Contra Callers June 2019

contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net

18 participants
13 discussions

by Rickey

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.

2 years, 6 months

Re: [Callers] Festival Applications

by robertgolder＠comcast.net

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

5 years, 1 month

Calling a Halloween dance tonight? Try this circle mixer...

by Amy Cann via Callers

I try and call the dances of Rich Blazej whenever I can and this one's a Halloween favorite, re-done as "Werewolves and Zombies". *Garfield's Escape* -- circle of couples PLUS ONE EXTRA in the center (Garfield) A1 All into the center EIGHT steps and back, menacing the Garfield A2 Circle left, circle right B1 Women (werewolves) promenade single file to the right, while men (zombies) "star" by the right -- each man puts his right hand on right shoulder of the man in front - including Garfield. B2 Caller hollers "Escape!" ("Boo!", or maybe "Braaaiiins") and all men run to the outside and swing with a woman in the outer circle. A new Garfield remains in the center. Rich himself named this after Garfield the comic-strip cat, way back when he was cynical and funny (the cat, not Rich). "The single man remaining at the end of the dance is entitled to a pan of lasagna and some fresh kitty litter". My favorite normal tune for this is the minor jig Coleraine, played at a slightly slower lurch-y tempo, but if I'm lucky the band'll do the Alfred Hitchcock theme. Have fun, just thought I'd share -- and I'd love to hear how it goes if you do it, and what variations emerge. Cheers, Amy

5 years, 8 months

Hand Turns & Safety

by Erik Hoffman

John Sweeny below hoped we callers would teach more about hand turns and the like. I've been thinking on this for quite a while. Years ago I had a discussion with Brad Foster. We both lamented the loss of the allemande with mildly interlocking thumbs to the modern overprotective thumb against the side of the palm allemande. At that time I think I was still in Santa Barbara, thus it must have been pre 1994. I wrote an article for our dance rag called, "If Allemande Left, Where'd Allemande Go?" I talked about what I do when someone grips my hand-and I think all of us should remove that word, "grip" from our caller's vocabulary... But the most important thing I discussed is: * Our Wrist is Strongest When It's Straight * Our Fingers are Strongest When Curved * Thus, however one does an allemande, it should be a hook, with curved fingers and a straight wrist. Lately I've seen teachers promote the straight fingers, bent wrist, and flat palm method. The almost always makes one person's wrist uncomfortable. Not as bad as when someone draws the others hand into that almost-Aikido-put-them-on-the-ground position, but usually quite uncomfortable. Thus I hope most of us learn the curved fingers, straight wrist, no grip, and, no thumb clamping allemande, ECD hand turn, two hand turn type hand connections. ~Erik Hoffman, Oakland, CA From: Callers <callers-bounces(a)lists.sharedweight.net> On Behalf Of John Sweeney via Callers Sent: Friday, May 17, 2019 2:09 PM To: 'Caller's discussion list' <callers(a)sharedweight.net> Subject: Re: [Callers] Name that Dance Hi Rich, I would just call it a "Big Set Mixer". It is a slight variation of the one in the Community Dances Manual. Callers just make up a 32 bar sequence that works for their dancers. While it is a good example of all ages having fun together, I really wish callers would teach the dancers just a tiny bit about how to do better hand/arm turns and swings :-) Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs

5 years, 11 months

New Dance?

by Angela DeCarlis

Hello all! In a scene with which I'm sure many of you are familiar, I woke up in the middle of the night with a tune stuck in my head, and I couldn't fall asleep until I'd written a dance to go with it. Let me know if someone's beat me to it: Molly Apple Pye, Becket A1: Balance Ring, Petronella Balance Ring, Pass through up and down A2: New Neighbor Balance and Swing B1: Gents start 3/4 Hey across (GL PR LL NR GL PR), Ladies Ricochet* B2: Partner Swing I realize the partner swing in this version is longer than standard, but figure since the timing can run long for a full hey with ricochet and since the next move is a ring balance, I don't mind giving the dancers the extra time to get their affairs in order. ;) *But maybe the timing works better if the Ladies dance a left-shoulder-round instead, to take up a bit more music? I need to play-test! In that case, the B's would be, B1: Gents start 3/4 Hey across (GL PR LL NR GL PR), Ladies Left Shoulder Round B2: Partner Right Shoulder Round and Swing Thanks! Angela

