As I overhaul my contra deck and realize that my difficulty ranking system
is super incoherent, and most of my dance rankings are from way before I
had any idea what actually makes a dance easy or hard, I've been thinking
of scrapping this difficulty ranking system and just starting over. So I
was wondering: if you rank your dances by difficulty, what is your system,
what are your benchmarks for various difficulty levels, what sorts of
things do you consider when determining the difficulty of a dance? If you DON'T
rank your dances, why not?
Cheers,
Maia
Hi folks,
In the midst of a discussion with some dancers during the break at a recent
gig, this dance sequence came up. Has anyone seen its like?
Allemandery, My Dear Watson improper
A1 1-4 (New) Nbrs alle R 1-1/2
5-8 Gents alle L 1-1/2 (end in front of and facing
Ptnr)
A2 1-4 ½ hey (PR, WL, NR, GL)
5-8 Ptnr swing
B1 1-4 Women alle R 1-1/2
5-8 Nbrs swing
B2 1-4 Balance ring; pass by Nbr (pass thru backwards)
L-shoulder and turn back L to
5-8 (Old) Nbrs alle L 1-1/2 (to next cpl)
Thanx, Ric Goldman
Hi Kalia,
As written, at the beginning of B2, folks come out of the nbr swing - 1s
below, 2s above. The balance ring gives folks a chance to reorient (1s
facing up, 2s facing down). The pass-by L (and turn L around to face the
"normal" direction) flows into the subsequent allemande L 1-1/2. Another
possible alternative for the pass-by might be a L-shoulder gypsy, which
might flow into the nbr allemande L more easily (a "gypsy/allemande
meltdown"?)
However, going the other way with a normal pass-thru and turn to the R
brings the L hands around to connect (perhaps with a clap) for the
allemande:
B2 1-4 Balance the ring; pass thru (and turn back R into)
5-8 Nbrs allemande L 1-1/2 (to new cpl...)
This avoids the counter intuitive pass-by, and while not as smooth a flow,
might be an exciting contact point for the dancers. Definitely worth
considering :-)
Thanx, Ric Goldman
-----Original Message-----
From: Callers [mailto:callers-bounces@lists.sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of
Kalia Kliban via Callers
Sent: Thursday, April 16, 2015 3:52 PM
To: Caller's discussion list
Subject: Re: [Callers] Anyone seen this sequence?
I'm not entirely clear on what's happening in B2 1-4. One possible
stumbling point, though, is that pass-throughs are almost always by the
right shoulder, so you'll need to come up with a really strong way to teach
that it's left (LEFT, no, the _other_ left).
Kalia
On 4/16/2015 3:32 PM, Ric Goldman via Callers wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> In the midst of a discussion with some dancers during the break at a
> recent gig, this dance sequence came up.Has anyone seen its like?
>
> Allemandery, My Dear Watson improper
>
> A11-4(New) Nbrs alle R 1-1/2
>
> 5-8Gents alle L 1-1/2 (end in front of and facing Ptnr)
>
> A21-4½ hey (PR, WL, NR, GL)
>
> 5-8Ptnr swing
>
> B11-4Women alle R 1-1/2
>
> 5-8Nbrs swing
>
> B21-4Balance ring; pass by Nbr (pass thru backwards) L-shoulder and
> turn back L to
>
> 5-8(Old) Nbrs alle L 1-1/2 (to next cpl)
>
> Thanx, Ric Goldman
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net
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OK, I've got a few dances here (actually more than a few but I'll start with a few) that I don't have attribution for. I'd appreciate any help, thanks!
Number 1
4 face 4
A1 Forward and back
Swing corner
A2 Heads right and left through
Sides right and left through
B1 Men star left
Do-si-do the one you swung once and a bit more to see partner
B2 Balance and swing partner
Number 2
Duple Improper
A1 Allemande right neighbor 1 1/2
With NEXT neighbor, left shoulder do-si-do once
A2 Swing original neighbor
Lines forward and back (note, this is how I took it down but in practice I would probably rather Balance and swing original here)
B1 Circle left 3/4
Swing partner
B2 Women chain
FULL and zesty square through
Number 3
Duple improper
A1 Wave balance with the MEN in the middle (left to partner, men right), men do Rory O'More move past each other to partner
Swing partner
A2 Women chain
Women pull by the right and allemande left neighbor 1X to form a wave with the women in the middle
B1 Wave balance, women Rory past each other to neighbor
Swing neighbor
B2 Pass through across the set to an ocean wave and balance (women in the middle)
Step forward and with new neighbor facing you, allemande left 1 1/2 to form a wave with the men in the middle
Number 4
Duple improper
A1 Lines forward and back
Swing neighbor
A2 4 in line down the set, turn as couples
come back up
B1 Circle left
Swing partner
B2 Men allemande left 1 1/2
Star promenade, butterfly whirl
That'll do for now. Thanks in advance!
