10 Feb
2014
10 Feb
'14
3:48 p.m.
by far, the best thing i ever learned to do was to engage the couple (or party organizers,
or somebody who is known to the crowd) in the programming. if the bride gets up and says
"let's dance!", people will.
if they want to do something else (and they might!), ask them to designate some energetic
types to help you round up people.
best accidental thing i ever did - an afternoon reception with food and drink outside.
when the bride was ready, some of the musicians (those with portable instruments) walked
through the crowd, playing. people followed them back into the hall, just like the pied
piper!
don't be afraid to make things up as you go - just stay calm and go ahead and do your
job :-) i know that a lot of stuff i call at family dances and parties comes to me on
the fly, and so i just do it.
and i don't think of these gigs as "dances" - so i don't feel
constrained to do "dances", per se. esp at family dances, i'm likely to ask
the kids what they'd like to do - it's okay with me if they just wanna gallop
around in time to the music for awhile.
good luck to you!
barb
From: hwatson(a)uark.edu
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 15:33:03 +0000
Subject: [Callers] Calling weddings and private parties
Good morning everyone.
I've been calling for 15 years and to this day, the hardest dances for me to call are
private parties, like weddings. Usually, a "soon to be wed" couple comes to a
regular dance for the first time, has a great time, and that's what they want at their
wedding reception. What they fail to realize is the atmosphere of a wedding reception is
completely different than a normal contra dance. The focus of attendees to a contra dance
is the dance. The attendees of a wedding reception are there to socialize and usually
drink.
I learned through trial and mostly errors that actual contra dances are rarely a good
idea at such an event. The stumbling block is the contra progression and has caused more
private dances to crash and burn than I can count. You don't want to spend much time
teaching as the dancers will lose interest very quickly. So, I keep a stash of very
simple proper dances, circles, and squares which seems to work the best. The Virginia
Reel is always a favorite because it can become totally messed up, will still be fun, and
is easy to recover. Even little kids can join in.
Would other callers share some of their experiences and solutions for these types of
events? What dances have you found to be the most successful? I thought this might be
relevant because if you call dances long enough, at some point you will be asked to do one
of these.
Harold