Don't want to spam this list but as a caller, you might be interested. Last
month I announced the Catapult Showcase in Atlanta over Memorial Day Weekend
2012. The Caller (and Band) applications are due on 11/30 - that's this
Wednesday.
If you're a caller (or in a band) who'd be perfect for Catapult, get your
application at http://www.catapultshowcase.com/registration.html.
If you're not sure you'd be perfect, you should apply anyway. You never
know. If you're not quite right for this year, you'll be first on the list
to get applications for 2013.
Or if you've got a favorite up and coming band or caller you'd like to
recommend, please direct them to www.catapultshowcase.com.
Don't delay. Act now! Hope to see you in May in Atlanta.
ciao,
rah
Rob Harper
Catapult! The National Contra Showcase
info(a)catapultshowcase.com
404-307-3444
>From: "kanara(a)triton.net" <kanara(a)triton.net>
>Sent: Monday, November 14, 2011 3:34 PM
>Subject: [Callers] Callers Companion - how is it working for you?
Hi Karin,
I *LUV* Callers Companion! I highly recommend it. Will's program does
everything I ever wanted a dance database to do and more. I found it very
easy to adopt and use it all the time. At this point, I have 80 programs in
it and just under 300 dances.
>Are you using the basic version, or the expanded version? - I use the
basic version.
>How long have you been using it? - I believe since 2009. I was one of the
original beta testing team. At this point, I can't remember my calling life
before using it.
>Are you using it with a Mac or a PC? - I use it with PC. I have it
installed on a little Lenovo netbook that I use for calling. It's great!
>My husband is just taking up calling, and I've been calling and collecting
>dances for about 6 years now. We are wondering whether we could use one
>database for both of our collections; do any of you users have a sense of
>the workability of a combination database using Callers Companion?
I can't speak to your last question.
Hope that helps,
Bev
Hey Jonathan, I've been working gradually for the past year or so on a project related to yours. Many folks all around VA, NC, etc. have noticed that I tend to tote around a videocam to nearly every contra dance I attend lately. I'm working on a collection of video clips of dances (especially the trickier ones) taught and called - by top callers when available - with each video clip typically containing the teaching plus twice through with music. I expect to get some of them on my YouTube channel over the next year or so, but since it's merely a hobby by an enthusiastic and increasingly busy caller/musician, we shall see.
Right now I'm also working on switching over from my cards to Will Loving's "Caller's Companion." If anything, this new level of organization will hopefully lead to more as I seek to properly harness the video link feature of that database software.
Brian Hamshar
Contra dance caller/producer (trad & crossover)
Based in Charlottesville, VA
-----Original Message-----
Date: Sunday, November 13, 2011 2:01:12 pm
To: "Post to Callers" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
From: "Jonathan LF King" <squash(a)ufl.edu>
Subject: [Callers] Steps to "Winter in Summerland"? | Seek caller videos
I'm a "cub caller" from Gainesville, FL, and seek the
choreography for
"Winter in Summerland"
by Jeff Spero and James Hutson. I'm aware of several online
videos of the dance, e.g,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlisHB8G8GQ
and can glean the steps from the video, but wonder if
someone could provide the official choreography?
================================================================
For my own reference, I assembled a few well-known dances
with steps and video-links of the dances. Another "cub
caller" told me the page was useful to her, so I've
put it online at
http://www.math.ufl.edu/~squash/contradance.dances-tunes.html
Errors in the dance-steps are mine, as I've re-written some
for my own edification.
I'm looking to add to this collection. If you know of an
online video of a good dance, please email me [eddress below].
Useful are videos where the caller can be clearly heard [a
plus if the teaching is included], and where the video
shows, uncut, at least one full cycle, together with the
transition to the next cycle.
Another plus: Videos that show the end-effect, for
complicated dances.
I currently only have one video of a 4-facing-4, and
would like especially to expand that section.
Sincerely, -Jonathan King
================
PS: My eddress is
squash at ufl dot edu
PPS: I thank "ccpage19143", Chris Page (whom I've not yet
met) for taking the time and having the expertise to label
/many/ YouTube contras with the title and author. My
"dance-tunes" page would be half its size without his
public-service work.
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
I'm a "cub caller" from Gainesville, FL, and seek the
choreography for
"Winter in Summerland"
by Jeff Spero and James Hutson. I'm aware of several online
videos of the dance, e.g,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlisHB8G8GQ
and can glean the steps from the video, but wonder if
someone could provide the official choreography?
================================================================
For my own reference, I assembled a few well-known dances
with steps and video-links of the dances. Another "cub
caller" told me the page was useful to her, so I've
put it online at
http://www.math.ufl.edu/~squash/contradance.dances-tunes.html
Errors in the dance-steps are mine, as I've re-written some
for my own edification.
I'm looking to add to this collection. If you know of an
online video of a good dance, please email me [eddress below].
Useful are videos where the caller can be clearly heard [a
plus if the teaching is included], and where the video
shows, uncut, at least one full cycle, together with the
transition to the next cycle.
