Contra Callers

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17 participants
4362 discussions

by David.Millstone＠valley.net

Hello William, I'd recommend adding Ted Sannella's books to your list of resources. The first two books provide a nice selection of dances, many of them less complex than some of the dances in Give and Take. I've found that one common problem that new callers have is selecting dances that are too hard for them to call well; they hope to make a big splash, showing that they can call hot dances that they have enjoyed dancing themselves, but all too often get tangled up in lengthy explanations orlet the timing slip on their calling. They would have done better to pick something more straightforward, teach it quickly, keep up with the calls, and get out of the way. In addition to Ted's collection of dances, what I like about his first two books (_Balance and Swing_ and _Swing the Next_) are his detailed notes on how he teaches the dance, sometimes offering specific wording, and a rationale for why he makes the choices he does. The careful reader can learn a lot about how to teach and how to program from reading Ted's comments. The third Ted publication, his notes on calling traditional New England squares, is valuable for many reasons. First, New England style squares are the easiest kind of squares for most callers to learn, and his notes, combined with the many squares presented in the first two books, are a helpful guide. Second, Ted pays a lot of attention attention to breaks, that bane of many contra callers. Finally, the booklet comes with a CD that offers 15 examples of Ted's calling. Callers wanting to call traditional New England style squares could do a lot worse than to pattern themselves on Ted Sannella's timing and diction. David Millstone

18 years, 1 month

attachment test

by Chris Weiler

Just testing whether or not attachments go through. I looked through the settings and don't see anything that wouldn't let a .doc or .pdf through. Chris P.S. The attached form is one that I use for working out the prompts for a dance. One line (Moves) is for what the dancers are doing. The lines represent one word or syllable. The form seemed to get more elaborate as I tried to call higher piece count dances. First I write down what I think will work, then I pound a beat on the table and try to read what I wrote, out loud, in time with it.

18 years, 1 month

Re: [Callers] Greetings from a new caller and some random questions about calling (Richard Green)

by Jerome Grisanti

Richard, Welcome to calling! I will address a few of your questions, with the understanding that multiple approaches are what keep this folk art lively and interesting. Timing: As long as dancers understand you and get the call before the move, I don't believe it matters whether you phrase it "partners balance and swing" or "partners balance ... and swing." There are times when the pause is needed, either musically or acoustically, but there is no hard-and-fast rule. Once the dance is in its third or fourth iteration, I back off the calls considerably, reducing to "partners balance" or "partners" to saying nothing if the dancers are all on top of the dance. With some dances, I may prompt a tricky spot and nothing else. Listen to callers you like, they are the best tool to know about placing calls. I echo Mavis' advice about taping yourself, this is a real ear-opener but it can be hard on the ego. Playing and calling at the same time: It can be done, but I would encourage new callers to concentrate on that skill exclusively for a long period. Be aware of all the dancers, stand on the stage or elevated platform, get feedback on your audio, language, teaching, etc. There's a LOT of stuff to absorb, in real time, with people waiting for YOU to say the next thing. Varying the calls: Not necessary unless something is not working. For example, in Petronella some people will say "in a circle, balance and petronella turn," only to realize that at the word "circle" many of the groups started to circle to the left. So the next time, the caller might realize it would be better to say "in a ring, balance and petronella turn." In general, I vary the calls only as a way of reducing to no prompts. Ending the dance: Many callers like to end dances with a partner swing, and there are a number of "boilerplate" endings from the various positions. I'd encourage you to figure those out ahead of time and make notes for "final time thru." One move I don't enjoy is a partner swing stretching over both the B1 and B2, so I'll say "listen up, new call, long lines (or circle) ... partners swing again." From a neighbor swing you could circle three places. And with some "signature" moves you may just let the dances end as written. Judging Dancer's Level: Observe. Ask the dancers what they are comfortable with. I think it's a useful exercise to create a ranking of moves by difficulty. Your first list may not be entirely accurate. Things that are relatively easy for first-timers in a crowd of experienced dancers (chain) may prove very difficult indeed when the crowd is predominantly inexperienced, for example at a wedding. As you gain experience, you will find that your rankings change. You will also find ways to teach certain moves that are very effective, while others are less effective. Good luck, and have fun! Jerome Grisanti > Message: 3 > Date: Thu, 12 Apr 2007 11:24:06 -0400 > From: "Richard Green" < richard.a.green(a)hotmail.com> > Subject: [Callers] Greetings from a new caller and some random > questions about calling > To: "'Caller's discussion list'" < callers(a)sharedweight.net> > Message-ID: <BAY118-DAV6587B7A64A3ED5A887787B25E0(a)phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Greetings to all of you! > > My name is Richard Green and I have decided to come out of the lurking > closet and announce my intention of learning how to call. I discovered > this > wonderful discussion list about a month ago and avidly read through the > multiple years of postings. Now, alas, I am up to date and finding it > hard > to adjust to having only an occasional new post to read. > > I live in Maine, and my calling interest began in January when I attended > John McIntire's calling workshops. At the time I thought it would be nice > to learn some calling skills because my wife and I have had some > opportunities to play music for some barn and family dances in the area, > and > on one occasion the caller was not present and we didn't know how to > proceed.(He did eventually show up). At the end of the caller's workshop > we > were given the opportunity to call at a live contradance, and despite a > rather anxious time spent worrying about the fiasco that was sure to > occur, > it went quite well and I really had a good time. It was a breakthrough > moment for me, and it was then and there that I decided I would like to > pursue calling more seriously. I am grateful to John for giving me that > chance. > > Since then I have doubled my calling experience by calling a mixer at a > recent family dance that we played at. John has also scheduled another > dance next month with guest callers which I will be one of. Other than > that > I have spent time preparing by transcribing several dances that I have > found > online,(several on this list), donning my mp3 player and practicing > calling > as I jog around the neighborhood. It is a pretty good way to become > familiar with the timing of the calls, but doesn't really do much for the > stage fright that I will still have to deal with, although I suppose that > running around the streets shouting contradance calls in cadence does make > me an object of attention. > > Despite my lack of experience I now have several gigs lined up to call. > They are all for family type and special dances that we have been asked to > > play at. Since it is not very likely that much of this dancing is going > to > be done to the phrasing of the music it takes a little pressure off the > need > to be precise with timing, but in general I think that calling these types > > of dances is actually more difficult in some ways because teaching, as > well > as just maintaining the dance, can be a challenge. > > I would like to say that I will be satisfied with calling these family > dances, but I really harbor a secret desire to make it to the big time and > > call a "real" dance. I have always been pretty impressed by how the > callers > could stand up there and make a dance happen, and now that I know more > about > what goes into it I am even more in awe of you all. > > Since it is too late to avoid being long-winded, I would like to add a few > random questions which I will throw out to see if they generate any > discussion: > > Timing issues- I think that I have a pretty good handle on the eight and > sixteen beat figures, but how do you keep track of others? For example, > the > petronella balance & spin are 4 & 4, I think. Do you call them together, > like a balance and swing, or try to separate the call a little? And for > that matter, for a balance and swing call, is it better to call that all > at > once, or would it be good to call balance......and swing, with a > separation. > And what about these dances that have other timing. Sometimes I see > timing > of 7 or 9, or other odd numbers. Does the timing of the calls have to > change to reflect this? > > Calling and Playing - Does anyone call and play an instrument at the same > time? Are you able to call and play simultaneously or do you do some > calling and then join the band when the calling is no longer needed. Any > hints on how to share these tasks? > > Ending the Dance - Do most callers change the call at the end of the dance > so that you swing your partner or something to close the dance? I know > Bill > Olson does, but I can't really remember if it is the common thing to > do. If > so, do you have some special ending already prepared or do you just > develop > something on the fly or with experience. In transcribing dances and I > have > not included anything like that. > > Varying your Calls - Is it a good thing to vary the words that you use > when > calling a dance or is it better to use the exact same words each time > through? It seems like it would be a nice to avoid repetition, but on the > > other hand it also seems like it would be easier to be consistently > understood if you stick to the same phrases. Also, should you always call > using the same phrases from dance to dance? It seems like the dancers > would > get used to hearing things in the same way and understand them better, but > I > wonder if it would make you seem limited or boring as a caller. > > Judging the Dancer's Level - Any tips on how to judge the ability of the > dancers in order to introduce more complex dances? Is this something that > is obvious or does it take some special skills to observe, or is it > something that you develop over time? > > Thanks in advance for your help. > > Richard > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers(a)sharedweight.net > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > > > End of Callers Digest, Vol 32, Issue 4 > ************************************** > -- Jerome Grisanti 660-528-0858 660-528-0714 http://www.jeromegrisanti.com

18 years, 1 month

Down East Country Dance Festival report

by Chris Weiler

Hello everyone, It's been a while since I've written one of these, and a lot has happened in my calling career since the last one. I had my debut at the Scout House in January, calling for the 2nd Saturday dance. I've called for the Monday night dance there as well. I've been booked to call another Monday night dance and this time the band is Notorious! The Mill City dance has been on hiatus for various reasons (hall unavailable, storms, festivals) and will return in May for our 1 year anniversary! Lots of wonderful opportunities. But this report is about my session at the Down East Country Dance Festival a couple of weeks ago in Maine. If you haven't been, this is one of my favorite festivals. So many wonderful sessions, great people and a strong community. I call up there semi-regularly now and it's great each time to visit with my Maine friends. My session was titled "Neighborly Contras". I had no idea what I was going to do with it when I applied, but worked it out over a few weeks after I found out that my application had been accepted. What I decided was that I was going to push the boundaries of modern urban contra dancing by breaking a few of the rules. For example, I planned on calling dances without partner swings, unequal movement (1s are more active than the 2s) and mixers. The last one turned out to be the most problematic. David Millstone sent me a contra mixer that I liked very much, but didn't quite meet the vision that I had for the session. In the end, I decided to write my own. The weekend before, I tried it out on some willing test subjects at a dance called by Lisa Sieverts and discovered that the gents progressed and the ladies stayed in the same spot each time through. After some re-work that week, I was ready for the session. The new dance is copied down below. The session was at 11am on Saturday. I arrived a little after 10am, hoping to attend Chrissy Fowler's caller's workshop, but ran into the band in the hallway. I had worked with Calliope a couple of times before on visits to Maine, so it was nice to be familiar with them. They were putting together tune sets, so we were able to plan out the session, get the feel for each dance set and pick the tunes ahead of time. This made things very easy on stage. We started late, so to fit in 4 dances turned out to be very tight. Having the tunes picked let me focus on keeping the walkthroughs short and the dancers dancing. To be fair to the dancers, I provided a disclaimer at the beginning of the session warning them that they wouldn't see their partners too much. I even jokingly mentioned that the waltz session was across the hall if they wanted to make goo-goo eyes at their partner. 8^) Here are the dances that I called: Essex Reel duple improper Tony Parkes A1: neighbor do-si-do, neighbor swing A2: 4 in line down the hall, turn as couples and come back B1: Circle Left, Circle Right B2: Right Hand Star, Left Hand Star I had a choice between this dance and another with unequal choreography, but this one fit better with the session as a whole. No use crying over... becket mixer Chris Weiler A1: Partner balance and swing A2: Circle Left 3/4, pass thru, neighbor #2 swing B1: Long Lines (notice 3rd neighbor next to you) Neighbor #3 allemande left 1+1/2 B2: Ladies Chain Left hand star, turn away from your star and face your next partner I had some great positive feedback from a few people after the session. People did want me to call it all the way through. One person pointed out to me that there are no anchors in this dance, no partner to turn to, no shadow, nothing consistent. Another person figured out that if you mess it up, you can grab just about anyone and start over. It taxed their brains a bit, but it was early in the festival and people were up for the challenge. I had asked Calliope to play easy, happy reels for the first two dances to keep people's spirits up while doing unfamiliar choreography. Calliope loves to play jigs, so the next one they set to a nice bouncy set. I also took pity on the dancers and called some more conventional dances to finish the session. Black Bird in the Night duple improper, waves (neighbor right, ladies, left) Don Flaherty A1: balance wave, rory-o-more slide right balance wave, rory-o-more slide left A2 neighbor balance and swing B1: Ladies do-si-do 1+1/2 partner swing B2: long lines, circle left 3/4, pass thru to new waves The last dance, I asked for driving reels and Calliope picked some great rip-roaring ones! Sleepless at Pinewoods duple improper Bob Isaacs A1: Neighbor #1, pull by right, #2 pull by left, #3 pull by right #4 allemande left once #3 pull by right, #2 pull by left A2: Neighbor #1 balance and swing B1: Circle left 3/4, partner swing B2: Ladies chain, left hand star I had a lot of fun calling the session and working with Calliope. It felt great to have almost everything that I wanted to do succeed so well. I look forward to calling at more festivals in the future! I'd love to hear how other people are doing (especially the people who are newer to calling)! Happy calling and dancing!! Chris Weiler Goffstown, NH

18 years, 1 month

Re: [Callers] Star Promenade

by richgoss＠comcast.net

I do say that in the walkthrough. That's the most satisfying part of the dance in my opinion. Good point Chris, and a great dance. Rich -------------- Original message -------------- From: "Chris Page" <chriscpage(a)gmail.com> > On 4/12/07, richgoss(a)comcast.net wrote: > > Bevy of Butterflies - Bob Isaacs and Chris Page Improper > > > > A1: (Next) Gent alle left 1 1/2, Scoop up partner > > w/Partner Star prom across, butterfly twirl > > A2: Ladies gypsy right 1x > > Partner swing > > B1: R/L thru across, Ladies alle right 1 1/2 > > B2: Ladies Scoop up Neighbor (with lady's arm on top) > > Star prom, across, Neighbor swing > > > Technical note on the B2: > The original intent was > > B2: Women star promenade neighbor to other side (women's left arm > above man's right arm) [4] > Clockwise butterfly whirl [4] > Butterfly whirl melts into a neighbor swing [8] > (explaining why the woman's arm should be above) > > Who knows what folk process will do to it, though.... > > -Chris Page > San Diego > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers(a)sharedweight.net > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers

18 years, 1 month

Through the Looking Glass (was Re: Star Promenade)

by William Watson

Jeffrey, Here you go: Through the Looking Glass Wendy Greenberg REVERSED PROPER [all cross over] A1: Neighbor Same Sex Mirror Allemande 1 1/2 (ones split twos) TWOS swing [end facing down - the current neighbors] A2: In a Ring of Four, Balance, Circle Left 1/2 Partner Balance, Ones Cast Out & Down WHILE Twos Two-Hand Turn Left 1/2 B1: Ones Turn Contra Corners [Men with men corners, women with women corners!] B2: Ones Balance & Swing I got the dance directly from Wendy in Texas, perhaps at the Ted Sannella weekend where she called it in the "local callers" session. She since moved with her husband Mark to Bemidji, Minnesota. Note that they are NOT the parents of a baseball player who was hit on the head a year or so ago. (That was the first hit when I just googled Wendy.) Somehow I've never gotten around to calling the dance. Where di you happen to hear of it? William On 4/12/07, Jeffrey Petrovitch <jeffrey.petrovitch(a)verizon.net> wrote: > > Looking for some help... Looking for interesting contra dances with a > star promenades.? Also wondering if anyone has the dance sequence > "Through The Looking Glass" by Wendy Greenberg. > -- wjw1961(a)gmail.com William J. Watson

18 years, 1 month

Down East Country Dance Festival report

by Gale T. Wood

Hi Chris, Thanks for the session at DE! I really had a ball. It was good to have that session early in the day, as it required More brain power (esp. No use crying over...) an excellent Dance that I aspire to call some day (thanks for the calls) Caller needs to be on top of it all the way through. You melded well with the band.(can't go wrong with Calliope!) It was good to hear you in the Medley as well. Your calling style is evolving in a positive direction. Very enjoyable! I'm calling my 1or 2 dances (literally) a month working on timing and voicing. Refining my dance book, knocking the wheat form the chaff. Waiting for that big gig (may have to go to Saskatoon to get it ;-)) Thanks keep the good works Gale

18 years, 1 month

Compilation of 'Hey' dances, and further requests

by Jillian Hovey

Thanks to everyone who so generously sent me suggestions for easy dances to use in the fourth slot that I, as a new caller will call at our Toronto Country Dancer's dance that Bev Bernbaum will be calling next Saturday. I have attached a Word document that has all the dances, some of which are annotated with teaching notes. I have two requests: I need the details of two dances: First Hey by Paul Balliet, and "Kiss of a Lifetime" bu Peter Stix (I could not find either through an internet search. [A suggestion: Please post the info to the whole list, so once someone has sent the info, others need not bother. Thanks!] The other request is for suggestions on how to teach a hey. (I am a little bit terrified.) Please note, that I have not chosen a dance yet, but need to do so by tomorrow, so I cam open to suggestions from the list I sent (including the two above) and any other dances that you think are suitable. [Note: If I am too terrified to teach a Hey, then Bev has graciously offered that I can choose another easy dance, so I am open to suggestions on that front as well.] Thanks for 'Sharing the Weight', and helping me out! I have learned a lot from you out there in List Serve Land so far, and I am looking forward to more! Jillian Hovey Facilitator of Sustainable Community Planning and Design The Sustainable Living Network & Sustainable Living Books Toronto, Ontario, Canada 416-410-7581; fax 416-654-8917 Draft Web Sites: www.sustainablelivingnetwork.org www.sustainablelivingbooks.com www.jillianhovey.com email: jillian(a)permaculture.net

18 years, 1 month

Re: [Callers] "Mood Swings" - Sue Rosen

by richgoss＠comcast.net

Here are the moves for Mood Swings: Mood Swings - Sue Rosen Improper A1: Long lines forward and back on your way back roll away w/1/2 sashay (ladies rolling to the right of their Ns along the set) Gents allemande left 1 1/2 A2: Partner balance and swing B1: Circle left 3/4 and flatten (see note) into a 1/2 hey (Start pass N by rt sh) B2: Neighbor balance and swing After the circle left 3/4 in B1, use two counts of good connection to bring the Gents to the outside of the set facing in and the ladies to the center facing out, ready for the half hey. This action makes Mood Swings a particularly satisfying dance.

18 years, 1 month

"Mood Swings" - Sue Rosen

by Jeffrey Petrovitch

Hey Everyone! I remember "Mood Swings" by Sue Rosen, being a great contra dance, but unfortunately, I can not remember it. Can someone help? Thanks, j_petro

18 years, 1 month

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