Contra Callers

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4404 discussions

Re: [Callers] easy ONS dances where partner is kept?

by David.Millstone＠valley.net

Linda mentioned The Snowball in her recent post. I learned that dance from the very useful website maintained by Thomas Green: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/greenery/BarnDances/WholeSet.html#The%20Snowba… He credits the dance (slightly different than Linda's version) to Martin Hodges. I in turn have modified the printed version by having the 5s simply gallop up to the top and back down again, instead of casting back, a minor point. I find it a really useful dance for several reasons. First, it includes the basic figures that one might need to include in an evening: hand turns, stars, circles, lines forward and back, swing, and a progression. Because it's in five couple sets and not everyone is moving all at once, it's a bit calmer than some other dances I call in such settings. The dancers farther down the line who are watching those who are moving inevitably start clapping along in time to the music. One wrinkle is that the dance is designed to be 48 bars of music, so it works best with a three-part tune, AABBCC. When I called it Friday night at the local PTO dance (our 28th annual!), the band picked Merrily Kissed the Quaker's Wife, a three-part jig. Other tunes that your musicians might know that would fit this pattern are Set de Ronfleuse Gobiel (the Snoring Mrs. Gobiel, a staple in the Quebecois repertoire) Ragtime Anie (with its third part), Reel Beatrice, Quadrille Jos Bouchard. If you're working with recorded music, there's good recording of the latter two tunes on the Sashay the Donut album, and another of Snowball 6x (Reel de Rimouski/R. des accordeonistes) on the Any Jig or Reel album, both available from New England Dancing Masters. Of course, you could also have a band play AABBAB, or AABB and then another tune AB, and most dancers won't even notice. I find as a caller that it helps me to have the structure of the three part tune to support my prompting. I will put in a plug for all of the New England Dancing Masters books as supremely useful for such settings. Also those my Marian Rose. Paul Rosenberg's Sashay the Banana contains lots of useful material, and of course Dudley's books. David Millstone Lebanon, NH

14 years, 7 months

Re: [Callers] easy ONS dances where partner is kept?

by Chrissy Fowler

I think a bunch of family/wedding/ONS dances have been shared on the SW callers list already, so they're available in the archives. (I recently was made aware of the very useful search function.) Most mixers can also be keepers w a little rearranging. Don't forget about easy squares! And scattered 2 couple sets w "scatter promenade to find new neighbor cpl" in the B2. Chrissy Fowler Belfast ME

14 years, 7 months

Re: [Callers] Easy ONS Dances

by John Sweeney

Hi, You may find some of these useful: http://www.lloydshaw.org/Catalogue/Childrens_Index.htm http://goldenjubilee2008.esmmarchives.org.uk/08_CHILDRENS_FESTIVAL/J08_C hildrens_Festival/Schools/Dances.htm In England we call ONS all sorts of different names such as Barn Dance, Ceilidh, Country Dance, Square Dance (even though they don't just do squares - they just recognise the name as meaning this sort of dance!). These are the sort of simple dances we call at such functions: http://www.mts.net/~jinks%20/fd/menu.htm http://www.gerryjones.talktalk.net/dances.html http://www.scottishdance.net/ceilidh/dances.html http://homepage.ntlworld.com/greenery/BarnDances/ http://www.ceilidhcalling.co.uk/dancelist.php Hope that helps. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574 http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive Events, Instructional DVDs and Interactive Maps http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Contra Dancing in Kent

14 years, 7 months

easy ONS dances where partner is kept?

by Tina Fields

Hi o esteemed community of callers - I'm going to call a big father-daughter dance for the Girl Scouts next month. (It's called "Me and My Cowboy; how cute is that?!) In preparing, I realize that most of the supremely easy dances I know are mixers. While this is usually great, these girls are likely not going to want to partner up with other girls' dads, but instead keep their own dad. They'll also enjoy partnering with each other, especially for the goofier dances. But I still seek delightful and very easy ONS dances wherein the dancers keep their partners. I already have a lot of galloping longways set dances like Galopede, Weaver's Galopede, Four Around Four, & White Mountain Reel. I also have Do-Si-Three (thanks, Linda Leslie!) and Jefferson & Liberty. I mostly seek a variety of calmer (but still fun) ones so the dads can rest up a bit while still dancing, and a couple of circle dances that aren't mixers, if they exist. A few more easy Sicilians would also be welcome. Do your repertoires include these? What are your favorites? Will you share? Thank you! Tina ******************************* Tina R. Fields, Ph.D. Sebastopol, CA (707) 824-9318 indigenize.wordpress.com "Hindsight Now!"

