Folks,
I am curious. Tempo for contra is often below 120 bpm. I learned to call
squares at about 128 bpm.
Is this significant difference the norm, and if so why?
Rich Sbardella
Stafford Springs, CT
I commend to your attention the outline of the newcomers workshop as it was
developed at the Glen Echo contra dance. This is still rather close to the
workshop that is given on Fridays, including using muisc throughout.
The New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) is ready for your caller, band, discussion, etc applications. Yes, we are looking for a new venue, and yes, we are confident the weekend will take place, most likely April 24-26.
https://apply.neffa.org/
What we are looking for:
• More Larks/Robins dance sessions
• Themes that explore and celebrate contra chestnuts
• Workshops that feature or include squares
• Dance sessions geared for mixed level dancers; we like to be as inclusive as possible
• Intro to contra/square sessions
We want you!
Lisa Greenleaf
>
> Jim, thank you for all of your in depth analysis. If the dance tempos of Danish contra dancers is of interest perhaps a Danish caller will shed some light on the subject.
>
> I was attempting to answer Rich’s original question. Rich, what is your take now?
>>
>
I believe that the tempo for dancing contras in the United States has to do with the style and wants of the dancers. It’s the desire to improvise and flirt which I think is an integral part of the US contra scene and is the reason for the tempo being what it is.
If you look at the contra dancing in Denmark, the tempos are much faster. Although I haven’t been there for several years they don’t improvise and they don’t do much if any flirting either. They dance very straight. My conclusion from watching them quite a bit is that slower tempos would leave them standing around which they wouldn’t find as much fun. I’ve never timed the music but I would guess it’s easily at 124 bpm or higher, definitely the same as a tempo for squares here.
Sent from my iPad
I’m a very new caller. I do pretty well, but occasionally I’ve lost my place in a dance and the dancers (of course) crash.
I won’t always be able to avoid a crash, but would like to avoid the complete crash and burn. That is, I’d like to be able to recover after I mess up, so the dancers can finish the dance. My tentative plan is below, but I’m making it up, and would love both feedback on my plan and/or other suggested methods of rescuing a dance that has gone off the rails:
I’m pretty good at knowing where we are in the music, so if I can maintain my head I’m hoping I'd be able to do an extremely simple hash call to get back to the top of the song:
I’m guessing what I’d do is say “find your partner and swing on the side” and then hash calls that amount to going nowhere (Circle or star all the way around, LL forward and back, neighbour do-si-do, partner allemande once around—others?) until 8 bars before the top of the dance (if it’s improper), then say “circle left 3 places” to get them back in the original hands-four position. Then start calling the dance at the top. Does that work? Is there some other approach you’d recommend instead?
And if it is a Becket dance, I just do the same thing but without the circle left ¾ bit at the end?
Are there other tips you have for recovering and/or for killing time waiting for the music to start over again?
Any other recommendations to keep everyone in a good mood if/when I mess up? Good self-deprecating jokes/comments?
Thanks!
Becky
Hello folks,
I sadly relay that CT square dance caller Jim DeNigris passed away last
night.
Jim was so vital to New England MWSD. He served in NECCA offices and on
many Convention Committees. Jim was a friend and he always the perfect
gentleman in all his dealings.
Rich
Maybe phrased squares can be a bit faster than contras because there is more resting (to catch your breath) in squares, waiting while the sides or heads do something...
Becky
> On Sep 21, 2019, at 4:06 PM, callers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net wrote:
>
> Date: Sat, 21 Sep 2019 13:36:37 -0400
> From: Rich Sbardella <richsbardella(a)gmail.com <mailto:richsbardella@gmail.com>>
> To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net <mailto:callers@sharedweight.net>>
> Subject: [Callers] Tempo for Squares
> Message-ID:
> <CAE4BujJAzmu=2XnBsdqTBpqGKhByXAKoGACfaF0mYRZNxszJ5A(a)mail.gmail.com <mailto:CAE4BujJAzmu=2XnBsdqTBpqGKhByXAKoGACfaF0mYRZNxszJ5A@mail.gmail.com>>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
>
> Folks,
> I am curious. Tempo for contra is often below 120 bpm. I learned to call
> squares at about 128 bpm.
> Is this significant difference the norm, and if so why?
> Rich Sbardella
> Stafford Springs, CT
Sent for Sue Songer and Kristen Falk, who aren't on Shared Weight.
You can reply here and I'll make sure they get replies, or you can reach
out directly!
--------------------------------------------------
David Kaynor project
With the assistance of others, Sue Songer is compiling a comprehensive book
on David's many and varied contributions to our dance community. The book
will include David’s original tunes, the dances he has choreographed, his
artwork, and stories by and about him. We have a good handle on the music
but are not sure that we have a complete collection of David's dances, many
of which he has not written down. Kristen "Gumby" Falk is assisting with
the dance section of the book. Here is a list of the titles of dances we
have identified thus far. If you have additional dances that David has
choreographed in your collection, would you please either photograph your
cards and/or send the text of the dances to Kristen (krfalk99(a)hotmail.com)
and Sue (songer(a)portcoll.com)?
Thank you in advance for your help on this project! (Request for David
stories will be coming later on although you can send to Sue now if you
like.)
Sue Songer and Kristen Falk
