120 bpm is generally considered normal - but one of my best dance
experiences ever, with the band "Old Grey Goose" left me both feeling
sublime, and realizing their tempos were on average a little lower than i
was used to. Ralph Sweet has a great thought about tempo - the idea that,
based on the length of the average human leg, there is a frequency of
motion at which the least force is expended to set it swinging (imagining
the dancer's leg as a pendulum)...
And i suppose that, like everything about dance music and calling, what is
ideal really depends upon the dancers present. Suffice it to say i've had
great experiences as a dancer around 118, but when i'm really "into" a tune
on the fiddle, it's easy to warp up to 126 without realizing it. As a
fiddler new to playing for dancers, if your technique on notey reels is up
to snuff, it's easy to get carried away and confuse "energy" with speed -
sometimes the hardest thing is slowing down. On the dance floor that
confusion never happens, fast is just fast... and less enjoyable to dance.
Hence my making a somewhat conservative suggestion.
tavi
Hi All,
Just curious. We had a dozen local community college students come this past week...
Has anyone seen an increase in Youth attendance at local dances
since the NPR spots aired last week?
Here's the link to one of them. The other was with Bob Boilen, a closet contra-ist
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128273050
bobfab(a)aol.com
Bob mentioned tempo as an important element of making a tune and how it is
played appropriate for contra. I started a discussion on this listserv on
the topic of tempo back in March and from that I got the impression that
120 beats per minute is pretty ideal.
For more details from this discussion, follow this link and click on the
"Next message" link at the bottom of the page to continue:
http://www.sharedweight.net/pipermail/callers/2012-March/004507.html.
People shared some really interesting information.
--
Dugan Murphy
Portland, Maine
http://caller.duganmurphy.com
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2012 21:32:23 -0600
> From: Leslie Gotfrit <lgotfrit(a)me.com>
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Subject: [Callers] Ideal contra tunes
> Message-ID: <F5F36501-CAE5-4A69-BB4E-ECB20D204183(a)me.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; CHARSET=US-ASCII
>
> My teen daughter plays in a performing fiddle group. I sometimes call
> family dances using the group. The director asked me 1. to suggest some
> tunes she could teach the group that would be ideal for contras 2. what
> makes a tune or medley of tunes work well for contras. (There are lots in
> their repertoire that seems to work for "Southern" squares or big circle
> dances). Besides being square, 32 bar tunes with A parts distinguishable
> from B, what makes a great contra tune? I like dancing to medleys where
> the second tune picks up the energy: how is that accomplished? Can anyone
> suggest a couple of tunes and (perhaps which recording of it) that are
> essential to a contra music repertoire?
>
> Thanks very much to those who responded to my question about determining
> space for contra dancing. It was incredibly helpful and I learned something
> new from each response.
>
Andrea brings up a great point, and one that I'd like to address in my own
dance community. My husband and I are the only couple that attends dances
with our young child (4) although I know of at least three other families
in our age range, with kids, who have stopped dancing.
I think the biggest part of it is the time. In Chicago, we dance on Monday
nights, so parents with school-aged kids are not inclined to come out. When
our child gets older and has to be in bed earlier, I'm not sure what we're
going to do. We may end up trading weeks - one parent dances, the other
stays home - or we may end up not coming as often as we do now. Good grief,
we have trouble finding childcare when we are touring as a band and write
in advance to ask for help in locating a reliable local teen or college
student to watch our son on site.
It would be fun if there were a weekend dance, or a family dance, but so
far, finding a venue for either has been difficult.
I'm definitely interested in hearing what other communities have done about
retaining or otherwise serving this particular group ... good conversation!
meg
Leslie,
Dave Casserly hit on some really great points. To add,
- One thing that separates contra repertoire from the repertoire for
squares (etc) is the utility of jigs to provide a feeling of variety
between quite similar dances.
- A cheap trick that works well going from a first tune to a second is
changing tonalities from the major key to a related mode with same or
similar key signature, for example D major into E dorian mode such as
"Whiskey Before Breakfast" into "Cooley's Reel", or from a major to the
relative minor. The reverse of such changes can also create an energetic
burst, though a change of key signatures may be necessary to achieve that
effect when going from a mode (other than the relative minor) to major.
