for this dance because the first New Nbr.
> interaction is a forward moving one. It might be more properly
> termed a
> Nevada Roll due to the starting positions, but who can resist
> something
> as funny and catchy as a California Roll?
>
>
>
> On 12/7/2010 4:32 PM, Martha Edwards wrote:
>> I find that if it's a regular hey (ladies start by the right
>> shoulder) a
>> ricochet hey feels a bit like a reverse Mad Robin - walking a sort
>> of dosido
>> track while facing across - adding, of course, the push-off...
>>
>> M
>> E
>>
>> On Tue, Dec 7, 2010 at 11:43 AM, John
>> Sweeney<info(a)contrafusion.co.uk>wrote:
>>
>>> The key thing for the caller to understand is that when the two
>>> dancers
>>> ricochet they take each other's place in the hey, and are now going
>>> backwards.
>>>
>>> This means that they must NOT just bounce back the way they came,
>>> or to
>>> a neutral position on their own side - they have to follow the
>>> looping
>>> flow of the hey.
>>>
>>> I never actually explain that though. I just tell them to bounce
>>> back
>>> at the opposite angle to the way they came in. Describing it as a
>>> triangle usually helps. And one quick demo usually solves 90% of the
>>> problems.
>>>
>>> The other 10% of the problems come from people who bounce back
>>> and then
>>> stop! They are still part of the hey and have to keep moving.
>>>
>>> So instructions like these sometimes work: "As you come to the
>>> middle
>>> you will meet someone on a diagonal; bounce off that person and head
>>> backwards on the other diagonal, then move left* and come in
>>> again; you
>>> are going around the same triangle over and over again."
>>>
>>> *or right, depends on the dance.
>>>
>>> Note: As you bounce you change direction by just under 90
>>> degrees, it is
>>> very easy to let that rotation continue and throw a couple of
>>> spins in
>>> :-)
>>>
>>> Happy dancing,
>>> John
>>>
>>> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362&
>>> 07802 940 574
>>> http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events, Instructional
>>> DVDs and
>>> Interactive Maps
>>> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent
>>>
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Callers mailing list
>>> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
>>> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>>>
>>
>>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 6
> Date: Wed, 8 Dec 2010 14:49:23 -0000
> From: "John Sweeney" <info(a)contrafusion.co.uk>
> To: <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Ricochet Hey
> Message-ID: <58F0164537EA4103B3909D045E0477C1@JohnT400>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
>
> The ones I know are:
>
> Ricochet Hey #1 (no idea who wrote it, sorry)
> Contra; Improper
>
> Start in lines of four facing down, #1s in the middle
> A1: Down the Hall in Lines of Four; Turn Alone
> Up the Hall in Lines of Four; #1s face #2s
> A2: Full Hey: normal Hey for #1s; Ricochet Hey for #2s
> B1: Neighbour Balance & Swing
> B2: Long Lines Forward & Back
> #1s Swing - end facing down to pick up next #2s
>
>
> Rolling Hey (by Charley Harvey)
> Contra; Improper
>
> A1: Circle Left; Neighbor Swing
> A2: Circle Left 3/4; Partner Swing
> B1: Star Right; Ladies' Chain
> B2: Ricochet Hey for all - start with Ladies into the centre on a
> slight Right diagonal; push back on a slight Left diagonal, then
> step to
> the right; Men do the same, starting with the step to the right;
> REPEAT)
> - so no-one ever crosses the set during the Hey.
> Ladies keep moving to the right into a new circle. Men turn to
> their left out of the last push into a new circle.
>
> Happy dancing,
>
> John
> John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
> 07802 940 574
> http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
>
> End of Callers Digest, Vol 76, Issue 13
> ***************************************
The ones I know are:
Ricochet Hey #1 (no idea who wrote it, sorry)
Contra; Improper
Start in lines of four facing down, #1s in the middle
A1: Down the Hall in Lines of Four; Turn Alone
Up the Hall in Lines of Four; #1s face #2s
A2: Full Hey: normal Hey for #1s; Ricochet Hey for #2s
B1: Neighbour Balance & Swing
B2: Long Lines Forward & Back
#1s Swing - end facing down to pick up next #2s
Rolling Hey (by Charley Harvey)
Contra; Improper
A1: Circle Left; Neighbor Swing
A2: Circle Left 3/4; Partner Swing
B1: Star Right; Ladies' Chain
B2: Ricochet Hey for all - start with Ladies into the centre on a
slight Right diagonal; push back on a slight Left diagonal, then step to
the right; Men do the same, starting with the step to the right; REPEAT)
- so no-one ever crosses the set during the Hey.
Ladies keep moving to the right into a new circle. Men turn to
their left out of the last push into a new circle.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent
The key thing for the caller to understand is that when the two dancers
ricochet they take each other's place in the hey, and are now going
backwards.
This means that they must NOT just bounce back the way they came, or to
a neutral position on their own side - they have to follow the looping
flow of the hey.
I never actually explain that though. I just tell them to bounce back
at the opposite angle to the way they came in. Describing it as a
triangle usually helps. And one quick demo usually solves 90% of the
problems.
The other 10% of the problems come from people who bounce back and then
stop! They are still part of the hey and have to keep moving.
So instructions like these sometimes work: "As you come to the middle
you will meet someone on a diagonal; bounce off that person and head
backwards on the other diagonal, then move left* and come in again; you
are going around the same triangle over and over again."
*or right, depends on the dance.
Note: As you bounce you change direction by just under 90 degrees, it is
very easy to let that rotation continue and throw a couple of spins in
:-)
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
07802 940 574
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events, Instructional DVDs and
Interactive Maps
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent
