Contra Callers

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34 participants
4411 discussions

by Joseph Erhard-Hudson

Hi all, A good friend I made through contra dance has asked me to call some dancing at her wedding reception. (She is also a budding caller who I mentored for a while as she was getting started.) As soon as I said "yes", she asked what compensation would be meaningful to me, which strikes me as a thoughtful and thought-provoking way to put it. While I ponder my answer, I'm curious to hear what other callers charge for wedding dances. If there's a range, would you ask differently for newly-met people vs. friends from your dance community vs. close friends and family? What other factors would you consider? For myself, for very close friends I have sometimes refused payment out of love, considering it a wedding gift to them. Others view their own wedding as a time of outward generosity and wouldn't dream of paying less than the customary amount, whatever the heck that is. (I am also an occasional wedding officiant and faced the same conundrum there, but at least have a more well-defined range of fees from the local community to fall back on when either side considers full payment to be needed.) I have called enough family events that I know what to bring and what to expect as a caller. I'd just like to focus on compensation here, unless there's something about the work that's needed from the caller that would influence what you ask. Joseph Erhard-Hudson Moscow, Idaho

1 day, 8 hours

Order of thanks

by Luke Donforth

Hey folks, I wonder what people's thoughts are on end-of-the night thank-you's for a contra dance. Folks you might thank or call-out for applause: Band Caller Organizers/volunteers Sound person I feel like a lot of places go band->caller->sound person; hopefully thanking the volunteers at the announcements. I can see doing the final band thank you right after the band gets to play their big closing number for the evening. Everyone's amped up, call out the band and then tack the other ones on. But I think about the theater, where at the end of the performance the performers come out for bows. There, it's usually chorus->supporting->main cast; and by that system I think we should thank the band last. But usually in theater when all the cast is on stage they give a thank you and wave to the tech crew and director. Which would imply caller->band->sound+organizers. Just wondering what folks' thoughts were on the subject. Happy dancing, Luke Donforth (Burlington, VT)

3 days, 6 hours

Re: Fees for a wedding dance. Contra Callers Digest, Vol 136, Issue 5

by Leslie Gotfrit

I may waive or halve my fee for a close friend but I always ensure the three-piece band gets their full fee. With sound and travel of 1-2 hours I charge $2000 to $2500 with half up front to hold the date. (Date is not guaranteed until deposit is paid.) We are the entertainment. We take a dinner party and turn it to a memorable, joyful, playful event that brings two families together. We are there for four or five hours working hard to make that event a success regardless of alcohol, children, or lousy dance floors. All the same to me--that's my job. I have spent hours pulling the band, sound, the couple's vision and program together and no matter how inexpensive the wedding, we are still often the cheapest piece. Leslie Gotfrit WWW.LeslieGotfrit.com > On Nov 10, 2025, at 9:00 PM, contracallers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net wrote: > > Send Contra Callers mailing list submissions to > contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via email, send a message with subject or > body 'help' to > contracallers-request(a)lists.sharedweight.net > > You can reach the person managing the list at > contracallers-owner(a)lists.sharedweight.net > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Contra Callers digest..."Today's Topics: > > 1. Right hand high and left hand low figure (Elizabeth Bloom Albert) > 2. Re: [External] Right hand high and left hand low figure > (Tepfer, Seth) > 3. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure (john(a)modernjive.com) > 4. Re: [External] Right hand high and left hand low figure > (Elizabeth Bloom Albert) > 5. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure > (Elizabeth Bloom Albert) > 6. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure (Yoyo Zhou) > 7. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure (Winston, Alan P.) > 8. Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Joseph Erhard-Hudson) > 9. Re: Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Rich Goss) > 10. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure (Louise Siddons) > 11. Re: Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Mac Mckeever) > 12. Re: Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Katherine Kitching) > 13. Re: Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Luke Donforth) > 14. Re: Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Lorraine Sutton) > 15. Re: Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Lisa Sieverts) > 16. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure > (Elizabeth Bloom Albert) > 17. Re: Order of thanks (Bill Olson) > 18. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure (john(a)modernjive.com) > 19. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure (john(a)modernjive.com) > 20. Re: Thoughts on fees for a wedding dance? (Julian Blechner) > 21. Re: Order of thanks (Rich Dempsey) > 22. Re: Order of thanks (Allison Jonjak) > 23. Re: Right hand high and left hand low figure (Winston, Alan P.) > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net

