Re: [Callers] Calling techno?

Yes, to what everyone said. When I program for techno I try for specific 8 +8 counts throughout the dance or 4+4+8 in a phrase.  I've found that the 4+12 ct of a Balance and swing is usually cut short or a flowing phrase of an allemande/star promenade/butterfly whirl gets interpreted differently by each dancer.    Keep the dances easy and intuitive...dancers want to groove and not think too much. When calling a techno, I've found that I have a mental metronome of 8 counts running through my brain in the background the entire night.  It's super easy to lose your place (and the dancers as well) especially if the music is a thumpy beat and not phrased at all. I've also found techno to be mentally tiring (because of keeping track of the counts), and if the room is dark, visually challenging because you cannot see the end of the lines easily.  Bring a light for your cards in case the organizers haven't provided enough light on stage.  A simple book light might be helpful, but make sure it doesn't "peek" over your notes or it will be in the dancers eyes. Donna Web Site:  donnahuntcaller.com Email: dhuntdancer(a)aol.com Cell:  215-565-6050 -----Original Message----- From: Sivier, Jonathan E via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> To: Shared Weight Callers' Listserv <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Sent: Thu, Mar 28, 2019 7:17 pm Subject: Re: [Callers] Calling techno?     Keep calling.  My experience has been that techo music has plenty of beat and no phrasing.  So dancers don't know when to stop the current figure and start the next one.  Some figures like circles, stars and lines forward and back have a kind of natural timing so dances with those figures work well.  Some other figures such as heys, chains and swings are less well defined as far as timing goes, and dancers tend to rush heys and chains and go long on swings.  So the dancers will all take different amount of time for them.  This means that if you stop calling the various parts of the lines will start to diverge in where they are in the dance and soon there will be parts of the room dancing the A1 part while others places in the room they are dancing the A2 or even B1 part.  I think swings may be the biggest issue.  Everyone likes to swing and many dancers will go long on each swing, but they'll all go long by a different amount.     Choose dances with figures that have really well-defined timing and don't stop calling and you will be OK.  You may be able to reduce the amount of calling, but you will probably need to say something from time to time to re-synchronize the dancers. Jonathan On 3/28/2019 4:13 PM, Maia McCormick via Callers wrote: _______________________________________________ List Name:  Callers mailing list List Address:  Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net Archives:  https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/