Contra Callers

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15 participants
4407 discussions

by John Sweeney via Callers

Aahz said, "Bob Elling likes to point out that there is in fact a sashay that basically is a reversed Mad Robin". Hmmm... not sure what he meant by a "reversed Mad Robin". He can't be talking about the original Mad Robin, as the move in that dance involves casts. And the modern contra version of the Mad Robin move doesn't have an implicit direction for you to reverse! Those Mad Robins can go clockwise around the person beside you or counter-clockwise. I guess he meant, "a sashay that basically is counter-clockwise Mad Robin" - MWSD half sashays are always counter-clockwise. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

10 years, 2 months

Re: [Callers] Misplaced a dance...

by April Blum via Callers

I called it in Baltimore last Wednesday. It's helpful to tell the ladies that the first chain is to a shadow. April Blum On Aug 24, 2015 10:06 AM, Jeremy Gmail via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > > I’m not sure if our American friends will realise it, but the name is a pun on the “Vickers Machine Gun”, one of the main weapons used by the British Army in the First World War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_machine_gun). > > > > Jeremy > > > > > > From: Callers [mailto:callers-bounces@lists.sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Edmund Croft via Callers > Sent: 17 August 2015 22:58 > To: callers(a)sharedweight.net > Subject: [Callers] Misplaced a dance... > > > > Valerie Young is looking for a dance featuring ladies' chains all over the place, then circles and pass thrus to get your partner back. As she came across it in the USA, it's unlikely to be the one I know, which is by ex- Cambridge (UK) dancer/choreographer Jacob Steel, unless someone exported it, having danced it at the Inter-Varsity Folk Dance Festival. > > > > The story Jacob uses for this one is that clergy are not permitted to use certain sorts of weapon, so this particular gun fires ladies rather than bullets: > > > > THE VICAR’S MACHINE GUN (R32) Becket Jacob Steel > 1-8 Circle left ¾ and pass through up and down > Circle left ½ and the men roll their neighbour across to change places > 9-16 Ladies chain on the right diagonal. LCh across > 17-24 LCh on the left diagonal. Ladies pass RSh into half a reel of 4 across > 25-32 Balance and swing partner. > > > > Edmund Croft, > > Cambridge Folk of various sorts

10 years, 2 months

Re: [Callers] Misplaced a dance...

by Jeremy Gmail via Callers

Im not sure if our American friends will realise it, but the name is a pun on the Vickers Machine Gun, one of the main weapons used by the British Army in the First World War (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vickers_machine_gun). Jeremy From: Callers [mailto:callers-bounces@lists.sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Edmund Croft via Callers Sent: 17 August 2015 22:58 To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Misplaced a dance... Valerie Young is looking for a dance featuring ladies' chains all over the place, then circles and pass thrus to get your partner back. As she came across it in the USA, it's unlikely to be the one I know, which is by ex- Cambridge (UK) dancer/choreographer Jacob Steel, unless someone exported it, having danced it at the Inter-Varsity Folk Dance Festival. The story Jacob uses for this one is that clergy are not permitted to use certain sorts of weapon, so this particular gun fires ladies rather than bullets: THE VICARS MACHINE GUN (R32) Becket Jacob Steel 1-8 Circle left ¾ and pass through up and down Circle left ½ and the men roll their neighbour across to change places 9-16 Ladies chain on the right diagonal. LCh across 17-24 LCh on the left diagonal. Ladies pass RSh into half a reel of 4 across 25-32 Balance and swing partner. Edmund Croft, Cambridge Folk of various sorts

10 years, 2 months

Family dance questions

by Claire Takemori via Callers

Thank you for all the replies so far ! One other question, What are the key elements/movements that you would emphasize teaching with kids? giving weight, hearing the music beats, swing, star, do si do, allemande...... ? And I don't think they will do ballroom swing, so which swing is easy and fun for kids? 2 hands crossed? or right elbows? Thank you so much for your help! claire