3 days, 9 hours

Right hand high and left hand low figure

by Elizabeth Bloom Albert

Dear callers and fellow dance writers, I am writing a new contra dance and I have a question: Has there ever been an instance where, during a “Right hand high and left hand low,” everybody in a line of FOUR snakes under the raised arms (i.e., no one turns alone) in order to come back up the hall? Caller’s Box explains the move as “A way for a line of three to face the other direction and swap ends without dropping hands.” I want it to be a line of four. Will that work? Thank you! -- * Elizabeth Bloom Albert *

3 days, 20 hours

Rights and Lefts

by Rich Sbardella

I am tasked with calling a Colonial Dance with mostly novices. Most of the dances I have are Triple Minors and contain Rights and Lefts. I am converting the dances to Duple Minors in most cases, or perhaps to a Triplet if need be. I have two questions. Do you have a favorite replacement for the 16 count Rights and Lefts that will leave dancers facing their new neighbors? Do you have any Regency period or colonial flavored dances for a group of novice dancers? Thanks! Rich Sbardella Stafford, CT, USA

1 week

Space-Efficient Dances (a PS to Ceilidhs, Barn Dances, etc, Oh My!)

by Angela DeCarlis

Hello again all! Thank you to those who've already shared their favorite barn and ceilidh dances with me! I'm having trouble searching the Shared Weight archives, so apologies if this has been asked before. After discovering that the space allotted to my dance event this Sunday is fairly small, I'm now looking for dances in space-efficient formations. The dance floor is about 10 paces wide and deep, so about the right size for four 8-person squares. It's not a great size for longways sets, so I'm thinking scatter mixers and concentric circles might be good — maybe some triplets?? "Squares" four more than 8, Like Monkey in the Middle? What miniature dances do you brilliant people have up your sleeves? 🙂 Ang

1 week, 2 days

Putting a call out to those dance composers out there... triplet play?

by Emily Addison

Hi Folks :) I have what I think is a fun ask/challenge for a few of you.... I'm wondering if you might be up for a triplet composition brainstorm? Here's the situation.... One of the series that I call is to a very novice group of dancers - there are VERY few contra dancers in the mix. I do a lot of squares, scatters, the occasional very simple contra, and mix in other formations. Triplets work really well for this group. I came across the dance below a while back and I love love love the A part. Super simple but quite enjoyable. When I've workshopped it at home though, the B part is fairly tricky to get the actives to move up to the very top to get to that cast off. (It should work but I've workshopped it with a few other callers+ experienced dancers and doesn't seem intuitive/easy) So... I was wondering if anyone might enjoy the challenge of coming up with a fun second part to create a new dance? I thought I'd throw it out there into the universe as I know some of you are dance composers and enjoy taking aspects of a particular dance and playing with it. Nooooo pressure - just a fun exploration for those who might enjoy. :) Emily in Ottawa ==================== Anne's Dream by Katy Heine Triplet (can be danced no role if one wants) A1: Top 4 circle L all the way. Balance. 2s arch & 1s thru. A2: Bottom 4 circle L all the way. Balance. 3s arch & 1s thru. B1: Couple 1 strips the willow back up to the top (I've played with this a bit in terms of how many times around etc... it never seems to settle in) B2: 1s cross and cast to bottom. All step up and 2H turn or swing.

