Contra Callers

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31 participants
4403 discussions

by Joy Greenwolfe

A space conundrum for you all. I'm calling a wedding reception for approx 150-170 guests with a designated dance dance space of 35 feet x 16 feet. No options for expanding or last minute venue switches. (Also note that the band rather than myself was consulted on venue space. I've seen the diagram, and the space is at least well-used. The dance space is arranged lengthwise at the end of the large hall next to the tables. ) How many people (non dancers) would you realistically expect to get onto this floor at once? I'm contemplating some circle dances, some scatter mixers and some longways sets. Maybe a single file spiral around the perimeter of the room. The guests are mostly non-dancers, occasional contra dancers and a few Scottish/ceili dancers thrown in for spice. I don't think I can get all 150+ people into that space at once. Thoughts? Calculations? Joy Greenwolfe Durham, NC

15 years, 4 months

Re: [Callers] Dare to Be Square Archive

by David.Millstone＠VALLEY.NET

Jack asked about the two Ted Sannella dances shown here: > The Dare to be Square 2009 Archive is on the air! Go to > http://vimeo.com/ and find the search box, click on "channels" and > enter "dtbs". Have a look around. Both of these dances appear in print in Ted Sannella's book "Swing the Next." The first one is "Pass Through and So-si-do," for which Ted suggests the tune Ronde de Voyageur. The second one is "Gents Three-Quarter Star," for which Ted suggests the tune Brenda Stubbert's Reel, written by Jerry Holland. For callers on this list who do not already own copies, I highly recommend Ted's book and his earlier one, "Balance and Swing." In addition to presenting lots of material (contras, squares, triplets) written by Ted as well as by others, the books offer excellent tips on how to present each dance, suggested wording of calls, notes on challenging transitions... in short, a master class on how to present each dance. Both books are available online from CDSS: http://www.cdss.org/north-american-dance.html?order_by=&per_page=20&filters… at&format=bk&for=sannella&search= David Millstone Lebanon, NH

