I had a Girl Scout Dance coming up Sunday and I was thinking how I would
get 150 six to nine year old girls to know which hand was right and which
hand is left. On the way to my contra calling gig on Saturday, the thought
arose that right hand sounds very close to red hand. On the way to the
Scout Dance, I stopped and purchased scissors and some red ribbon (the
store did not carry yarn) and asked that the leaders tie a red ribbon
bracelet around each scout as they entered the hall. When I called dances
with arm turns I called, "Turn your partner with your red hand, change
hands, other way back." It worked so well that I know I will do it again.
I thought I would share this trick, and then ask if anyone has useful
methods when working with only children. Please share some trade secrets.
Rich Sbardella
Stafford, CT
Hi Maia,
A balance, ideally, is first toward, then away from, the dancer with whom one is about to interact, and even better if it is in, then against, the flow of movement. Even better if the choreography does the work for you by flowing into the balance.
In this particular dance, you have the best of all worlds, but I slightly disagree with your preference.
The Allemande R has everyone flowing forward. The flow of the Allemande L is also, fundamentally, forward. In my opinion, a balance (gently) forward, and back, is ideal. The choreography helps a little with a left first lean as you reach for the next person's L hand. But in this case, I think the safe teach is for both balances to be forward and back. Noting before you say F&B, that body flow is supported by that choice helps mark it in people's minds. To further get people's minds away from the R balance, I'd not say R after the word balance at all, even if you decide to go for L instead of back.. You want them to only have in their heads words which reinforce the movement you want. Well worth the extra moment to emphasize the gathering of LEFT hands with the next, and letting the body flow of the forward movement of the first Allemande to go into the balance Fwd.
if the following move had been, for example, a Rory o More, I would have completely agreed with the L balance, FWIW. Body flow is partly there getting in, and the person you are interacting with and eventually moving past is on the L.
Good question.
Best,
Andrea
Sent from my external brain
Accidentally sent only to Maia.
Sent from my iPad
Begin forwarded message:
> From: "Winston, Alan P." <winston(a)slac.stanford.edu>
> Date: November 8, 2017 at 11:30:06 AM PST
> To: Maia McCormick <maia.mcc(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Balancing LEFT in a wave?
>
> I would say the potential unidiomaticness of the balance left is *very high*. In a regular Rory O’More kind of balance R&L, slide R, balance L&R, slide L, I always see a quarter to an eighth of the dancers balance right first both times. (I can get it down a lot by pointing out that you always balance to the same person first, but very rarely can get everybody.).
>
> So as you saw, if you try to overcome the “right first” balance you’re really fighting the tide, and it’s going to be a lot of work.
>
> In the particular case you describe I’d think you’d do a lot better (both for flow of the dance and for getting the dancers to do what you tell them) to strongly suggest they balance forward and back to set up the allemande rather than L&R *or* R&L.
>
> That said, to answer what you specifically asked, I agree that L&R makes more sense than R&L, but I don’t think it’s a *lot* more sense (that is, R&L isn’t even close to fatal) , and it’s not the hill I’d choose to die on.
>
> -- Alan
> From: Callers <callers-bounces(a)lists.sharedweight.net> on behalf of Maia McCormick via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
> Sent: Wednesday, November 8, 2017 11:07:20 AM
> To: callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> Subject: [Callers] Balancing LEFT in a wave?
>
> Recently called a dance with an allemande R into long waves, balance wave, allemande L. Because of personal preference, I taught the balance as "balance left, then right", but cuz I didn't teach it all that clearly, the dancers defaulted back into balancing right first, and enough tricky stuff was happening in the dance that I didn't wanna correct them in flight.
>
> I'm just wondering: do others agree that a balance left makes more sense / flows better in this context, or is this a weird personal preference? In your opinion, does the flow of the balance left outweigh its potential unidiomaticness?
>
> Cheers,
> Maia
So after a gig, I find myself haunted by one or two missteps from an
evening — the rolling start that was a little muddy, the thing I didn’t
teach clearly enough so the dancers never quite got it — even though the
dancers adjusted and all had a good time, and I still had the hall’s trust
and goodwill at the end of the evening.
Is this a familiar experience for anyone? Assuming you’ve already learned
the lesson to be learned there, how do you move past it and stop
self-flagellating?Would love to hear some people’s thoughts!
Cheers,
Maia
Hi, Luke
I surf the web regularly for new-to-me choreography. When I do, I almost
always am looking up the collection of a choreographer I just heard of,
met, or whose choreography I just encountered at an event. In this case, I
look through the whole collection and pick out the ones that fit my
repertoire. As such, it is not typically important to me to see
categories, though perhaps a published date might be helpful if I am
returning to your collection after having gone through it in the past.
However, when I was a new caller, it seemed so hard to collect dances with
particular figures, transitions, orientations, or whatever, so those kinds
of categories would have been more useful to me years ago and thus may be
useful to many others now.
Hope this info is helpful!
Dugan Murphy
Portland, Maine
dugan at duganmurphy.comwww.DuganMurphy.comwww.PortlandIntownContraDance.comwww.NufSed.consulting
> From: Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com>
> Subject: [Callers] Publishing dances on the web
>
> Hi Folks,
>
> I currently have a terrible system for publishing dances I've written on
> the web (blog-esque thing in wordpress; really hard to search through).
> There's been talk on and off of a big database of dances, but that doesn't
> seem to be happening so I thought I should do something for mine.
>
> I'm contemplating better ways of making dances my compositions more
> accessible; and since that would be for other people, I'm curious what's
> useful for other people.
