Spotted on a video earlier today.....
A1 Circle L 3/4, N Sw
A2 N Promenade, Ladies Chain
B1 RH to N balace, N pull by R, Partner pull by L; Shadow DsD
B2 P B&S
--
Jack Mitchell
Durham, NC
Danced this Mary Cay's Reel look-alike recently--anyone know the title and
author?
(becket L)
A1: circle L 3/4
N swing
A2: llf&b
ladies alle R 3/4, next lady alle L 3/4
B1: pass P by R for full hey
B2: P B&S
Thanks!
Maia
Hi,
I thought Don had some great suggestions for a periodic open caller dance.
I helped keep Seattle's Open Band/Open Caller monthly dance going for
awhile, and really liked having a host caller. The expectation was that the
host would help keep the flow of the evening going by calling the first and
last dance of the night, and fill in with others if needed, would arrange
the order of the other callers (so more experienced callers might alternate
with newer ones). The host caller would sometimes mentor (or chose a more
experienced caller who was willing to mentor) less experienced callers:
step in if they needed advice on choosing a dance, have dances to suggest
on hand, help with band signals and knowing when to end the dance (but as
Don says - also let it be learning experience - know how much to support &
give reassurance, without taking over).
We did not do sign-ups in advance, but put out a sign-up sheet during the
potluck before the dance. It was a given that signing up to call a dance
was not necessarily an indicator of the order.
Great for you for keeping this tradition going! Hope it goes well,
Valerie
Message: 3
Date: Mon, 23 May 2016 15:31:21 -0400
From: Don Veino via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
To: Chet Gray <chetgray+sharedweight(a)gmail.com>
Cc: Don Veino via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Organizing open calling
Message-ID:
<CAAJTtiJwmrQ4xH33jh3YE+i8rWkN8_t1gZDbrLVnnnhHr_X8QA(a)mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"
Hi,
Sue Rosen generally does this for the periodic NEFFA caller nights at the
Scout House Thursday dance. The expectation there is you have your wall
clock time slots (e.g.: 7:30-7:55) and you *end* your slot on time, no
matter what happened before or during your slot. Having slots specified as
real clock time instead of elapsed time makes staying on/recovering to
schedule much easier. I appreciate/leverage her approach and have taken it
a bit more on-line.
I've done this several times for our other Scout House series. My approach
is to set up a shared Google spreadsheet with the available time slots,
names assigned to slots. Generally in the first "half" (curiously, longer
than the second :), a given caller gets two dance slots in a row and one in
the second (one caller gets the flip assignment). I have the four callers
enter two dances for each slot. One choice for "beginner heavy" and the
other for "more experienced". Having them all in one place, we can
visualize the program choices and challenge arc of the selections. The
crowd that arrives leads us to which column will be the program that night.
People can comment in the sheet and we work out most conflicts or necessary
adjustments on-line (or by phone, etc.) before the evening. Of course there
may be some tweaks that night, but having the two program difficulty
choices spelled out minimizes that.
This process typically takes about 2 weeks. Can be done in less time but
would need to be led strongly with deadlines. People (particularly at this
level) have focus on their "primary" job/life and the turnaround time on
requests and changes can take days.
Other thoughts:
- Work out who'll introduce/recognize the band, sound, etc. (easily
overdone or forgot otherwise).
- Outgoing caller introduce the next one.
- Tape a copy of the program up near the caller's mic.
- Following caller helps enforce (gently) finishing clock time of
previous caller.
- Have slop slots built into your schedule (~7 minutes first half, ~5
second - not distributed into the caller slots and ideally remaining
unused) and explicitly schedule any waltz/scandi and break(s) too.
- You're the glue in this process. Be ready to help out but also stay
back to let them work out any issues themselves - that's part of their
learning too!
Good luck!
-Don
On Mon, May 23, 2016 at 2:04 PM, Chet Gray via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Hello, all,
>
> After losing monthly open-calling evenings to venue schedule conflicts
> last year, the local contra group where I live (Louisville, KY) are
> re-implementing them on 5th-week dances (so, about four or so times a
> year). I am "organizing caller" for the first of these, next Monday, and
> I'm wondering if any of y'all have advice on coordinating an evening of
> open-calling.
