Hi all
I have a question about two different styles of techno contra. The
question is mostly directed at folks who have done both, since I'm
curious about whether you have a preference and if so, why. Some techno
contras have continuous music -- the dancers just drop in or out at the
bottom whenever they feel like it, and the caller treats the night like
one long medley. The other kind is more like a regular contra. The
caller teaches a dance, the music starts, the dance runs for however
long it runs, and then it stops and folks re-partner for the next one.
As a dancer, which style do you prefer? How about as a caller?
Kalia
> Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2013 18:01:13 -0800
> From: Alan Winston <winston(a)slac.stanford.edu>
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Fw: Creating a CDSS dance depository
> Message-ID: <52A918E9.6090708(a)slac.stanford.edu>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed
>
> On 12/11/2013 5:35 PM, Chris Lahey wrote:
>> You're absolutely right that something like that could go up fairly
>> quickly. I'm just afraid that it would take away from the possibility
>> of something much more useful, though harder to obtain. I don't think
>> it's forking the discussion to discuss whether this is a good idea.
> Fair enough.
>
> I've witnessed a number of volunteer web things things that never got
> off the ground at all because the requirements snowballed to the point
> where it would be really hard to get started. I've now come around to
> the position that sometimes, given limited time and resources, and when
> one isn't working on life-critical projects, it's worth figuring out
> what the minimum effort to do something useful would be, with the idea
> that once something is useful it will be easier to find more resources,
> and if you get bogged down you've at least got something useful.
>
> So that's my bias in this discussion.
>
> -- Alan
Good point Alan.
It would be worth asking CDSS whether they are interested in officially supporting this effort in some way, perhaps even with resources - an intern??
Also it is worth thinking about the purpose of this database. I see two different distinctly different important ones:
- one is to provide a comprehensive historical archive of dances.
- the other is to provide good information to new callers to help them become better callers. I believe that Contra Dancing is going to get to be more popular and as a result there is going to be the need for more callers. A good database with demos, notations, etc. would help.
Compatibility with Caller's Companion would be valuable for this purpose.
Tica Tica Timing was written by our own Dean Snipes here in Charlotte NC. Glad to see it spreading across the country. It's a great dance.
Sent from my iPhone
> On Apr 4, 2014, at 12:00 PM, callers-request(a)sharedweight.net wrote:
>
> Send Callers mailing list submissions to
> callers(a)sharedweight.net
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> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Looking for 2 dances (tallygal007)
> 2. Re: Looking for 2 dances (Linda Leslie)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Thu, 03 Apr 2014 13:19:36 -0400
> From: tallygal007 <tallygal007(a)yahoo.com>
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Subject: [Callers] Looking for 2 dances
> Message-ID: <523ue89a7ai1cql18lpqbj0f.1396545576389(a)email.android.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8
>
> Would someone care to share with me the following 2 dances:
>
> Tika Tika Timing by Ron Buchanan and
> Old Time Elixir #2 by Linda Leslie
>
> Thank you!
>
> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Thu, 3 Apr 2014 13:29:08 -0400
> From: Linda Leslie <laleslierjg(a)comcast.net>
> To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Looking for 2 dances
> Message-ID: <C10E1B51-DE47-45EF-B9AD-CEEE978B13C5(a)comcast.net>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed;
> delsp=yes
>
> Happy to give you the dance! I have Tika Tika Timing as being written
> by Dean Snipes...and not sure who wrote the dance first..
> Linda
>
> Old Time Elixir #2
> Linda Leslie
> Type: Contra
> Formation: Becket-CW
> Level: Easy
> Music: Ross? Reel, Frenchies
>
> A1 -----------
> Circle left three-quarters
> Neighbor Swing
> A2 -----------
> Right and left Through (or promenade)
> Ladies Chain (to partner)
> B1 -----------
> Ring Balance, Pet Twirl
> Ring Balance, Pet Twirl
> B2 -----------
> Partner Balance and Swing (look of the left diagonal for new cpl)
>
> Other Notes: Same dance written by Dean Snipes, and called Tica Tica
> Timing not sure who wrote their first.
>
>
>> On Apr 3, 2014, at 1:19 PM, tallygal007 wrote:
>>
>> Would someone care to share with me the following 2 dances:
>>
>> Tika Tika Timing by Ron Buchanan and
>> Old Time Elixir #2 by Linda Leslie
>>
>> Thank you!
>>
>> Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
>> _______________________________________________
>> Callers mailing list
>> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
>> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
>
> End of Callers Digest, Vol 116, Issue 1
> ***************************************
Hi All,
As probably most of you guessed, I errently sent my aunt's address. It
was intended for my family members. The perils of trying to do something
too quickly...
Sorry,
~erik hoffman
Would someone care to share with me the following 2 dances:
Tika Tika Timing by Ron Buchanan and
Old Time Elixir #2 by Linda Leslie
Thank you!
Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone
First, a note: Ralph Page's Heritage Dances of Early America contains
dances with publication dates from 1788 to 1817, relying heavily on the
Saltator manuscript of 1807. It was indeed published in 1976, by the Lloyd
Shaw Foundation.
As for teaching Colonial Dance to children, here are the main points:
1. Chip Hendrickson's book Colonial Social Dancing for Children (CSDfC)
spells out how Chip would have presented colonial dance in a school setting
over a course of six lessons.
2. CSDfC was expanded from Chip's earlier book, A Colonial Dancing
Experience (CDE), which is long out of print. While the additional
material in CSDfC is valuable, CDE explains how to teach colonial era
footwork a bit more concisely. The one-session colonial dance workshops
that my wife and I bring into schools are based heavily upon the program
outlined in CDE. (More information about them is available at
www.dancehistoryalive.com)
3. Neither CSDfC nor CDE suggests that it is possible to teach an authentic
triple minor progression contra to school children in a small number of
lessons. The adapted "colonial style" dances which are suggested for
children are mostly four-couple whole set longways dances, with the top
couple moving to the bottom of the set at the end of the dance. CSDfC also
has some three couple longways dances where the first couple dances a
figure with the second couple, goes down the center, return and cast off,
and then does the same figure with the third couple, and the new couple at
the top starts the dance the next time through. CSDfC has true duple minor
contras introduced in the fifth of the six lessons. I had a third grade
group last year that I was able to do a second session with, and I
successfully did a duple minor contra with them in the second session, but
it was a duple minor with a progression that was both understandable and
forgiving: towards the couple below forward and back, pass through and bow
to the new couple you meet.
4. Rich, Patricia Campbell has also taught colonial dance based on Chip's
program. If you're going to the get-together at her place tomorrow, ask
her about it. (I won't be able to make it this year.)
5. Every book of carefully researched colonial dances has to rely on the
only available printed sources about dance of the period, and those
sources, whether books written by dancing masters or notes taken by the
students of dancing masters about the dances they had learned, are talking
about dancing as taught by people who new what was the latest fashion to
people with the money to learn the most fashionable dances. This leaves
open the question of what kind of dancing was being done out in the country
by people who had never taken lessons. Dudley Laufman has written his
opinion on that subject on a web page on his site, at
http://old.laufman.org/Schools.htm Other authorities claim that the
common people would have danced cut-out reels, meaning that they would have
done a hey for four, stopping sometimes to do footing steps to one of the
other dancers, and with new people taking the place of one of the dancers
when they felt like getting into the dance.
My own colonial dance workshops consist of a brief explanation to the
students of why they would have wanted to learn to dance if they had lived
in colonila times, teaching set, balance, beaten step, rigadoon, and
chassee steps, getting the students into four couple longways sets and
teaching a whole-set longways dance that lets them practice the footwork,
and then teaching a colonial-era singing game.
I hope that's of use to you.
Jacob Bloom
Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2014 23:36:14 -0400
> From: Jacob Nancy Bloom <jandnbloom(a)gmail.com>
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 115, Issue 11
> Message-ID:
> <CAJPS8NjHDP=tJXqotMDojPJu=
> ra1kp0vE0bjLgFpMXGiOabFKw(a)mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
> I have much experience teaching the Colonial Social Dances for Children
> program. I'll try to write something about it tomorrow.
>
> By the way, Rich, are you in the Old Sturbridge Village dancers? Art
> Martin asked me about 'Barrel of Sugar' the same day you posted your
> question about it here. We danced it that night at the Wayside Inn but I
> came down with a very nasty bug the next day and I'm still recovering from
> it.
>
> Jacob
>
>
> On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 12:00 PM, <callers-request(a)sharedweight.net>
> wrote:
>
> > Message: 1
> > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:15:11 -0700
> > From: James Saxe <jim.saxe(a)gmail.com>
> > To: rich sbardella <richsbardella(a)snet.net>, Caller's discussion list
> > <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> > Subject:
>
> Re: [Callers] 1820s-1830s Dances
> > Message-ID: <FCD608B4-FC13-4615-823F-D5D05E048DEB(a)gmail.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed;
> > delsp=yes
> >
> > Rich,
> >
> > Two books come to mind that might have material somewhat relevant
> > to your request, though not exactly on target: _Heritage Dances of
> > Early America_ by Ralph Page (abbreviated HDoEA below) and _Colonial
> > Social Dancing for Children: Social Dancing of Washington?s Time
> > arranged for Today?s Young People_ by Charles Cyril ("Chip")
> > Hendrickson [CSDfC below]. Here's a little more information about
> > them, with the caveat that I don't have my copy of either book at
> > hand and my memory may be faulty on some of the details.
> >
> > * * * * * * * * * *
> >
> > HDoEA was published in or about 1976 by the Lloyd Shaw Foundation.
> > It appears to be out of print. It's indexed in Michael Dyck's
> > contra dance index, and many of the dances in it (or versions of
> > them) appear in other sources. You can find them by going to
> >
> > http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/index/by_title.html
> >
> > and searching for the string "HDoEA". (The page
> >
> > http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/index/sources.html
> >
> > is a key to the source abbreviations.)
> >
> > IIRC, the dances in HDoEA are from sources dating from the 1790s
> > through the first decade or two of the 1800's, so a little earlier
> > the period you asked about, though some may have remained popular
> > for some time after. All or almost all are longways triple minors,
> > though some might be of the sort that are readily adapted to duple
> > minor form. For each dance, Page give both the description as it
> > appeared in the original source and an interpretation in modern
> > terminology.
> >
> > The part about being "easy enough for children" could be
> > problematical to say the least, for reasons that will be evident
> > to anyone who has tried teaching relatively "easy" contras to
> > groups (whether children or adults) where almost all are unfamiliar
> > with how progression works, dancing to the phrase, etc. Even
> > experienced contemporary contra dancers could have difficulties
> > with things like triple-minor progression, right-and-left four
> > from proper position (in communities where older dances like
> > "Petronella" and "Hull's Victory" have disappeared from repertoire),
> > crossover heys for three, or choreography that asks you to turn a
> > four-person star just halfway around in eight beats.
> >
> > * * * * * * * * * *
> >
> > CSDfC and a companion CD appear to be currently available from the
> > Colonial Music Institute
> >
> > http://www.colonialmusic.org/CSD-bkcd.htm
> >
> > As the title implies, the book is specifically oriented to
> > presenting the material to children. But (without having the
> > book at hand to refresh my memory) I'm pretty sure it's mainly
> > about situations where the material can be presented over multiple
> > sessions and not just a single afternoon or evening.
> >
> > I have essentially no experience teaching/leading dance for
> > children (except for occasions when a small number of children
> > show up among a mostly-adult group), and no experience using the
> > material in CSDfC with dancers of any age. And, while I'm a
> > dabbler in dance history, I don't know enough about the early
> > American era to have a clear idea of the similarities and
> > differences in the dancing of the era covered CSDfC vs. that of
> > small town New England in 1820-1840.
> >
> > I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who does have experience
> > using CDSfC, or from anyone who can offer knowledgeable comments
> > about how either the choreography or the general teaching methods
> > it offers would transfer to 1820-1840 era.
> >
> > --Jim
> >
> > On Mar 17, 2014, at 8:11 PM, rich sbardella wrote:
> >
> > > I am looking for some period dances that might have been danced in
> > > small New England towns in 1820-1830. Should be easy enough for
> > > children.
> > > Any suggestions?
> > >
> > > Also, does any know the steps to "Barrel of Sugar"? Recommended
> > > music?