Hi Don,
As has been said, you really need to find out what they think they
mean and what they are hoping for. As an example:
Irish people dancing Waves of Tory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JsDw57nqUrk
English people dancing Waves of Tory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1qtN-kw6Mg
Note how the timing, styling, speed are all completely different, especially
on the Dip 'n' Dive - the Irish take their time, the English rush through
it.
You need to know which they are aiming for!
Even the waltzing is different. I did a gig for an Irish group
recently, The older ladies kept demanding higher speeds - their idea of
waltz was 50% faster than the average at a contra dance!
Good luck!
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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Hi SharedWeight callers & friends
I'm a caller from RI and am fairly new to this site. I have been enjoying the informational posts on the many different issues that involve present day and past contra dancing.
In April I have been asked to call at what is being billed as an "Irish Contra Dance". Contra dancing as I know has its roots in New England and before that in English Country Dancing and French Court Dances. Unfortunately I only know one Irish contra Dance that is used at some beginner contra dances - "The Sweets of May". Are there others that have been tailored to the set style of contra dancing? Your suggestions will be gratefully received.
Cheers,
Don
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Long wave Rory O'Moore balance and slides/spins and box circulates ... in
the same dance, adjacent to one another?
I've not yet seen or danced any. Anyone have?
I have a few dances; trying one or two this week.
In dance,
Ron Blechner
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Hello all,
Last week, at our regular monthly dance for the Mad Robin Callers
Collective, we tried Ports and Starboards instead of Gents and Ladies (the
usual language for our dance). The MRCC dance is called by a collection of
callers who work together ahead of time on a program for the evening. MRCC
callers are interested in developing and honing their craft as dance
facilitators.
We had over a hundred dancers, a slightly bigger than average turn-out for
us. A majority (60~70%) of whom knew the evening was going to be called
gender free (we'd announced it at prior dances, on our flyer, and via our
e-mail list).
We had a handful of dancers who explicitly came to our dance because we
were using gender free language. We had one caller explicitly come out
because we were using gender free language.
We did not have anyone say they were avoiding our dance because of gender
free language, but I acknowledge they might not have let us know.
All six of our callers were able to make the transition to Ports and
Starboards, and didn't have any prompting slips on mic. The callers were
able to keep clear in their head which word went with which roll (ports on
the left after a swing, starboards on the right).
Starboards was not an easy word to say, but it did not seem to create
confusion with stars; possibly because stars are prompted as left hand
star, right hands across star, etc; whereas starboards was used with star
coming first in the call, starboards chain, etc.
At least one dancer had an initial confusion about port/starboard being in
reference to direction currently facing, as opposed to a property of the
room (which would be more in line with how it's used on boats).
A few dancers who have danced to armbands/barearms terminology did say that
they preferred ports/startboards. I did not hear anyone advocate a
preference for armbands/barearms.
Using different terminology for the roles did cause some added difficulty
on the floor. Not everyone was immediately able to identify themselves and
where they needed to be/what they should be doing. It also meant that our
experienced dancers were not as able to help guide new dancers on the
floor, both because they themselves were less confident, and they were less
certain of their assumptions of the role of the neighbor coming at them.
(We did not use any sort of marker for the different roles. Not out of
deliberately eschewing them, but didn't get that part put together.) I
think the average skill level of our dance as ports/starboards dancers was
below the average skill level of our dance as gents/ladies dancers; but it
would not be an insurmountable barrier to fully swap over.
The use of gender free language did not cause a large amount of folks
dancing a role different than their apparent traditional role. We had folks
swap (even mid-dance), but that happens at our dance anyway. It may have
upped it slightly, but it may have depressed it slightly as folks lost the
comfort of thinking 'I'm a man dancing the women's role' (or such) and had
to translate 'I'm usually a port currently dancing as a starboard'. That
effect would go away with long term familiarity, but we're certainly not
there yet.
We are not planning on fully swapping over our terms permanently. Next
month, we'll return to using gents & ladies as our terms. However, we (the
callers and the dancers) are entertaining thoughts of having a dance in the
evening called gender free, possibly exploring the different label options,
and/or possibly developing a catalog of dances that don't require gender
differentiation (no neighbor swings, gents allemands, ladies chains, etc).
Personally, I'm happy that we brought a few folks out to the dance that
wouldn't have come otherwise. Maybe they'll come back even if we use
gendered language in the future. Maybe they'll start a gender free dance. I
think there were also some on-the-floor discussions of gender and role and
identity, and I have no report of any of those being negative experiences.
For our community, I'd call it a success.
Happy Dancing,
Luke Donforth
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