I just wrote a dance and wanted to know if it's unique. I'm pretty
sure the A1 is borrowed from another dance.
D-imp
A1 Circle left. Mad Robin (face partner and do-si-do neighbor).
A2 Hey, women pass left shoulders
B1 Women pass left shoulders and swing partner
B2 Ladies chain, forward and back.
Tom
5. Re: Suggestions for particularly flirty contra dances?
(Maia McCormick)
Another flirty dance originally written for Valentines day. It's not a
simple dance but the Poussette - "Cupids Hey" sequence is very flirty
*Cupid's Hey* improper by Jim Hemphill
A1 Long lines forward (4) then poussette* (6), Start Cupids hey (6),
A2 Partner Gypsy and Swing
B1 Promenade
Ladies Chain
B2 Ladies allemande right once around
Neighbor swing
*Teaching notes: A1 The Poussette is not quite a half way around, starting
from the center, gents start backing, ladies forward, clockwise around the
other couple. As couples come back towards center in poussette, drop hands
as ladies backing across pass each other. Cupid's hay; While maintaining
the face to face orientation of the poussette, looking cross set at your
partner, couples slide to the side, ladies left/gents right so ladies pass
each other face to face, gents will see the back of their neighbor as they
slide by in front. Couples then step, ladies back gents forward, and slide
to the side the other way, ladies right/gents left so gents pass face to
face, then continue across into a gypsy.
------------------------------
I just returned from Pigtown Fling dance weekend outside of Cincinnati, with featured caller Susan Petrick, who has a unique, effective style for teaching dances. During walk-throughs she never stops talking. The time callers often pause and wait for the dancers is instead filled usually with her telling about either the position the dancers will be after the figure, or advice about a flourish or end effects. Thus very few dances, even the more intricate ones, required a second walk-through. Susan noted her pleasant surprise rarely needing a second walk-through, noting the collective skill of the dancers, but her technique contributed. Even if during the walk-through dancers are chatting and miss the figure, they know where they should end up and correctly position themselves.
I speculate that if Susan had realized what the collective skill level of the dancers would be, she might have chosen a slightly more challenging set of dances for the two general sessions (Saturday evening and Sunday afternoon) she called.
This contrasts with Colin Hume's equally distinctive and effective style of making very witty remarks while teaching a dance to hold the dancers' attention.
Callers can usefully copy Susan's technique. I doubt many callers can mimic Colin.
Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217-239-5844
>
> Hey Tom,I don?t have your personal email, so hope you check this
> list often. You posted this dance in January. I?m considering
> calling it soon and would love to know if it has a name.
Bree,
It's called Kate's Departure. Kate Brady, one of our wonderful dance
organizers is leaving C'ville to start a new life in Colorado. I and
other callers have tested it out and I believe it's a keeper.
T
> Thanks,Bree KalbCarrboro, NCTom Wrote:I just wrote a dance and
> wanted to know if it's unique. I'm pretty
> sure the A1 is borrowed from another dance.
>
>
> D-imp
> A1 Circle left. Mad Robin (face partner and do-si-do neighbor).
>
> A2 Hey, women pass left shoulders
>
> B1 Women pass left shoulders and swing partner
>
> B2 Ladies chain, forward and back.
>
>
> Tom
>
> ------------------------------
>
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>
> End of Callers Digest, Vol 103, Issue 17
> ****************************************
You know, I just realized, regarding the "sidelines" discussion ... no
one's yet mentioned "booking ahead". In the context of
getting-new-dancers-partners, I thought it might deserve its own thread.
Simply put: Booking ahead is a big threat to including new and/or
infrequent dancers.
When I was a newer dancer, and finally getting known as a fun dance partner
with enough people, there was the inevitable "I want to dance with all my
friends!" tendency that most newer dancers get. I booked ahead, sometimes
two dances ahead. I never booked *all* of my dances for the night, and I
did seek out and dance with people I didn't normally, on a regular basis.
Still, once I reflected upon it, it limited my dance partners somewhat.
I cut down to only booking "next dance". Then I cut down the number of
times in a night that I do that. Now, I will never book ahead as a rule,
but allow exceptions, usually for out-of-towners that I don't get to see
often, or a dancer that I simply haven't had the chance to dance with for
several weeks. I've found that I don't sit out any more often, I'm still
dancing with friends for about half my dances in the evening, and I'm
having just as much fun. At the same time, I don't have to worry about
remembering who I booked, nor about offending anyone by, "Sorry, got the
next one booked already!"
Nowadays, I'm a pretty okay dancer. And there are some dances I can walk
into, and people are super-friendly and I have no problem finding a
partner. Yeah, me being a kilt-wearing, name-button-sporting dancer with
decent dance shoes usually is an extra tip-off to people, too, in the same
way that if I saw a lady walk in that I didn't know, but she was wearing a
big multi-colored twirly shirt and dance shoes, I'd probably assume she
would be a good dance partner.
But... there are dances where it's difficult to find partners if you don't
know anyone. And then for introverts (which makes up a surprisingly high
percentage of the contra dance community), it's an even more difficult
task. When a dance finishes, and you blink, and everyone's partnered and
lined up within 30 seconds ... you know it. People have to be booking
ahead.
Frankly, booking ahead can be viewed by new dancers as unfriendly behavior.
At the head of my list of dance values is that contra is meant to be a
community dance. I believe that booking ahead, more than a few times in an
evening, is contradictory to this primary value.
If I had to speculate, I would hypothesize:
1. Dance organizers are very aware of who does this at their dances,
already.
2. Dance organizers are afraid to speak up about it, because they're afraid
of scaring off their "cool, hip dancers".
3. This can't possibly be a new problem. Haven't there been good solutions
to this in the past? Haven't there been dances that have realized they're
exclusive, and wanted to change, and successfully done so? What approaches
have they taken that are successful?
4. A dance community has to *want* to change this. They need to state
"inclusion of new dancers" as a value that they hold high.
I don't have a solution, but I do think that this ought to be a priority
discussion with dance organizers and callers.
Also, I'm optimistic that even one good dancer changing their behavior, and
clearly stating *why* they stop booking ahead, can have a strong influence
on other dancers. It was a couple of other dancers stating that they
stopped booking ahead at all that made me really reconsider my own booking
ahead; when I tell people that I don't book ahead, I have had some good
discussions stem from it, and I think I may have influenced a dancer or two
in that they can tone down how often they book ahead.
In dance,
Ron
http://contradances.tumblr.com
Do you know the title and author of this dance?
A1: gents into center to a long wavy line of gents, bal; Ladies into center of line of ladies, bal; (Gents wait for them)
A2: W A R 1x; PS
b1: down hall, turn as a couple
B2: C L 3/4, N S
Seth Tepfer
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I have attached a document (I hope that works) with a list of ideas for callers to help foster equal dance opportunity. This springs from the recent thread called "Sidelines" or something like that. I took your ideas, some of them verbatim, and compiled this list. Please use it, adapt it for your community, and respond if you see something questionable or missing.
Thank you all so much for your thoughts and ideas. I learned so much from this little project.
Jill