5 years, 12 months

Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 62, Issue 10

by tom hinds

Thanks for all the good information. Sent from my iPad > On Jun 28, 2019, at 4:07 PM, callers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net wrote: > > Send Callers mailing list submissions to > callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > callers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > callers-owner(a)lists.sharedweight.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Callers digest..." > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Allemande (Jacob or Nancy Bloom) > 2. Re: Allemande (JD Erskine) > 3. Re: Allemande (John Sweeney) > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 27 Jun 2019 23:33:40 -0400 > From: Jacob or Nancy Bloom <jandnbloom(a)gmail.com> > To: tom hinds <tomthecaller(a)yahoo.com> > Cc: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net> > Subject: Re: [Callers] Allemande > Message-ID: > <CAJPS8Ni+1R9fth1vpV9k-EHTGs+F1KcnszxrT_9hXmvhr8ZZkQ(a)mail.gmail.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" > > The Lambertville ECD site is pointing to a copy of Samuel, Ann, and Peter > Thompson's Twenty Four Country Dances for the Year 1782, on the Vaughan > Williams Memorial Library website. There are a couple of things that the > term "allemande" could mean in 1782, but the one that seems correct for > that version of Away To The Camp would be danced as follows: > > The couple link right elbows and then straighten out their right arms to > reach their partner?s hand, while they hold left hands behind their backs. > (For an allemand reverse they would reverse this and start by linking their > left elbows.) They dance forward once around each other and return to > their places. For the Thompsons' 1782 version of Away To The Camp I > suggest that both Allemande and Allemande Reverse be done, that the > footwork used be a skip-change step (which would have been called "chassee > forward" in 1782), and that all three couples do the allemandes (although a > case can certainly be made for only the active couple doing them.) > > If you are interested in dance from that era, check out the blog that my > wife and I have at http://www.dancehistoryalive.com/blog/ We haven't > written an article on Away to the Camp yet, but we'll try to do one soon. > > Jacob Bloom > > On Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 5:02 PM tom hinds via Callers < > callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > >> John, >> >> Thanks so much for your hard work and sharing a tremendous amount of >> information with us. >> >> There?s one allemande I?d like to know more about. It?s the one used in >> the the dance, Away to the Camp which can be seen on the Lambertville ECD >> site. >> >> Tom >> >> Sent from my iPad >> _______________________________________________ >> List Name: Callers mailing list >> List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net >> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/ >> > > > -- > jandnbloom(a)gmail.com > http://jacobbloom.net/ >

6 years

Allemande

by tom hinds

John, Thanks so much for your hard work and sharing a tremendous amount of information with us. There’s one allemande I’d like to know more about. It’s the one used in the the dance, Away to the Camp which can be seen on the Lambertville ECD site. Tom Sent from my iPad

6 years

Allemandes, Hand Turns and Arming

by John Sweeney

Hi all, Following up on forum discussions over the years, some of which floundered a little without photographs to aid the discussion, I have now created this page on Allemandes: http://contrafusion.co.uk/Allemande.html I haven't linked to it yet. Please let me know of any updates, errors, omissions, etc. Once a few more people have checked it out I will add some more links to it. Thanks to all those of you who contributed words of wisdom. I hope you find it useful. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs

6 years

Loss of a legend

by Luke Donforth

Hello all, Just letting the community know that Ralph Sweet passed away last week: https://memorials.leetestevens.com/ralph-sweet/3877859/index.php I hope to keep dancing and calling for as long as he did. An inspiration. -- Luke Donforth Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>

6 years

CDSS web chat on Building Safe Dance Communities - registration now open

by Emily Addison

Hi fellow Shared Weight callers. I just wanted to give you a heads up that registration is now open for CDSS's next web chat on "Building Safe Dance Communities". The session is primarily for organizers but I know many of you on this list also organize and it's likely some callers will also find the topic interesting. It should be a great session AND it's free! Details are below. Emily Addison Consultant for the Country Dance and Song Society Dance organizer/caller/musician in Ottawa, Ontario ==================== The web chat is happening July 11, 8:30-9:45 PM Eastern Daylight Time. This is an exciting opportunity to gather valuable resources and hear personal experiences about this important topic. You'll hear from web chat guests across the continent and there will be time for Q&A. - Avia Moore (Toronto, ON) will share resources compiled by the CDSS Community Safety Task Group. - Diane Silver and Robert Zieber (Asheville, NC) are long-time organizers for the Old Farmers Ball dance community. - Marcia Davis-Cannon (Mountain View, CA) leads workshops on this topic for dance organizers on the West Coast. - Angela DeCarlis (Boston, MA) is a former Board Member of BIDA (Boston Intergenerational Dance Advocates) and co-founder of the BIDA Safety Team. To join the web chat (by computer or phone), RSVP BY JULY 7. All registrants will receive instructions via email about how to participate. Even if you can’t join us on July 11, submit an RSVP to receive announcements about upcoming webchats. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYc34kuW4-rXeqqrfT3M5AueC0dUx0igu… <https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdYc34kuW4-rXeqqrfT3M5AueC0dUx0igu…>

6 years

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Contra Callers June 2019