>
> The extent of organization for our previous open-calling dances had been,
> essentially, callers put their name on a list and everyone hopes it works
> out, and, while this was usually serendipitous fun, it often led to
> long-running dances (both individually and for the evening overall) and
> less-than-enjoyable experiences for newer dancers. When our board was
> discussing re-starting open calling, I had recently been at the Jan Jam
> (Champaign/Urbana, IL) after party, where Lauren Peckman had coordinated
> open calling, and where I'd had the best open-calling experience?as both a
> dancer and a caller?I'd ever encountered. I suggested to our board that,
> this time around, the evenings each have an "organizing caller" to help
> ensure overall program flow, coordinate callers/dances with an eye to
> complexity/energy/time, incorporate and assist novice callers, wrangle
> callers if need be for time limits, fill in gaps in the program, have
> back-pocket dances at the ready, etc.
>
> Lo, they asked me to take a go at coordinating. Suggest a change, be the
> change, I suppose. ^_^
>
> The open calling has been announced at our weekly dances leading up, and
> tonight (a week before) I'll be asking (but not requiring) prospective
> callers to talk to me to help me get an idea for how I can best help the
> evening flow.
>
> Any suggestions/anecdotes/warnings from my more-experienced fellows would
> be greatly appreciated.
>
> ? Chet Gray
>
Hello, all,
After losing monthly open-calling evenings to venue schedule conflicts last
year, the local contra group where I live (Louisville, KY) are
re-implementing them on 5th-week dances (so, about four or so times a
year). I am "organizing caller" for the first of these, next Monday, and
I'm wondering if any of y'all have advice on coordinating an evening of
open-calling.
The extent of organization for our previous open-calling dances had been,
essentially, callers put their name on a list and everyone hopes it works
out, and, while this was usually serendipitous fun, it often led to
long-running dances (both individually and for the evening overall) and
less-than-enjoyable experiences for newer dancers. When our board was
discussing re-starting open calling, I had recently been at the Jan Jam
(Champaign/Urbana, IL) after party, where Lauren Peckman had coordinated
open calling, and where I'd had the best open-calling experience—as both a
dancer and a caller—I'd ever encountered. I suggested to our board that,
this time around, the evenings each have an "organizing caller" to help
ensure overall program flow, coordinate callers/dances with an eye to
complexity/energy/time, incorporate and assist novice callers, wrangle
callers if need be for time limits, fill in gaps in the program, have
back-pocket dances at the ready, etc.
Lo, they asked me to take a go at coordinating. Suggest a change, be the
change, I suppose. ^_^
The open calling has been announced at our weekly dances leading up, and
tonight (a week before) I'll be asking (but not requiring) prospective
callers to talk to me to help me get an idea for how I can best help the
evening flow.
Any suggestions/anecdotes/warnings from my more-experienced fellows would
be greatly appreciated.
— Chet Gray
What do folks do to ensure dance booking contacts remember that they've
booked you?
I just had my second booking in a row in a certain geography forget that
they had booked me. What's curious is that in both cases these dances
approached me by email (I could understand it maybe if it were the other
way around?), we had an exchange where we clarified the dates, etc. and
confirmed we were all set. We agreed to connect again with any final
questions on program, accommodation, etc. as we approached closer to the
date. The first case turned out to be rather comical in their confusion -
the second I can't figure out.
So, short of calling/emailing monthly, what do YOU do to ensure folks
remember their booking commitment with you?
Thanks,
Don
I've been adding Triplets into my programs in certain situations and have
given some thought about the duration to run them. I'm curious what others
have determined - how many times through do *you* run a Triplet? Let's see
if we can get a consensus value via a simple poll:
http://doodle.com/poll/yz9ubdr5e7fs4tuu
It would be helpful to me if you'd focus quantitative responses through the
poll.
Discussion or qualitative responses which inform your poll input are
welcome here in this thread.