15 years, 4 months

Dare to Be Square Archive

by tony mates

Greetings, Bob Dalsemer recommended I contact you about a dance archive from last year's Dare to Be Square, held here in Seattle. He thought your members might be interested in this material; I hope so! What follows is the note I sent out to DTBS attendees last April. Let me know if you have any questions. Cheers, Tony Mates Hi Everybody, The Dare to be Square 2009 Archive is on the air! Go to http://vimeo.com/ and find the search box, click on "channels" and enter "dtbs". Have a look around. To keep this material from going viral, we ask that you exercise respect and discretion about what you do with it. Since it was the staff and attendees of DTBS 09 who made these videos happen, we'd like to keep it in the family, so to speak. If you know a caller who might benefit from seeing this, fine, but please ask that she or he also respect DTBS and the folks who made it possible. For a guided tour read on. My goal was to capture the essence of what Bob Dalsemer brought to his workshops at Dare to Be Square this year, and then make it available to all who participated. A dedicated crew of volunteers and I filled 5 one hour tapes with video. We attempted to get Bob's teaching of each particular dance, both from the stage and any demonstrations on the floor. We also tried to get a representative sample of the dance being done to the music. As it happens I wish we had covered more material, but then, given the work involved in editing 5 hrs of video and 7 of audio, maybe it was for the best. My apologies for the parts that were left out. In particular I'm sorry there was not more of the actual dancing. What we do have is selected video and complete audio from the following daytime workshops: Square Dancing For All West Virginia Squares New England and Singing Squares Cool Versions of Classic Squares Souped Up Squares Also there is some video and about an hour of audio from Timing ,Timing, Timing and about half an hour of the Monday night dance. I have also received some video from Cory Podielski and Doug Plummer, which will be added soon to supplement the archive. Navigation: You'll need a high speed internet connection. Go to: http://vimeo.com/ and look in the upper right hand corner for the white space that says "Search Videos". When you slide the cursor into that area a drop down menu opens; click on "Search Channels". Enter dtbs into the search area. This should bring up "DTBS09 29 videos". Click on DTBS09 to bring up all the videos. Hit the "play" triangle at the lower left corner of the screen to begin viewing. Click on "description", below the screen, for notes on personnel, tune names etc. [Please note: these descriptions are a work in progress. More notes will be added in the next few weeks.] Each of the 29 videos has a title: DTBS 09 [Workshop Name] a number (1-6) and then the name of a dance figure. The number is to show the order of the episodes within each workshop. So for example "DTBS09 Square Dancing for All 1 Big Circle" shows material from the first dance of the workshop; "DTBS09 Square Dancing for All 2 Texas Star" is the next dance in that workshop, etc. This should help illustrate how each workshop unfolded. Downloads. You must join Vimeo to download these videos. After listening to my audio recordings of the workshops I realized that the video may have captured the main points of each dance, but failed sometimes to give a sense of the whole; particularly as Bob often adds twists- or even new figures- later on in the dance. The audio links below cover the entire workshops, with the exception of Timing! Timing! Timing! which I only got about an hour of. Square Dancing for All: http://tinyurl.com/yb86a5k West Virginia Squares: http://tinyurl.com/ydn9g9m New England and Singing Squares: http://tinyurl.com/y9njnhy Cool Versions of Classic Squares: http://tinyurl.com/ydzzywa Timing, Timing, Timing: http://tinyurl.com/yeqmwge Souped Up Squares: http://tinyurl.com/yjzju42 As I say, we did our best. Any faults in the execution or production of this material are solely mine. If you have questions I will try my best to help: write to Tony Mates at: mates.tony(a)gmail.com. Or give me a call! I'd rather chat. 206-723-3897. Credits: Billie Burlock, Tony Mates, Brittany Newell and Paul Silveria shot video on a camera kindly lent to us by Charlie Beck. Cheers to a very helpful crew! Audio and video editing by Tony Mates. A Noderinksere production. Expert help and counsel from Charmaine Slaven, Charlie Beck, Catherine Alexander, Gabe Strand, Doug Plummer and Johnny Calcagno. And of course many thanks to all of the performers, crew and dancers who made Dare to Be Square 09 happen. Having spent many hours now in front of a laptop watching many of you dance, or call, or play music, it is a pleasure to present this material for your enjoyment and enlightenment. Once more: To keep this material from going viral, we ask that you exercise respect and discretion about what you do with it. Since it was the staff and attendees of DTBS 09 who made these videos happen, we'd like to keep it in the family, so to speak. If you know a caller who might benefit from seeing this, fine, but please ask that he or she also respect DTBS and the folks who made it possible. Tony Mates, March, 2010 Heads Up! Feet Smack! Dare to Be Square is coming back! Nov 4-7, 2010 tony mates 206-723-3897 ckittyroo(a)aol.com

15 years, 4 months

Re: [Callers] Contras for beginners and SD'ers

by Chip Hedler

Seems like I've called a kajillion dances for total beginners, including many rowdy, well-lubricated wedding parties, some K-3rd-grade groups, and one memorable reception in a gym full of of wound-up Russian high-school exchange students, few of whom understood English, and their American peers, none of whom had done any American traditional dance before. I largely agree with everything that everyone else has said and recommended... ...And yet, in more than 75% of these cases I've chosen to include the contra "Ellen's Green Jig" by Roy Dommett or one of several variations on it I've evolved. It takes a little longer to walk through, which I do at least twice, but it has never, ever failed (sorry if I'm duplicating some info I think I've posted before). I think that's mostly because of the high level of connection sustained and the small amount of movement away from original places. The walkthrough demands enough attention that it actually defuses a lot of that random unfocused adolescent energy. I disregard gender and improper formation completely for the most challenging situations. Lots of practice with such groups has significantly built up my comfort and confidence, but this dance worked just as well way back when I was starting out. If there are others that people can trust to work this well, please share them. Here's the original and a couple tweaked versions: A1: Dosido below; !s (actives) dosido; A2: 1s bal, swing B!: Circle L and R B2: 2s arch, 1s take a peek; 1s arch, 2s peek; 2s carry arch over the 1s, who duck, then advance to next Insisting that the 2s don't just stand still and let the 1s go through the arch prevents the set getting dragged down the hall. Variations: A1: As couples, 1s and 2s dosido; circle L A2: All bal, swing B1: Star R, circle R A1: Dosido below; circle L Depending upon how the group has responded to material such as others have suggested, I mix and match the various components above... ...And meanwhile: just last summer, I was asked to guest-call at a MWSD club retreat in northern Vermont. The saving grace was that my invitation was set up through some musicians who had been invited to play at the retreat during a break between SD sessions. Having that live music at the right tempo totally uncoupled the wary "shuffle quickly, then wait" pattern that characterized the 45 minutes of mixed-ability and advanced level MWSD done to recorded SD beats (and genuinely skillful prompting) before we were on. We did a Virginia Reel variant, then an Ellen's Green variant, and the behavior of these mostly 40-plus-year-olds rapidly became almost identical to what you often see with high-schoolers: lots of exhausting skipping and sashaying through the figures, laughter, and the kind of giddiness that gets in the way of hearing the next call. Who'da thunk it? And after it was all over they asked where else they could do this sort of thing. Chip Hedler