1 week, 3 days

Teaching Box the Gnat / Swat the Flea

by Emily Addison

Hi Folks! I'm wondering if you have tricks to teach Box the Gnat and Swat the Flea to a whole room of dancers who have not done it before. (In this case, it's happening in an otherwise very simple scatter mixer but I can imagine almost no one will know the figure.) The wording I've figured out is below. I feel like it's wordy but it's also a hard move to pick up because it's kind of weird what's actually happening. :) Ideally, I'd love to be able to teach this without a demo but I feel like I'm stuck with the demo. (If you have talk BtheG to a big room of non-dancers without a demo, I'd love to hear your strategies). Anyway - open to any and all feedback. Thanks! Emily in Ottawa DEMO BoxTGnat from a hands 4 With your P - join R hands in loose handshake hold – no thumbs! Goal is to trad places with your P so you end up in the spot there are right now. BUT Lark/Robin will be doing different things to get there! But little tug to start & raise joined hands. Larks: you walk past your P into your P place. (could feel like behind/outside of the circle) Robins: you WALK under your joined hands, turning in to face ctr of circle & keep turning until face P . You have stepped into THEIR place. Have them drill StF and BtG over and over before starting the rest of the dance.

1 week, 4 days

Ceilidhs, Barn Dances and Kitchen Dances, oh my!

by Angela DeCarlis

Hello everyone! I've been starting a new dance series in Gainesville, Florida called the All Y'all. The gist of the series is that each event features a variety of community social dancing in an effort to attract experienced dancers who want to try new styles, as well as dancers who are brand new to all of it. At the first event we had barn dances, some very easy contra dances, a simple square dance, some urban line dancing, and a demo performance from a local clogging group. It was a great success, with around 75 folks attending, the majority of whom were beginners. Here's a link if you want to check out some videos of the fun. <https://www.instagram.com/p/DO1uvMGkbFm/?img_index=1> *Here's the ask:* I need to expand my repertoire of beginner-friendly dances to include more formations, and also different traditions! In particular, I want to add more English, Scottish, etc ceilidh dances to my bank for my upcoming events. Simple squares and anything else you adore is also welcome! If you have one of two you love, please send them along. Please include what tradition and/or country the dance originates from when appropriate! I'm not yet at a point where I can request any special music — so like, some day I'd love to have balfolk and all that goodness, but it won't happen soon. For now assume the musicians are playing from the American Oldtime repertoire (including 3-part tunes!). Thank you all in advance, especially those reading from across the pond. 🙂 Ang

2 weeks, 1 day

teaching Wizard's Walk; The (Wayward) Witches Way

by Andrew Stout

Hi Callers, I have a gig on Oct 30, so naturally I'm plumbing the archives for Halloween-themed choices. There have been several threads on this, I'm not trying to start another one, I have two more specific questions: 1. Anyone got tips for teaching the Wizard's Walk figure? I've danced it (although not recently); I've never called it. (I'm interested in all tips, but FWIW I'm expecting a relatively experienced semi-monthly local crowd.) 2. The specific W'sW descendant I'm planning to use is Cis Hinkle's The WItches Way <https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=3804>, which has the Wizard's Walk figure in A1. It seems to me that to better fit the original Wizard's Walk tune the dance should be "rotated" thus: A1: (4,4) balance the ring (with Nbr1s); Petronella turn 1 place to R (no claps) (8) Partner swing A2: (4,4) balance the ring; Petronella turn 1 place to R (no claps) (8) Neighbor1 swing B1: (8) Robins chain (to Ptr) (6) circle RIGHT 3/4 (2) Ones arch, twos dive [to meet next Nbrs) B2: (16) Wizard's Walk: | (4) Nbr 2 mirror pass through along (ones split twos) | (4) Nbr 3 mirror pass through along (twos split ones) | (4) backing up Nbr 3 mirror pass through along (ones split twos) | (4) backing up Nbr 2 mirror pass through along (twos split ones) Has anyone done that? Do y'all agree? (The original dance <https://www.cambridgefolk.org.uk/contra/dances/ruth_ungar/wizards_walk.html> has the W.W. figure in B2.) I don't know if such a variant deserves its own name, but if so it seems like it should be called "Wayward Witches". Cheers, --Andrew Stout

2 weeks, 3 days

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