Thanks,
Don
OK. So, hearing only crickets, I'm guessing I may be the first to try
creating a WP custom post type for dances. If I go that way, I'll share
back here.
Speaking of crickets... you might be interested in the below dance I
recently tested successfully.
Happy dancing,
Don
*Cricket's Flight - DI - Don Veino 20160320*
*A1*
(4,12) Neighbor Balance & Swing
*A2*
(8) Mad Robin - Gents into center first, left to right (CW around Neighbor)
(8) Gents Glance Around*^* LEFT 1x
*WHILE*
Ladies Orbit 1/2 CW (pass RIGHT shoulders w/adjacent set Lady)
*B1*
(8,8) Partner Glance Around*^*, Swing
*B2*
(8) LLFB
(8) Gents start Left Hands-Across Star 1x, Ladies Fall In behind P
The A2 here was inspired by Kent Koeninger's "Cricket's Delight" (
http://www.library.unh.edu/special/forms/rpdlw/syllabus2009.pdf#page=44).
*^Please, oh please*, I don't want to get the whole terms debate fired up
again and *I ask you not to* rekindle it on on the basis of this post. Given
the move is used twice here, I found myself in a quandary as to how to
annotate this dance to post it. "Glance Around" (or shortened to "Glance")
is a term I'm personally evaluating (a.k.a. Gypsy). I welcome you to
annotate/call this dance however you chose, or to ignore it, as you see fit.
On Mon, May 2, 2016 at 12:38 PM, Don Veino <sharedweight_net(a)veino.com>
wrote:
[snip]
> I'm wondering if anyone has already done the work of developing a custom
> post type and taxonomy for dances in WordPress?
>
> If not in WordPress, has anyone created a similar approach using another
> common blogging or Content Management System?
>
[/snip]
Someone in Ontario has contacted me looking for a caller of Contra and/or English dance who is part of the LGBTQ community.
This is for a one night event in August this summer, in Haliburton, Ontario, within a week-long camp for the LGBTQ community.
Contact me and I will hook you up.
Thanks!
Elizabeth Szekeres
Talent Coordinator
Toronto Contra Dance
Sent from my iPhone
Hey folks! I'm evaluating options for posting my dance compositions.
I'd like to do so in a way that provides capability for searching on
pertinent characteristics and for feedback/comments.
I could hack something together (slowly) on my main web site but I
currently also use WordPress as a blogging platform, and that already has
many of the desired features built in (search, categories, tags, comments,
anti-spam tools, etc.).
However, the generic WordPress blog post format doesn't provide a suitable
taxonomy for presenting a dance. I could just format stuff consistently
into the body of the post but I'm wondering if anyone has already done the
work of developing a custom post type and taxonomy for dances in WordPress?
If not in WordPress, has anyone created a similar approach using another
common blogging or Content Management System?
Thanks,
Don
[I'm writing this "to" Kalia because she was calling English at the Queer
Contra Dance Camp a couple of weekends ago, but then I figured other
people might find it interesting and/or useful]
Howdy Kalia,
I think I finally figured out part of the reason why I overall dislike
English despite its similarity to contra. Part of the figuring out was
teaching Postie's Jig at CALLERLAB this year. Basically, I don't have a
sense of balance, and something about the way English puts less emphasis
on giving weight makes it feel less comfortable for me. (I've got
similar issues with certain folk dances, such as Zemjo Makedonska, but
that's slow enough and repetitive enough that I can focus on balance.)
For anyone not familiar with Postie's Jig:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JVYYCx7snk4
I noticed that you did some ECD that was different from the usual turn
single, slide across, etc, and I enjoyed that a whole lot more. I don't
have problems with e.g. heys because there's enough momentum to carry me
around.
Note that my balance issues are different from most other people's
because I literally have no sense of balance (e.g. can't tell when a
hammock is swinging) and I rely on visual/kinesthetic mechanisms to
balance -- which actually gives me good functional balance when I'm
moving, but much less when I'm standing.
If you run across other people with balance issues, this analysis may
allow you to do a better job of helping them figure out what works for
them.
Thanks,
Aahz
--
Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/
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