15 years, 4 months

Caller and band needed in North Yarmouth, ME, June 25

by Walter

A friend is looking for a caller and a band for June 25 in North Yarmouth, ME. Her request is below. Anyone interested should contact her directly. Her name is Janine Marthai (pronounced "Mar-They"). Walter Daves Hello Walter, We would like to host a contra dance on the Friday night before our daughter's wedding. Its in North Yarmouth, Maine and the date is June 25. There may be 40-70 guests and our site has a wooden floor with plenty of set up space. Most have never done a contra dance so we would want an instruction time first. This will be an informal picnic setting, from 5:00 - 8:30 pm. Considering a dance from 6 or 6:30 until 8pm, after the cook out. We are looking for someone who is good at teaching, enjoys calling, or is even looking for one more chance to practice their calling skills. A small band of 2 or 3 would be fine. Interested parties can call 843-819-1444 not any later than June 11, and ask for Janine. Many thanks.

15 years, 4 months

Wedding dance planning

by Nancy Turner

Hi All, I followed the recent discussion of planning a dance for a highschool audience. I'd love to hear what you consider to be your "favorite" wedding dances for a wedding party of adults with some dancers in the mix but not too many, where the dance will run 45 minutes to an hour. I'm looking for non-contras, accessible to all dances. I've got the spiral waltz and Do-Si-Three as part of my preliminary planning.... Thank you very much Chrissy Fowler and Linda Leslie.... What else is tried and true and among your favorites? Thanks! Nancy Turner

15 years, 4 months

Re: [Callers] Wedding dance planning

by JohnFreem＠aol.com

Is it YOUR wedding dance? :-) I suggest that you begin with a Grand March. Plan ahead (conspire) with the newly wedded couple and families to assign an order of precedence. This makes it a lot easier to "encourage"more attendees to join in. You might then immediately try something simple like the Haste to the Wedding Sicilian Circle dance. You will know how things will go by the end of the second dance. A Fan Dance is another crowd-pleaser that can get virtually everyone in on it. (I had a blind individual dance it and the Virginia Reel at a dance yesterday!) The Pat-a-Cake Polka is also a very inclusive and easy dance to teach. Good luck! John B. Freeman, SFTPOCTJ

15 years, 4 months

Zodiac

by Nancy Turner

Hi All, I'd like to say that I called Zodiac last night, but this community knew it so well that a walk through or prompting through wasn't required! The band started playing, it was obvious they all knew it, and off we went! It was helpful to discover in advance of the evening that there are variations to the lyrics and the moves. In addition to the version that Martha shared, I now know this: Lyrics 1) Here comes Zodiac, Zodiac, Zodiac, here comes Zodiac all night long. 2) Step-back Sally, make a little alley, step back Sally all night long. 3) Here comes Sally, walking down the alley, here comes Sally, all night long. 4) Here comes the other one, just like the other 1, here comes the other 1 all night long. 5) I looked down the alley, and what did I see? A big fat man from Tennessee. 6) I betcha five dollars, you can't do this! I betcha five dollars, you can’t do that! To the front to the back, side-side-side! x2 7) Lean waaay back, you've got a hump on your back! x2 8) You do the camel’s walk, you do the camel’s walk. (Quietly) Moves: 1) Hands crossed with Partner across the set: sawing motion. 2) Step to beats, backing away from partner to make an "alley" down center of set. 3) First one of top couple, makes way down set. 4) Second person (or couple) follows. 5) Hand flat above eyes across to Partner; hands delineate a large belly. 6) Wag right finger, then left finger at partner. Hop to pattern x 2 7) Lean way back; reverse to lean way forward x 2 8) Move one step at a time towards their partners again and take hands. Thanks for the help. Nancy Turner Waitsfield VT

