Re: [Callers] Estimating space and couples

I missed Alan's comments earlier and can't seem to find them now, so pardon any redundancy. We have had calling parties at our house every Wednesday for the last 3+years. The numbers run from 2 (only happened once) to the mid 20's (maybe once or twice a tear) with the usual numbers being 6 to 12. Our space is similar - usable space of 10X22 if we just turn the couches & 14X22 if we move them out of the room. I've included links to three videos - one with 4 dancers doing a dance using the "calling party progression" to recorded music, and one with 12 dancers to live music, and one with just 2 (I included this one so you could see the space with couches left in place). 12 is pretty much the max dancing at one time for contra and 10 for most English. Our "ideal" setup is 12 people - One to call, one to run sound, and 10 to dance (2 full sets of 4 plus a progression so you don't have 4 out at once). Live music is always fantastic if you can get it. Having Martha allows us to do things that would otherwise not be possible - like the video below where we are vetting a dance for Sharon McKinley that required music that was written specifically for the dance. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN5wTd4qA-0 - Large calling party http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOw9juAXL5Q - "Calling party progression" (I am assuming similar to what Alan described, as we have shared ideas on this.) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GfzXAQPvPpk - proper dance with 4 people http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y00p61udc3U - 2 ghosts One other thing - we video these a lot ....and don't allow most of them to ever see the light of day! The purpose is objective feedback. This can be a fantastic tool for improving your calling. We call it "Joseph in a Box", named after Joseph Pimentel, and the outstanding workshops he and Bruce Hamilton do on how to give and receive useful feedback for calling. Good luck on your venture. On Fri, Oct 19, 2012 at 8:06 PM, Leslie Gotfrit <lgotfrit(a)me.com> wrote: