Contra Callers

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4369 discussions

What can you do as a caller to help people on the floor who clearly have no sense of the flow of a dance?

by Winston, Alan P.

What do you as a caller to help people on the floor who clearly have no sense of the flow of the dance? (Sometimes you see people who will absolutely fight the flow of the dance to go the wrong way / do the wrong thing; there are others who are just sufficiently tentative about every figure that they've arrived at this figure late or with no useful momentum, or maybe they take so long to process a prompt that they'e dumped all their momentum by the time they're ready to move. ) How do you help those people? Who goes through the middle first in a Mad Robin was the example that made me think about this , but there are also questions like "coming out of the circle left which direction do the larks orbit while the robins allemande and which hand do the robins allemande with?" where answers seem inevitable but aren't. If you see people who are confused about the answers to these questions where the flow of the dance should answer them there's certainly always the possibility of continuing to prompt with the answers, but that's not really helping to develop an important skill I think is central to satisfying contra dance. -- Alan

5 years, 8 months

Spring Cleaning

by Maia McCormick

How often do folks on here clean out (or not) their dance collections? I went through mine this evening and found some that I never call and keep meaning to, but it never happens -- even though some I recall really enjoying when I danced them. When and how do you decide to take a dance out of your collection? In clutter, Maia

5 years, 8 months

Re: [Callers] Using music in beginner session

by K Panton

Has someone a link to the Glen Echo newcomers workshop outline? Ken Panton Subject: Re: [Callers] Using music in beginner session Message-ID: <CAP+XMj6wpxqFAHV5XYp8a-SDDaZehS=U+94Y8FKp=Y8hEF9nCg(a)mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8" I commend to your attention the outline of the newcomers workshop as it was developed at the Glen Echo contra dance. This is still rather close to the workshop that is given on Fridays, including using muisc throughout.

5 years, 8 months

Tempo for Squares

by Rich Sbardella

Folks, I am curious. Tempo for contra is often below 120 bpm. I learned to call squares at about 128 bpm. Is this significant difference the norm, and if so why? Rich Sbardella Stafford Springs, CT

5 years, 8 months

Re: [Callers] Using music in beginner session

by jmitchell.nc＠gmail.com

I commend to your attention the outline of the newcomers workshop as it was developed at the Glen Echo contra dance. This is still rather close to the workshop that is given on Fridays, including using muisc throughout.

5 years, 8 months

by nevell richard

Hello Moderator I signed up but not sure if it worked and i'm receiving my own contributions. Please apprise, what am I doing wrong! Thankyou, Richard Nevell -- Richard Nevell & Ni Wayan Suarni 40 Sugarbush Road, Hancock, NH 03449 www.thepondok.com www.facebook.com/giftsfrombali www.facebook.com/richardnevellATTD/

5 years, 8 months

Yes, Neffa!

by Greenleaf

The New England Folk Festival (NEFFA) is ready for your caller, band, discussion, etc applications. Yes, we are looking for a new venue, and yes, we are confident the weekend will take place, most likely April 24-26. https://apply.neffa.org/ What we are looking for: • More Larks/Robins dance sessions • Themes that explore and celebrate contra chestnuts • Workshops that feature or include squares • Dance sessions geared for mixed level dancers; we like to be as inclusive as possible • Intro to contra/square sessions We want you! Lisa Greenleaf

5 years, 8 months

Re: [Callers] Tempo

by tom hinds

> > Jim, thank you for all of your in depth analysis. If the dance tempos of Danish contra dancers is of interest perhaps a Danish caller will shed some light on the subject. > > I was attempting to answer Rich’s original question. Rich, what is your take now? >> >

5 years, 8 months

Tempo

by tom hinds

I believe that the tempo for dancing contras in the United States has to do with the style and wants of the dancers. It’s the desire to improvise and flirt which I think is an integral part of the US contra scene and is the reason for the tempo being what it is. If you look at the contra dancing in Denmark, the tempos are much faster. Although I haven’t been there for several years they don’t improvise and they don’t do much if any flirting either. They dance very straight. My conclusion from watching them quite a bit is that slower tempos would leave them standing around which they wouldn’t find as much fun. I’ve never timed the music but I would guess it’s easily at 124 bpm or higher, definitely the same as a tempo for squares here. Sent from my iPad

5 years, 8 months

Saving myself after a crash

by Becky Liddle

I’m a very new caller. I do pretty well, but occasionally I’ve lost my place in a dance and the dancers (of course) crash. I won’t always be able to avoid a crash, but would like to avoid the complete crash and burn. That is, I’d like to be able to recover after I mess up, so the dancers can finish the dance. My tentative plan is below, but I’m making it up, and would love both feedback on my plan and/or other suggested methods of rescuing a dance that has gone off the rails: I’m pretty good at knowing where we are in the music, so if I can maintain my head I’m hoping I'd be able to do an extremely simple hash call to get back to the top of the song: I’m guessing what I’d do is say “find your partner and swing on the side” and then hash calls that amount to going nowhere (Circle or star all the way around, LL forward and back, neighbour do-si-do, partner allemande once around—others?) until 8 bars before the top of the dance (if it’s improper), then say “circle left 3 places” to get them back in the original hands-four position. Then start calling the dance at the top. Does that work? Is there some other approach you’d recommend instead? And if it is a Becket dance, I just do the same thing but without the circle left ¾ bit at the end? Are there other tips you have for recovering and/or for killing time waiting for the music to start over again? Any other recommendations to keep everyone in a good mood if/when I mess up? Good self-deprecating jokes/comments? Thanks! Becky

5 years, 8 months

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