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