14 years, 7 months

kidney donor needed

by Chrissy Fowler

Hi friends, I'm sending this to you in order to cast a wider net for my Boston-area dance friend and fellow caller, Dan Pearl, who has PKD (Polycystic Kidney Disease.) He's actively looking for a living donor that's willing and able donate a kidney (especially someone with type O blood, although as you can learn in the paired donor info on the website, it could work with an interested and qualified donor of another blood type.) Dan's story, his health details, and more information (including specifics for individuals who might consider being a donor) can be found at http://danskidney.info. If you can think of other groups or individuals to forward this to, in order to further spread the net, please do. Thanks, Chrissy Fowler

14 years, 7 months

Re: [Callers] Transfer from 45s to CD?

by Chrissy Fowler

Many thanks to all who responded, both on and off list, to my 45->CD query. Great suggestions and resources, and I'll pass them along to the person who's spearheading the revival of the square dance revival. Chrissy Fowler Belfast

14 years, 7 months

cast off

by Tom Hinds

Chrissy brings up some good points about the cast off. It's interesting that I found a definition of gate on a web site that was maintained by an English country dance leader. That definition mentions that the person backing up in a gate makes a smaller circle. And, I'm informed by dance master Jim Morrison that the gate probably evolved from cast off. If the person backing up does make a smaller circle, is the pivot point closer to the person backing up?? One dancer who used to dance in Nelson in '69 mentioned that during a cast off, the men never touched! Tom

14 years, 7 months

Re: [Callers] Transfer from 45s to CD?

by David.Millstone＠VALLEY.NET

Depending on your equipment, it's not that hard to do yourself, assuming you have a way to play the records. Hook up a connection from an amplifier to your computer-- I use RCA lugs into an adapter that takes two RCA inputs (L & R channel, though most of those old recordings are mono) and ends in a mini-plug, which goes into my computer. (Note: you do better go through your amplifier than directly from the record player.) Use Audacity http://audacity.sourceforge.net/ to record the program and to trim the scratches at either end. Audacity is free, and has audio editing capabilities that allow you to clean up the sound. I also recommend ClickRepair: http://www.clickrepair.net/software_download/clickrepair.html as a wonderful program-- though not free--for getting rid of clicks and crackles that come with old records. It's also worth checking iTunes or Amazon's music downloads to see if any of the material in question is already available. A surprising amount of older material is already available in digitial format. At $.99 a cut, it's often simpler to pay the money and let others have done the work for you. David Millstone Lebanon, NH

14 years, 7 months

Transfer from 45s to CD?

by Chrissy Fowler

Hi all, Wondering if anyone out there in Shared Weight land has suggestions for ways (or places) to have music transferred from 45 rpm recordings to CD/digital. I'm asking on behalf of a community of folks here in Maine who are reviving a generations-old tradition of square dancing, and for many of the people who grew up in the tradition, hearing the particular familiar version of the music is a big part of their connection to (and nostalgia for) the various dances. Thanks! Chrissy Fowler (Belfast, ME)

14 years, 7 months

Re: [Callers] Starting a new dance series

by David Chandler

Donna Hunt mentioned the possibility that CDSS has resources on starting a new contra dance series. They have a wide range of material, much of it at: http://www.cdss.org/advice-howto.html The "college" and "community" links lead to much more information. David Chandler On Mon, Feb 28, 2011 at 12:00 PM, <callers-request(a)sharedweight.net> wrote: > <snip> > On 2/25/2011 12:47 PM, Dhuntdancer(a)aol.com wrote: > > > > Hi: > > Someone asked me how to go about starting new contra dance? series.? > Rather > > than start from scratch making a list of everything to? consider when > > starting out, I'm wondering if any of you have a list or if? there is an > online > > resource for this.? Perhaps CDSS has something? > > > > Donna Hunt > > "Life may not be the party we hoped for, but while? we're here we should > > dance." -unknown > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 > > > > > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers(a)sharedweight.net > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > > > End of Callers Digest, Vol 78, Issue 28 > *************************************** >

14 years, 7 months

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