Re: [Callers] How much is too much? How little is too little?

Thank you! This came up because someone told me I had dropped out too early in my dance - or maybe they meant that some callers recently had dropped out too early, and they felt they had to work too hard. The complaints were heartfelt, but vague. My dances, as I said, were easy dances we've done tons of times, and I called most of them 4+2 (four times with full calls and 2 times with partials), and just a hint here or there after that - mostly after swings. I tend to call pretty rhythmically, being a musician-type person and all, and the dancers, in my humble opinion, looked great! There was one time a line started to break down a bit in one dance so I came back in (called that one 14 times!), but for the most part, I saw nothing amiss -- and I was watching like a mother hawk -- so I kept my mouth shut. The PROBLEM? One dancer told me there were several people who grumbled that I dropped out. Unless they were grumbling that some other caller in recent weeks had dropped out. I could never get specifics. So I started wondering. At Pinewoods, one famous caller had a policy of not coming back in - he would just let the lines break down. I can see a small advantage in that approach - there is a benefit in training your dancers to be ready to pay attention and remember. That might work, but I have no plan currently to be the first on my block to test that theory. I hasten to add that the dancers showed absolutely no signs of distress (except during that one dance) -- yet our troupe of new callers said they had to call the dance in the line or it would have broken down...WHA???? How the heck is a caller supposed to know that there's a problem if there's no problem? I mean, if a caller were to stop calling, as one friend of mine did, on the first time in a no-walk-through contra "because it was going so well," that would be too soon. And if you keep talking long after everyone knows the dance, that would be too long. So, just to be able to say something like "Well the standard is to call four times (two? six?) for an easy dance in a mostly experienced crowd," would be useful. No one has to stick to that - there are too many variables. But I'd still like to know what the common practice is. Funny, though - the complaint that callers were dropping out was aimed at "the callers at the last 3 or 4 dances." I was at those dances, and I did not have the same complaint - far from it! There were lots of beginners (New Year's Resolution dancers?) and I had to work hard a few times, but I take that as part of the fun, or at the very least, the small price I pay for a steady stream of new and interesting people in my life. But that's not a good answer to give to someone who took the trouble to give me feedback. So maybe my question is "how long do YOU call easy dances at your regular dance?" M E On Fri, Feb 11, 2011 at 4:34 PM,<mhillegonds(a)comcast.net> wrote: Thank you, Mac. I whole-heartedly agree with your approach. Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________