[Callers] Re: Bridgerton wedding dance/experience with using non-contra or non-ECD music to modified ECD/ceilidh dances

From: Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2022 10:30 PM To: contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Bridgerton wedding dance/experience with using non-contra or non-ECD music to modified ECD/ceilidh dances Hi all, I’ve been asked to call a Bridgerton-themed wedding dance. Part of what makes the Bridgerton theme is the music… So I’m wondering if anyone has experience (of either the successful or unsuccessful variety) of calling dances to music that isn’t our normal dance tempo (these sound a little faster than normal contra tempo) and aren’t in our standard AABB pattern. Some of the music examples I'm trying to work with are below (I’ll be using recorded music) The event is normal wedding fare- not experienced dancers. Which will either mean everything falls apart or they won’t mind the dance being sloppy because they’re just so excited by dancing and the cool music. The dances I’m planning to use are very basic (Galopede, LaBastringue, a scatter mixer, some version of duke of Kents waltz etc.) So if you have related experience: Have people been into the music so much they don’t mind that they’re finding it hard to dance with the phrase and remember the dance? Are you able to keep them together just by your calling? Do they kind of figure it out? Other ideas? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CCIG6nbyiUM This is about 120 BPM. It has 16 beat parts that might be able to go A A’ B B’ or some way to make it work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKTnO9fOcE8 This one is around 140. Could be played slower. Take some orchestration… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Qi1ApgkdCo This one is very close to 120. Interesting how the bass starts on melody. So far I would find all of these tunes interesting to dance to. They are constructed so differently than fiddle tunes by their primarily rhythmic—long note melodies. It is the rhythmic section—which does include fiddles—that make these dunes infective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zMU1RZVX5mQ This one is a bit more fiddlistic, a nice melody. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eZhzFE2C-_w https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=un4SsyvnKH4 This one is more fiddlistic, too. Around 128 BPM, could be played slower. Cheers, ~EriK