A quick thought on "backwards becket", which is the starting formation of
one of my dances as well - i tend to think of it as "becket indecent"
since that regularizes the term with other formation terms, implying lady
on the gent's left. The basic list of course - proper, improper, indecent,
improper-progressed, becket, becket-right (or CCW)... and then our friendly
distant outlier, the backwards becket.
I'd theorize one reason Bill's dance "Weeks on the Road" folk-processed to
start in normal becket is that "backwards becket" isn't a widely recognized
formation.
I run into the issue that - because becket-CCW dances are much less common
than becket-CW (though more common now thanks to some great dances from
Cary Ravitz and Heather Carmichael to name a couple) dancers zone out as
soon as i say "circle one place to the..." [AUTOPILOT kicks in, dancers
assume left]. Have found a variety of strategies to combat this, such as
circling them to the left three places, or spelling R-i-g-h-t so there's no
chance they, by some trick of perception, hear "left".
Bringing these points up because a) i believe that formations, like certain
moves, suffer from lack of use when general unfamiliarity on the dancers'
part creates situations where dancers go on autopilot and b) while callers
share common and frequently-used strategies for setting up / teaching /
introducing the more standard moves and formations, there's a less uniform
vocabulary and/or lack of shared strategies for the outliers...
just a thought, from someone who likes anti-becket (oh, crap, there's
ANOTHER way of saying becket-right) and reversed (or "mirrored") courtesy
turns (see what i'm saying about vocabulary?) and such... which are in no
wise more difficult than their normative counterparts, but confuse dancers
who don't encounter them often.
Kalia,
Last month @ Pinewoods George Marshall was calling the afternoon
contra sessions @ E & A. Lots of fun & really interesting dances.
On some of the beckets, where the cpl out at the end (whether partners
or neighbors) needed to stay right where they are, he taught/called,
'stand where you land'. I think diagonal chains or pass thrus would
usually put the cpl out in this position. Another nice call for end
effects for cpls who are not involved w/ a diagonal move (etc.) is,
'for those who can'.
If the dance has a very unusual series of end effects, I try to
analyze the scenario the end cpls are experiencing, then synthesize it
into the most helpful but pared down advice that will alert dancers to
at least what sorts of things to be ready for. This may not require
telling them every little pc, as it may differ slightly for top and
bottom cpls, depending on even or odd # of cpls in the line.
More specific example provided upon request. Would love to hear what
others have to say on topic.
hugs around,
Paul
"Feline dislocation syndrome" sounds like a good name for a dance.
A1) balance and jump onto your partner's lap (4)
sit there uncomfortably (12)
A2) jump off and wander anywhere (16)
B1) take a nap (16)
B2) keep walking around the hall
I'm in the process of programming tomorrow's Berkeley contra and my desk
> is covered wall-to-wall with a carefully-arranged layer of index cards.
> On the left edge is, was, the program I had sorted out before dinner.
> I came back in to take a look at it, carefully closing the door. My
> husband came in to ask a question, leaving the door open. Shortly
> thereafter, Sam the cat came flying through the air, skidding across the
> desk and sending cards flying every which way.
>
> I have finally, with the doors closed again, re-created something like
> the program I had earlier.
>
> This is another compelling argument for programming dances on the computer.
>
> Kalia
> Closing the door behind her
>
I mostly try to collect dances on the hoof so that I know how they feel
from the floor, but sometimes I do end up calling dances I haven't done
before, ones that I've gotten either from other callers or from written
sources. When looking at a dance in note form, how do you figure out
when it's likely to have end effects?
There's a particular becket dance I'm looking at right now, called Weeks
On The Road, by Al Olson (I just realized I've been spelling it "Olsen"
for some time. My apologies)
A1 On L diagonal, ladies chain
Across the set, 1/2 hey (wo by R)
A2 Balance and swing the neighbor you chained to
B1 Circle L 3/4
Balance the ring and CA twirl
B2 P balance and swing
If the dance starts with a neutral couple out at the end, that neutral
lady can chain in so that the complete foursome can do the dance, but if
there's no neutral couple to chain with, should the foursome dance with
a ghost, having sent that lady out to chain with nobody, or should the
lady who would normally chain out simply dance that round with her
partner as though she had just chained in from the end? If she does
that (ignore the chain on the diagonal and start the dance at the 1/2
hey), then she and her partner will wind up out at the end for the
balance and swing, which I guess is just fine. Hmm. OK, I seem to have
answered my own specific question here, but I'm still curious about the
general issue of how to tell when a dance is likely to have something
tricky at the ends.
Movement on the diagonal seems like an obvious warning sign. Another
one that I encountered a few nights ago is in Moon and Star Contra by
Don Flaherty, where a ring balance and CA twirl in the A1 leaves a cpl
alone at the ends for a very short wait while their original neighbors
star with someone else and then come back for a balance and swing. I
was noticing that everyone immediately crossed over, which is usually a
good impulse. In this case, though, they needed to just stay put and
wait for their neighbors to return. With the dance in progress, I
couldn't find a graceful way to give that information from the mic since
it was aimed at just 8 people out of the whole room, but was needed over
and over. I settled for sidling up behind occasional couples at the top
and telling them not to cross over, but there was still a lot of
confusion. So I guess another end-effect indicator would be short-term
movement out of the minor set? What else should I be watching for?
Kalia
I'm in the process of programming tomorrow's Berkeley contra and my desk
is covered wall-to-wall with a carefully-arranged layer of index cards.
On the left edge is, was, the program I had sorted out before dinner.
I came back in to take a look at it, carefully closing the door. My
husband came in to ask a question, leaving the door open. Shortly
thereafter, Sam the cat came flying through the air, skidding across the
desk and sending cards flying every which way.
I have finally, with the doors closed again, re-created something like
the program I had earlier.
This is another compelling argument for programming dances on the computer.
Kalia
Closing the door behind her
In the discussion of "How to devise a program" Kalia wrote:
"Have you found that your concept of the difficulty levels for any given dance has evolved or changed as your calling skills and style have grown
and changed over the years? I've certainly noticed a change with
English dances I had tagged as "easy" or "hard" early on in my calling
career. "
What are the specific skills one gains with calling experience?
How should/could these skills be passed along to beginning callers to expedite their development?
Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217-239-5844
Links to photos of many of my drawings and paintings are at www.ArtComesFuerst.com
Hi all:
Thanks to all of your help on my recent questions about calling,
contra dance figures, creative commons licenced works, etc. the first
full release of Contra Card, a LaTeX package / class for typesetting
dances and generating calling cards, has been released.
The (rather lacking, sorry, I got lazy) release notes can be found
here [1] along with a download of the documentation and source (see
the documentation for a full changelog and several examples of Contra
Card's use). The package will be live on CTAN (and TeXLive/MiKTeX) in
a few days. It will be available here [2] when the CTAN team get
around to updating it.
Thanks again for your help, and if you're a LaTeX user and use it for
anything interesting I'd love to hear from you. If you find an issue,
you can report it on GitHub [3]. If you're not a LaTeX user, sorry for
the rather useless post.
Thanks again,
Sam
P.S. If you'd like more examples of Contra Card's use, you can check
out my calling card library (which is slowly being digitized). It can
be found here [4] (see `dances.tex'; you'll have to compile a PDF
yourself).
[1] https://github.com/SamWhited/contracard/releases/tag/v1.0.0
[2] http://ctan.org/pkg/contracard
[3] https://github.com/SamWhited/contracard/issues
[4] https://github.com/SamWhited/contradances
--
Sam Whited
pub 4096R/EC2C9934
https://samwhited.com/contact
Much much thanks Chris, Michael, Yoyo, Bill, Linda & Greg for helping me
identify those 11 dances.... .... plus giving me come
corrections/clarifications!
Michael - interesting that you picked up Pound Cat Promenade from Cis
Hinkle as she was also my source something like four years ago at the dance
flurry. :)
Looks as though I'm going to have to take a close look at the Cabot School
Mixer and Ellen's Yarns. I'l run them through our callers practice group
here!
Much thanks!
Emily in Ottawa
As a new caller, I've received lots of advice on this topic, and I want to
make sure I've been doing it right.
I generally try to have an arc of difficulty, starting with an easy dance,
getting gradually harder, peaking around the 2nd or 3rd dance after the
break, then ending with a simple dance as a cool-down. The actual
difficulty you start and peak with is dependent on the skill level of your
local dance. I also try to have a few extra options if I find the dancers
on a particular evening are newbie-heavy or experience-heavy. In my
programs, that generally means having an extra dance in the arc, then
skipping either an easy dance early on (if there are not many newbies), or
a harder dance later on (if there are lots of newbies).
I also put all my dance cards next to each other and try to make sure that
I don't put very similar dances consecutively, and that I have a good
variety of figures throughout the evening.
More experienced callers: feel free to tell me if this strategy is good or
bad.
Cheers,
Ben
(Houston, TX)
#3 is Seven Sevens by Jim Kitch. It *is* a lovely, smooth mad robin dance!
Christa
>________________________________
>
>
>Message: 2
>Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2013 10:33:40 -0400
>From: Maia McCormick <maia.mcc(a)gmail.com>
>To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
>Subject: [Callers] More unknown dances!
>Message-ID:
> <CAHUcZGNum=YYONn57pw2qLUTcA81DxG=zcM18UwsQ2T0L9Zqxg(a)mail.gmail.com>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1
>
>While we're at it, here are some mystery dances I've been assembling. (For
>those curious, these come mostly from Dawn Dance and a little from FRFF,
>but there's also one from the Berkeley dance that I copied down from Warren
>Blier, who has had it down in his cards as "unknown petronella dance!"...)
>Your collective wisdom is appreciated!
>
>1) ??????, becket
>A1: circle L 3x; neighbor swing
>A2: ladies* chain left diagonal; L hand star with these 4 (i.e. away from
>partner)
>B1: square through 2x
>B2: partner balance and swing
>
>*when I wrote this down, I said "ALL chain" and I don't have any idea what
>that's supposed to mean...
>
>2) ??????, imp. (caller noted that this was "one of the sexiest dances ever
>written)
>A1: women forward into wavy line and balance; women fall back, men walk
>forward, and men turn to lead a single file circle (L?)
>A2: ...circle file circle... on lady's side, partner gypsy 1 1/2
>B1: ladies start half hey by L; partner swing
>B2: circle L 3 places; neighbor swing
>
>3) ?????, becket ("super smooth mad robin dance")
>A1: circle L 3 places; swing neighbor
>A2: R/L through across; star left to new neighbors
>B1: with new neighbor, balance and box the gnat; mad robin (gents in front
>first)
>B2: gents pass left to partner gypsy; partner swing
>
>4) ?????, imp. ("cool shadow dance")
>A1: new neighbor balance and swing
>A2: ladies bull by right to allemande partner L 3/4; shadow allemande 1 1/2
>B1: in wavy lines w/ ladies facing out, balance, spin right to partner
>(like a half Rory O'Moore); partner swing
>B2: circle L 3; do-si-do neighbor 1 1/2 to the next
>
>5) ?????, imp. ("unknown petronella dance!")
>A1: petronella; partner swing
>A2: petronella; neighbor wing
>B1: down the hall; turn alone and come back
>B2: circle left all the way; balance and CA twirl
>
>
>
>