- If the band can execute them solidly, jig to reel transitions add a
MASSIVE energy burst. A jig-reel transition getting a lot of use around
Boston right now is "Seanamhac Tube Station" into "Devil in the Strawstack"
- tunes with similar melodic structures in the same key, but when paired
with an a-part wave balance it's like the dancers are on fire when they
hear that change.
Another tunebook which may be of value is "The New England Fiddler's
Repertoire" by Randy Miller.
Tempo is crucial. As a fiddler i find that it's often easy to play too fast
without realizing it, while as a dancer i find tempos around 118 (even for
reels!) to be the most satisfying.
Besides dancing to really great bands, it might help the fiddle-group
leader to listen to some popular contradance bands and pick up on what they
do. Off the top of my head a few favorites that illustrate great tune
changes are Great Bear Trio, Crowfoot, Wild Asparagus, Airdance, and Wake
the Neighbors (the band Ed Howe and John Cote anchored before they became
Perpetual eMotion).
Give the fiddlers my regards!
tavi merrill
My teen daughter plays in a performing fiddle group. I sometimes call family dances using the group. The director asked me 1. to suggest some tunes she could teach the group that would be ideal for contras 2. what makes a tune or medley of tunes work well for contras. (There are lots in their repertoire that seems to work for "Southern" squares or big circle dances). Besides being square, 32 bar tunes with A parts distinguishable from B, what makes a great contra tune? I like dancing to medleys where the second tune picks up the energy: how is that accomplished? Can anyone suggest a couple of tunes and (perhaps which recording of it) that are essential to a contra music repertoire?
Thanks very much to those who responded to my question about determining space for contra dancing. It was incredibly helpful and I learned something new from each response.
The Gainesville FL dance community has always provided childcare. We
hire someone to watch any children who don't want to dance. Parents
pay $5/child which goes to the childcare provider. We guarantee the
childcare provider $20 if no children show up (which is pretty rare).
Many of our children dance but also want to play with the other kids
some. We have had a few children grow up in our community and are
still dancing as adults. I am a huge advocate for providing
childcare!
--
JoLaine Jones-Pokorney
"We are as gods and might as well get good at it!"
- Stewart Brand
I am a new caller trying to log calling hours by hosting kitchen contra parties (with live music, beer and food). Could anyone tell me how many linear feet I need per couple? My friends' home is about 24 feet on the diagonal: how many couple in a longways can I (safely) accommodate? And what's the minimum number of couples in a contra line so that is still fun? Thanks for any advice.
I haven't yet gotten to dance Boston Harbor, but love Fairport Harbor.
From either a calling or dancing point of view, what would make you
choose one of these two dances over the other? What about end effects?
Seems like with both of them, as long as you get _everyone_ into the
big promenade circle it would work ok.
Kalia
Hi,
If you have called Gene Hubert's wonderful dance "Double Boomerang", I have
2 questions for you about end effects. The dance is below.
When the ladies chain on the left diagonal there are ladies at each end who
cannot do that as there is no one there. That's fine. I am used to that.
My questions are not about that.
They are:
(1) When a couple reaches an end ( I have only been able to watch
the top), where do they wait and for how long.
. The woman needs to get into position for the ladies chain on the
diagonal, which I think means that she needs to cross over as she waits for
that. The man also needs to cross over and stand next to her at that point.
. When however the second pass through is done (in B1), both the man
and the woman who are waiting out at that point need to be in position to
balance and swing with their partners (B2), which I think means that they
need to be in different lines from each other.
. Finally, as it is a Becket, at the end of the partner swing you and
your partner need to be together on the same side but - which side and how
do you get there.
(2) How do you teach all of this.
Really good dancers seem to understand where they need to be and get there,
but even experienced dancers have been having trouble with this and it has
thrown them.
Do you know the dance?
Can you help?
Thanks,
Rickey Holt, Fremont, NH
Here is the dance if you have forgotten it:
DOUBLE BOOMERANG, Gene Hubert (Becket)
A1 Gents Allemande Left (1 1/2)
Neighbor Swing
A2 ON THE LEFT DIAGONAL, Ladies chain
Long Lines Forward and Back
B1 Pass through straight across the set and turn alone.
Circle Left all of the way around
Up and down the set pass through
B2 Partner Balance and Swing