>
> I'm envisioning four categories of dances; and then just lists of dances
> (title & sequence) on those pages. The categories I had in mind:
> Family dances
> Glossary contras
> Unique contras
> Odd formations
>
> Are there separate things you'd want to see in a list of dances when you're
> going through? Beckets, Closing dances, bouncy/smooth, etc.
>
> I've gotten really attached to Callers Companion (
> http://callerscompanion.com/), and really like how it lets searches happen
> on dances. Anyone have a good way to incorporate that, or the type of
> element checklist/flag it provides, into a web-based interface for dances?
>
> It might also be that most folks don't collect dances from websites; and
> this is wasted time. But it does seem like I've obfuscated finding my
> compositions, and I regret not making them more available.
>
> Thoughts, opinions, experience, and advice appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Luke Donforth
> Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com
>
I'm sure every caller has been there, just as every dancer was once new and stumbling, and no matter how long we've been doing it, every one of us will make mistakes. You will take stock, and try to note patterns and correct them. But striving for perfect is never going to result in being perfect. I have come to believe the thing to strive for, in each moment, is joy. In the moment of a mistake, if your forever goal is joy, you will automatically reach for your smile, your humor, the sparkle inside yourself, and share it with the dancers, and instead of you or anyone feeling bad, people will remember the spark, the warmth, that kept things spinning along. If you catch yourself mid-flogging, you might could laugh at yourself for such a silly choice, and give yourself permission to think instead of a moment when you knew the dancers and band were all with you and that synergy was happening and be glad you could be part of it.
I have had to do a lot of self reflection as a result of things going badly when I'm on mic. I have realized some profound things about myself as a result of thinking about my patterns as a caller. They aren't just applicable in calling, but are one instance, in a big public forum, of patterns I have been acting out in all areas of my life forever. Yep. I'm working on them still, not just on stage, but all the time. I think it's finally making a difference. Those learning opportunities may go deeper than you think. And the beating up only increases the chances of repeating the mistakes, or reacting negatively to new mistakes. When you pick up the mic, reach inside for your place of joy, and share it. Enjoy your work in progress.
-Andrea
Sent from my external brain
Hi Luke,
Have you seen Chris Page’s website? I like that he states which he feels are tested, edited, and are tried and true.
I love seeing new choreography but only want to collect things I’ve danced and know feel good, or dance that the choreographer or another caller can say that it works and dancers liked it.
Maybe within those categories you listed, if you also assigned difficulty levels, that would be helpful.
It would be great to know what uses the dances have proven best for?
Looking forward to seeing what you create!
Claire Takemori
SF Bay Area
Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2017 23:26:15 -0400
From: Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com <mailto:luke.donev@gmail.com>>
To: "Callers(a)Lists.Sharedweight.net <mailto:Callers@Lists.Sharedweight.net>" <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net <mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net>>
Subject: [Callers] Publishing dances on the web
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Hi Folks,
I currently have a terrible system for publishing dances I've written on
the web (blog-esque thing in wordpress; really hard to search through).
There's been talk on and off of a big database of dances, but that doesn't
seem to be happening so I thought I should do something for mine.
I'm contemplating better ways of making dances my compositions more
accessible; and since that would be for other people, I'm curious what's
useful for other people.
I'm envisioning four categories of dances; and then just lists of dances
(title & sequence) on those pages. The categories I had in mind:
Family dances
Glossary contras
Unique contras
Odd formations
Are there separate things you'd want to see in a list of dances when you're
going through? Beckets, Closing dances, bouncy/smooth, etc.
I've gotten really attached to Callers Companion (
http://callerscompanion.com/ <http://callerscompanion.com/>), and really like how it lets searches happen
on dances. Anyone have a good way to incorporate that, or the type of
element checklist/flag it provides, into a web-based interface for dances?
It might also be that most folks don't collect dances from websites; and
this is wasted time. But it does seem like I've obfuscated finding my
compositions, and I regret not making them more available.
Thoughts, opinions, experience, and advice appreciated.
Thanks!
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <mailto:Luke.Donforth@gmail.com> <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com <mailto:Luke.Donev@gmail.com>>
Hi Folks,
I currently have a terrible system for publishing dances I've written on
the web (blog-esque thing in wordpress; really hard to search through).
There's been talk on and off of a big database of dances, but that doesn't
seem to be happening so I thought I should do something for mine.
I'm contemplating better ways of making dances my compositions more
accessible; and since that would be for other people, I'm curious what's
useful for other people.
I'm envisioning four categories of dances; and then just lists of dances
(title & sequence) on those pages. The categories I had in mind:
Family dances
Glossary contras
Unique contras
Odd formations
Are there separate things you'd want to see in a list of dances when you're
going through? Beckets, Closing dances, bouncy/smooth, etc.
I've gotten really attached to Callers Companion (
http://callerscompanion.com/), and really like how it lets searches happen
on dances. Anyone have a good way to incorporate that, or the type of
element checklist/flag it provides, into a web-based interface for dances?
It might also be that most folks don't collect dances from websites; and
this is wasted time. But it does seem like I've obfuscated finding my
compositions, and I regret not making them more available.
Thoughts, opinions, experience, and advice appreciated.
Thanks!
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
I am interested in having recorded music to take with me to a class or possibly even a dance where there are no musicians. If I were to load music and callers companion onto a device which one(s) would be good to consider? Maybe I would only be able to load one or the other. I have taken my laptop for music to play through a speaker. I have never used callers companion and would like to try that.
Suggestions?
ThanksPat Reeser