> > >
> > > Rich Sbardella
> > > Stafford, CT
> > >
> > >
> > > ________________________________
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Callers mailing list
> > > Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> > > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
> >
> >
> >
> > ------------------------------
> >
> > Message: 2
> > Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 21:17:53 -0700
> > From: joda_rogers <joda_rogers(a)altrionet.com>
> > To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> > Subject: [Callers] 1820s-1830s Dances (rich sbardella)
> > Message-ID: <9A31B033-970F-4F9B-AF96-482689D35B62(a)altrionet.com>
> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> >
> > There is also An Elegant Collection of Contras and Squares by Ralph Page.
> >
>
I have much experience teaching the Colonial Social Dances for Children
program. I'll try to write something about it tomorrow.
By the way, Rich, are you in the Old Sturbridge Village dancers? Art
Martin asked me about 'Barrel of Sugar' the same day you posted your
question about it here. We danced it that night at the Wayside Inn but I
came down with a very nasty bug the next day and I'm still recovering from
it.
Jacob
On Wed, Mar 19, 2014 at 12:00 PM, <callers-request(a)sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Send Callers mailing list submissions to
> callers(a)sharedweight.net
>
> To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
> or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to
> callers-request(a)sharedweight.net
>
> You can reach the person managing the list at
> callers-owner(a)sharedweight.net
>
> When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific
> than "Re: Contents of Callers digest..."
>
>
> Today's Topics:
>
> 1. Re: 1820s-1830s Dances (James Saxe)
> 2. 1820s-1830s Dances (rich sbardella) (joda_rogers)
>
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 13:15:11 -0700
> From: James Saxe <jim.saxe(a)gmail.com>
> To: rich sbardella <richsbardella(a)snet.net>, Caller's discussion list
> <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] 1820s-1830s Dances
> Message-ID: <FCD608B4-FC13-4615-823F-D5D05E048DEB(a)gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=WINDOWS-1252; format=flowed;
> delsp=yes
>
> Rich,
>
> Two books come to mind that might have material somewhat relevant
> to your request, though not exactly on target: _Heritage Dances of
> Early America_ by Ralph Page (abbreviated HDoEA below) and _Colonial
> Social Dancing for Children: Social Dancing of Washington?s Time
> arranged for Today?s Young People_ by Charles Cyril ("Chip")
> Hendrickson [CSDfC below]. Here's a little more information about
> them, with the caveat that I don't have my copy of either book at
> hand and my memory may be faulty on some of the details.
>
> * * * * * * * * * *
>
> HDoEA was published in or about 1976 by the Lloyd Shaw Foundation.
> It appears to be out of print. It's indexed in Michael Dyck's
> contra dance index, and many of the dances in it (or versions of
> them) appear in other sources. You can find them by going to
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/index/by_title.html
>
> and searching for the string "HDoEA". (The page
>
> http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/index/sources.html
>
> is a key to the source abbreviations.)
>
> IIRC, the dances in HDoEA are from sources dating from the 1790s
> through the first decade or two of the 1800's, so a little earlier
> the period you asked about, though some may have remained popular
> for some time after. All or almost all are longways triple minors,
> though some might be of the sort that are readily adapted to duple
> minor form. For each dance, Page give both the description as it
> appeared in the original source and an interpretation in modern
> terminology.
>
> The part about being "easy enough for children" could be
> problematical to say the least, for reasons that will be evident
> to anyone who has tried teaching relatively "easy" contras to
> groups (whether children or adults) where almost all are unfamiliar
> with how progression works, dancing to the phrase, etc. Even
> experienced contemporary contra dancers could have difficulties
> with things like triple-minor progression, right-and-left four
> from proper position (in communities where older dances like
> "Petronella" and "Hull's Victory" have disappeared from repertoire),
> crossover heys for three, or choreography that asks you to turn a
> four-person star just halfway around in eight beats.
>
> * * * * * * * * * *
>
> CSDfC and a companion CD appear to be currently available from the
> Colonial Music Institute
>
> http://www.colonialmusic.org/CSD-bkcd.htm
>
> As the title implies, the book is specifically oriented to
> presenting the material to children. But (without having the
> book at hand to refresh my memory) I'm pretty sure it's mainly
> about situations where the material can be presented over multiple
> sessions and not just a single afternoon or evening.
>
> I have essentially no experience teaching/leading dance for
> children (except for occasions when a small number of children
> show up among a mostly-adult group), and no experience using the
> material in CSDfC with dancers of any age. And, while I'm a
> dabbler in dance history, I don't know enough about the early
> American era to have a clear idea of the similarities and
> differences in the dancing of the era covered CSDfC vs. that of
> small town New England in 1820-1840.