15 years, 5 months

Re: [Callers] Youthy gig (for free admission to a camp-based electronic music festival) in Northern Californa July 4 weekend

by Becky Nankivell

Techno contra is out there. It's an intriguing idea to adapt a ONS approach to that context. I hope there's someone who will take it on! ~ Becky Nankivell Long Beach/Tucson > Date: Fri, 28 May 2010 16:27:06 -0700 (PDT) > From: Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing > <winston(a)slac.stanford.edu> > To: callers(a)sharedweight.net, trad-dance-callers(a)yahoo.com > Subject: [Callers] Youthy gig (for free admission to a camp-based > electronic music festival) in Northern Californa July 4 weekend > Message-ID: <01NNNN6XTSOYA5TDBZ(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU> > Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; CHARSET=us-ascii > > Gang -- > > Alan Winston here. > > I'm forwarding an offer/request from Liz Donnelly ( lizdonnelly(a)gmail.com ), > which might be interesting for the right person. The deal is that this is > something like the fifth year of a pretty-rustic electronic music camp (actual > camping, but with Really Big Speakers) over the July 4th weekend, in rural > California maybe 90 miles from Sacramento. They do a live-music party during > the event, and Liz had been to a contra dance and that would be a cool thing to > introduce to their group.

15 years, 5 months

Youthy gig (for free admission to a camp-based electronic music festival) in Northern Californa July 4 weekend

by Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing

Gang -- Alan Winston here. I'm forwarding an offer/request from Liz Donnelly ( lizdonnelly(a)gmail.com ), which might be interesting for the right person. The deal is that this is something like the fifth year of a pretty-rustic electronic music camp (actual camping, but with Really Big Speakers) over the July 4th weekend, in rural California maybe 90 miles from Sacramento. They do a live-music party during the event, and Liz had been to a contra dance and that would be a cool thing to introduce to their group. (I'm thinking barn dance/ONS material myself.) They have no budget, but would offer free admission to the whole campout (which is somewhere between $85 and $125, and has sold out, so you don't get in any other way) for somebody to do this one-evening gig. That's obviously a lot more interesting if you want to bring a tent and hang out in the woods and swimming hole with a bunch of artsy, communitarian, youngish, electronic music heads. (The sponsoring group runs a Tuesday night party at Burning Man, if that sets your expectations at all.) (I am not a big tent-camping fan and I have a limited tolerance for Really Loud, and I'm busy that weekend, so I'm really not the guy. But I kinda think anybody who took the gig and enjoyed being there would be doing god's work in bringing them some engaged-with-each-over community dancing, so I volunteered to put the opportunity in front of the biggest caller groups I could find.) If you want to do this or find out more about it, write to lizdonnelly(a)gmail.com, not to me. (But if you end up doing it, or find out some utter showstopper, report back!) Here's Liz's note: ======================================================================== Hi there, My name is liz and i've got a long shot request for you: I am helping to coordinate a camp out party in Beldon CA this summer. It is largely an electronic music party, but each year we have a smaller party within the party that often has live music. This year the theme for that party with in the party is county/southern themed. In brainstorming activities for that part of the event, there was lots of enthusiasm exposing our group to contra dancing or partner dancing style. *So, I am looking for someone who might be able to teach contra, or two step or some other partner/group dance that fits well with in a country style theme. * I've done some contra dance & loved it: I love the way it is truly a community dance and gives one an opportunity interact with so many other dancers through the dance, for this reason, I think it would be fun to bring to a community of dancers who mostly dance solo to electronic music. However, I think part of why I loved it so much was I was dancing with lots of people who knew what they were doing, so my missteps were easily corrected and I could still feel the flow of the dance. I don't know how well it would work in a group where just about no one will have ever done contra before. So, this is why I am reaching out to you all... is this something that is doable? or should we focus on finding a teacher for a more partnered style of dance? Lastly, and perhaps most awkwardly :-) this event is put on at low cost and most of the folks involved volunteer their time for the fun of it. We do pay the musicians & artist but all of the budget for the party within the party has already been allocated for the band. So, I'm looking for someone who might think this sounds like such a super fun event that they would want to go to, and in exchange for a ticket could teach some dance. Here is the link to the event. http://priceless.false-profit.com/. Please let me know if you or someone you know might be a good fit. Thanks! L. ------------------------------------------------------- Over to you. -- Alan Winston SF Bay Area, California -- =============================================================================== Alan Winston --- WINSTON(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025 ===============================================================================

15 years, 5 months

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Contra Callers