10 years, 3 months

Family dance questions

by John Sweeney via Callers

Yes, the spiral is traditional! It is part of the Grand March which goes back at least a couple of centuries. I call a Grand March by leading it, with my wife. I wear a wireless head mike so my hands are free. We just start promenading around the dance-floor encouraging everyone to follow us. For the stationary Arbor/Tunnel, once I have got couples making arches I drop out and go to the end to start leading people single-file through the tunnel. When we get to the March By Platoons (2s, 4,s 8s) my wife goes to the bottom of the hall to direct the joinings, while I stay at the top to direct the alternate directions. We find linking elbows makes the best lines - they are more compact for the turns at the bottom of the hall. I use the longest march/reel track I have at around 116 to 120 bpm - a good walking speed, or tell the band to keep playing. It works with any group. I often finish in a circle with Everyone into the middle Ladies in and clap Men in and clap Swing your partner There are a number of references here: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/dihtml/dihome.html Search for "grand march" For example, select "Prof. M. J. Koncen's quadrille call book and ball room guide" View text Turn to Page 15 You get descriptions of all these Grand March figures: The Serpentine (Spiral) By Platoons (2s, 4s, 8s) In Column (Zig Zags) In Single File The Arbor (Tunnels) We quite often do The Arbor as a two-handed tunnel, then I take one member of the rearmost couple by the hand and start a single file line up through the Arbor - that leaves us in a single file ready for The Serpentine. You can also do The Arbor with the arching couples moving back over the other couples - single-handed arches work best then. When you finish By Platoons in lines of 8 or 16 across you take the left hand person of the front line by the hand and lead the front line across the front of the line then weave down between the lines, telling each left-hand end person to join the end of the line when it reaches them. If they have lots of energy I get them all doing step-kicks in the lines while waiting. The following video shows a classic Grand March: http://www.walternelson.com/dr/grand-march One version of a Grand March is described here: http://www.dancingmasters.com/workshops/downloads/GrandMarch.pdf I wouldn't use the chorus described, but it has nice description of a Serpentine/Spiral variant - that random tunneling is the only move I would be careful with if the group is inexperienced. Another short section of Grand Marching is at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HNHLBUi6d-w from 3:43 Hope that helps. ☺ Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent

10 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] Family dance questions

by Bree Kalb via Callers

10 years, 3 months

Family dance questions

by Claire Takemori via Callers

I want to learn to call & share family dances with more kids to spread folk music and dancing in our area (SF bay area, near Santa Cruz). I've got an opportunity to teach dances for my son's nature class. It will range in age from 5 to 15 years. There's an option to work with just 8 years and up for some or all of the dancing. My questions: 1. Can you recommend some really fun dances for starting out? The first couple have be great so I can win them over with fun. 2. I'm wondering how vital music is to the success? I think really great live music is a major part of my joy of contra dancing. We are not allowed to use electrical amplification. I'm wondering if I could use a single fiddler? And how do I locate a local fiddler who might volunteer playing? Maybe a talented youth? 3. I won't have a mic and will have to use a bullhorn. Any advice? I don't have a naturally loud voice, but do sing so I know about projection and belly breathing. 4. They are thinking of 8 consecutive weeks, once a week for 15-30 minutes (before nature classes head out hiking). Is 8 weeks a good initial exposure? How long should each session last, 30 minutes? 5. We might culminate with a "field trip" to a local barn dance. Any advice for the preparation for that? Thanks for any advice! claire takemori

10 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] [Musicians] worthiness of a tune for contra?

by Erik Hoffman via Callers

I, too, had no trouble hearing phrases of 4-beats, 8-beats, and the major parts. (In music speak: 2-bar phrases, 4-bar phrases, and 8-bar parts.) I would have no trouble calling to either tune in that video. Thus, I'm also curious about what makes it hard to hear, for those of you who have trouble with it. ~erik hoffman oakland, ca On 7/30/2015 6:52 PM, James Saxe via Musicians wrote: > After Emily Addison asked about the tunes in this video > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2DkJQ9xNGuU > > several people commented that they found the phrasing of > the jig (Jim Rumboldt's Tune) deceptive. I'm curious to > know what any of you--or other list members--think after > listening to it at 1.25x speed, as described in my previous > message (quoted below). > > I did a little searching for other videos of the tune. > This one > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rx_E3qeZAfQ > > is played at about 165 bpm. If it were played at a > normal contra tempo and with a clear four-beat intro, but > otherwise in the same style as in the video, I think it > would be fine for dancing. Yes, there are a couple places > where, if I started the video at a random point in the > tune, I could momentarily wonder whether a particular note > was a pick-up note or the true beat 1 of a new phrase. > But, to my ear, there are enough other places where the > phrasing is quite clear so that it's not a problem. I'd > be interested in reading other people's reactions. > > I found another rendition starting about 3:15 in this > video > > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCnFlmrN1mk > > with tempo in the high 140s. I can't make sense of > the phrasing in this one at all. It seems to me it's a > different, and genuinely crooked, variant of the tune. > Does anyone disagree. > > After watching that last video, I tried searching for abc > notation or pdfs of sheet music or tablature to see whether > I'd find notation for different versions--straight vs. > crooked--of the tune. So far, however, I haven't turned > up any notation at all. > > --Jim > >> On Jul 30, 2015, at 1:58 AM, James Saxe <jim.saxe(a)gmail.com> wrote: >> >> I'm a mere caller and pretty much a musical muggle, but >> here are some observations about the jig for what they're >> worth. >> >> First off, in the video the jig is played at about 93 or 94 >> beats per minute (based on my stopwatch timing, which also >> appears to agree closely with the YouTube time counter). >> You might get a better idea of how it would sound as a dance >> tuen by playing it at 1.25x speed. (Click on the gear-shaped >> "Settings" button near the lower right of the YouTube video >> frame; then click on the Speed box (typically defaulting >> to "Normal"); then click "1.25" in the menu that pops up. >> YouTube should then play at 1.25x normal speed but with the >> audio pitch-shifted back down to normal pitch.) > <remainder snipped> > > > _______________________________________________ > Musicians mailing list > Musicians(a)lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/musicians-sharedweight.net > > >