Another plus: Videos that show the end-effect, for
complicated dances.
I currently only have one video of a 4-facing-4, and
would like especially to expand that section.
Sincerely, -Jonathan King
================
PS: My eddress is
squash at ufl dot edu
PPS: I thank "ccpage19143", Chris Page (whom I've not yet
met) for taking the time and having the expertise to label
/many/ YouTube contras with the title and author. My
"dance-tunes" page would be half its size without his
public-service work.
Three days ago we learned that the good ladies of the Monday Club (who own
the building where we dance) don't like the word "Whiskey" in our
English/American dance weekend (High Tea & Whiskey), so we're changing the
name to
wait for it
High Tea & Sasparilla
M
E
Great ideas guys, I'll check out the CDSS information, most of this is stuff
we've heard before and holding a dance on campus is a bit more than we can
handle. the sites are great and so are the suggestions, but I really am
looking for a "hook" on a poster...like Michale Ludgate's "Support Live
Music, Go Contra Dancing"...but I'm not sure that will work either. I've
seen "turn off the TV...dance!" A night of aerobics... and some other
things, that's really what I'm looking for. Trying to hold dances on campus
is great, but you need to have a person or group on campus that will sponsor
the dance etc, and that's almost like starting a whole new dance series
(dont' really have time or resources to do this), our dance is readily
excessible to almost all the campuses that have dorms, most of the colleges
are "comuter" colleges with day campuses and some of them (mostly in the
city or what is considered the city) have campus housing. All are on bus
routes and our dance is in the heart of the "cool" section of town. Most
young adults know about our area and the shops restaurants and bars.
So, as you see, it's not so much getting individuals to view contra dancing
or host a dance but just to get the option out there, visible, so that some
might try it and help spread the word.
And then, I need an artist to create the poster.....
Thanks again guys!
Mary Collins
QCCD
Hi all,
As much as I've enjoyed the recent "marketing-to-college-students" thread on the SW Callers list, I would have much preferred to see it happening on the SW Organizers list instead. It's not necessarily* relevant for people who are callers, but it's definitely relevant to organizers, and folks on the SW organizers list might themselves enjoy the brainstorming/solutions offered by this particular thread. (*Meaning, yes, some callers are involved in organizing, but not all of us are.)
I acknowledge that many of us wear multiple hats in the traditional dance world - caller/organizer/musician/sound/webmaster/dancer - but since we have these thoughtfully-created separate lists for each little hat we wear, I'm requesting that my fellow posters please consider which lists are appropriate for their topic of concern, and post on that list instead.
If people on SW Callers list want it to be something less-defined, then I guess that's a separate question, but it seems to me it would make each list more useful if the content was specific to the name of the list.
So, can you please post only caller concerns here?
Thanks!
Chrissy Fowler
P.S. Unless anyone objects, I'm going to cut/paste these most recent organizer-related exchanges, sans contact info/addresses, and send to the SW organizer list. You can email me directly (ktaadn_me(a)hotmail.com) to voice your objection.)
Dear Mary,
I'll just add that I don't think the poster is what will bring students to an
unfamiliar activity off campus. Ultimately, it's people who bring other people
to a dance, friends bringing friends.
When some dance organizers have surveyed newcomers to find out what brought them
to the dance, the overwhelming reason was, "A friend brought me."
One of the points made somewhere-- sorry, can't find the source-- is that when
trying to attract young people in particular, you do best to think in terms of
groups rather than individuals. Broad generalization: they'll go if others are
going. So, the effort needs to be to get a group.
Case in point: our monthly dance is a mile from a good-sized college, 4,000 undergraduates
and 2,000 more grad students. That mile is a vast distance. In fact, business
located three blocks from the edge of the campus have folded because students
are reluctant to go that far.
We have a handful of regular dancers from among the college population. Several
times a year that number grows dramatically when someone from the Outing Club
organizes a trip, complete with van, to bring students over, in a group.
In November, we're expecting 30+ grad students coming to the dance. (One of our
regular dancers spoke with another student who happens to chair the grad student
social committee; she in turn got excited by the idea and is promoting it.) Again,
they're coming as a group.
Setting aside the regular younger dancers at our event, most of whom have grown
up in the music/dance community, when high school students come to the dance they
come as a group. Or perhaps "pack" is a more accurate word. ;-)
Posters are great reminders that something is happening, and jog the memory of
those who are already thinking of coming. But just think of all the posters you've
passed by for some event and they didn't get you to go.
My 2 cents... let us know what you end up trying and with what degree of success.
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
Howdy,
I am going to be calling one of my first gigged contra dances in a week! I
have a half-hour to introduce newbies on what's what in the dance prior and
I am wondering what do other callers find has been the most effective use of
that half hour?
I imagine going over improper formation [ladies on the right etc.], and a
few of the base moves are good. But I'd like to see if anyone else has some
good hints I can work with!
Thanks,
Davey