>
> I'd be interested in hearing from anyone who does have experience
> using CDSfC, or from anyone who can offer knowledgeable comments
> about how either the choreography or the general teaching methods
> it offers would transfer to 1820-1840 era.
>
> --Jim
>
> On Mar 17, 2014, at 8:11 PM, rich sbardella wrote:
>
> > I am looking for some period dances that might have been danced in
> > small New England towns in 1820-1830. Should be easy enough for
> > children.
> > Any suggestions?
> >
> > Also, does any know the steps to "Barrel of Sugar"? Recommended
> > music?
> >
> > Rich Sbardella
> > Stafford, CT
> >
> >
> > ________________________________
> > _______________________________________________
> > Callers mailing list
> > Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> Message: 2
> Date: Tue, 18 Mar 2014 21:17:53 -0700
> From: joda_rogers <joda_rogers(a)altrionet.com>
> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Subject: [Callers] 1820s-1830s Dances (rich sbardella)
> Message-ID: <9A31B033-970F-4F9B-AF96-482689D35B62(a)altrionet.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
>
> There is also An Elegant Collection of Contras and Squares by Ralph Page.
>
> >
>
>
>
>
>
> ------------------------------
>
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
>
> End of Callers Digest, Vol 115, Issue 11
> ****************************************
>
Time and again, I find myself wondering what makes a dance a good one
for ending an evening. Looking at lists like Seth Tepfer's "Groovin'
Dances to End an Evening"
(http://www.dancerhapsody.com/handouts/DanceEndEvening3.pdf), it's hard
to see what the dances he singles out have in common with each other.
Some are balancey, some oozy, some have lots of swings, some only one,
levels of complexity vary widely, some end with a partner swing and some
don't... Is it just a total crapshoot, a conjunction of a good tune and
happy dancers, or something actually inherent in the dance pattern?
Speak, o hive mind, upon this subject.
Kalia
On 3/18/2014 2:06 PM, Alan Prince Winston wrote:
> Rich —
>
> What do you need these for? Class residency? Birthday party? How
> old are the kids? Do they want to be there? How long do you have with
> them? How important is it that the dances be historically accurate,
> and now hat dimensions?
>
> The “Colonial Social Dancing for Children” book is aimed at classroom
> teachers and is constructed assuming that you have the kids multiple
> times, and has some emphasis on footwork and etiquette. (Period
> footwork resembles modern Scottish footwork.) The Heritage Dances of
> Early America book isn’t aimed at children and doesn’t help very much
> with how things phrase to the tunes. The Cracking Chestnuts book is
> really looking at old-favorite contra dances; jn the 1820s and 1830s
> the contra dances mostly didn’t look like contra dances as we do them
> today. (Footwork, ball of the foot vs. flat feet, no ballroom
> swinging, handshake stars not wrist-grip stars,e tc.)
>
> Country dances in America and England aren’t very different at this
> point. (Kate van Winkle Keller, with various collaborators, has
> reconstructed and published dance collections from American sources
> 1770s-1790s. Even the “New Country Dances From Topsham Maine” book is
> mostly dances published in Englsh sources.).
>
> Quadrilles have come in. Cotillions haven’t gone yet. The Spanish
> Dance formation seems to come in (in England) in the late 1820s;
> that's more or less Sicilian Circle, and can be fairly accessible.
>
>
> I've had good luck with easy cotillions (Marlbrouk, George
> Washington's Favorite) for kids over 10. For this period you might
> also want reels for three, four, and six. Lancers Quadrille comes in
> (published c. 1815).
-
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mar 17, 2014, at 8:11 PM, rich sbardella <richsbardella(a)snet.net>
> wrote:
>
>> I am looking for some period dances that might have been danced in
>> small New England towns in 1820-1830. Should be easy enough for
>> children.
>> Any suggestions?
>>
>> Also, does any know the steps to "Barrel of Sugar"? Recommended music?
>>
>> Rich Sbardella
>> Stafford, CT
>>
>>
>> ________________________________
>> _______________________________________________
>> Callers mailing list
>> Callers(a)sharedweight.net
>> http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