10 years, 3 months

Re: [Callers] "Flash Mob" dances

by Claire Takemori via Callers

Alan, I went to the demo contra last year. I had only been doing contra for a year and found it a little intimidating to ask strangers out of the crowd to join us. For me, it would've been great to add in the FB announcement a little blurb about having experienced dancers ask the crowd to join before each dance. That way those of us who might be intimidated by that can prepare a little mentally for the task..... I love the ideas Linda wrote for an initial crowd gathering technique. I'd also really LOVE to do a REAL flash mob contra sometime, and maybe we can get someone to do a nice video for BACDS. Could be a fabulous promo. It would be cool to start with a violin and 2 couples , then have folks/musicians dribble in by 1s or 2s. Obviously everyone knows the first dance by heart already. Then the caller comes at the end to start a new dance! Thanks for doing that again Alan! Looks like a great time. Claire Takemori Message: 1 Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2015 20:52:13 -0700 From: Alan Winston via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> To: <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Subject: [Callers] "Flash Mob" dances Message-ID: <55B5AAED.4020808(a)slac.stanford.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"; format=flowed Over in San Jose we've just done a second annual not-really-flash-mob dance. Symphony Silicon Valley does a free public series of Pops concerts, get permission from them, pick one, get a bunch of volunteer dancers and a pickup band, print up some flyers and put up a sign with the sponsoring organization logo and URL, We put up a sign with the name of the organization, set up in the path of foot traffic to the concert spot, and do an hour and a half (or so) of easy contra dances, encouraging passersby to join in and hooking them up with more-experienced partners. This is successful in terms of getting some exposure, and today we got somewhere between a half-dozen and a dozen new people to actually try it, and probably moved 25 flyers. Nobody got hurt, some of the dancers stayed for several dances, etc. We flushed out some old square dancers (who of course wanted to swing once around and wait for the next call) and some previous non-dancers of various ages. (I was calling. First round was missing many volunteer dancers and had multiple newbies, so I did a one-night-stand dance ("Up the Sides and Down the Middle") rather than a duple-minor contra; then Cranky Ingenuity, Inflation Reel, Kitchen Stomp, and Delphiniums and Daisies.) Posting to ask if people who've done this kind of thing have any tips or tricks to get things going. As caller I relied on my volunteer dancers to do the recruiting, and people had different comfort and skill levels doing that. Is there something I can tell them that will increase their comfort in talking to strangers? Thanks! -- Alan

10 years, 3 months

"Flash Mob" dances

by Alan Winston via Callers

Over in San Jose we've just done a second annual not-really-flash-mob dance. Symphony Silicon Valley does a free public series of Pops concerts, get permission from them, pick one, get a bunch of volunteer dancers and a pickup band, print up some flyers and put up a sign with the sponsoring organization logo and URL, We put up a sign with the name of the organization, set up in the path of foot traffic to the concert spot, and do an hour and a half (or so) of easy contra dances, encouraging passersby to join in and hooking them up with more-experienced partners. This is successful in terms of getting some exposure, and today we got somewhere between a half-dozen and a dozen new people to actually try it, and probably moved 25 flyers. Nobody got hurt, some of the dancers stayed for several dances, etc. We flushed out some old square dancers (who of course wanted to swing once around and wait for the next call) and some previous non-dancers of various ages. (I was calling. First round was missing many volunteer dancers and had multiple newbies, so I did a one-night-stand dance ("Up the Sides and Down the Middle") rather than a duple-minor contra; then Cranky Ingenuity, Inflation Reel, Kitchen Stomp, and Delphiniums and Daisies.) Posting to ask if people who've done this kind of thing have any tips or tricks to get things going. As caller I relied on my volunteer dancers to do the recruiting, and people had different comfort and skill levels doing that. Is there something I can tell them that will increase their comfort in talking to strangers? Thanks! -- Alan

10 years, 3 months

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Contra Callers