[Callers] Winter Whirlwind Weekend and Callers Workshop with Becky Hill

Hello All-- The First Saturday Dance and Triangle Country Dancers will be hosting the Winter Whirlwind weekend February 29 - March 2 in Durham and Carrboro, NC. We will have three dances plus a callers workshop, all led by Becky Hill. On Friday 2/29, there will be a dance at Pleasant Green Community Center in Durham with the Elftones. On Saturday (3/1) afternoon, we will have an advance dance, also with the Elftones and Becky. Then on Saturday evening, we will have a dance with Footloose and Becky. Finally, on Sunday afternoon (beginning at 12:30), Becky will lead an intermediate level callers workshop (Becky's more detailed description of the workshop is at the end of this message. More information about the weekend can be found at www.winterwhirlwind.com. If you know if any other callers that might be interseted in attending, please pass this on to them! I hope that many of you will be able to join us for some or all of these events. If you are interested in attending the callers' workshop, please let me know as soon as possible. We do require advance registration for the workshop. Since I'm also the one that's coordinating housing for out of town folks, if you need housing with a local dancer, please let me know that as well (even if you think I already know!!!) So, I need the following information: Who you are That you're planning on coming to the workshop What calling experience (in a sentence or so) you've had (ie. "Called some single dances in an evening." "Been calling for 20 years." etc) If you need housing with a dancer (and if so, for which nights) --if you need housing, are you allergic to anything (cats, dogs, stupidity.....) Let me know if you have any questions!! Hope to see many of you next month. Jack Workshop Description/Details: 1. We will begin the workshop by pairing new callers with experienced ones. Each team of two will "chart" a dance which will enable callers to parse the dance for the walkthrus, including specifics such as who and where each person lands in the line, discovering shadows, and negotiating knotty end effects. 2. Programming: each team will be given 11 dances sequenced in the best order to program for a given evening. We will all share the outcome and explain how each team made their decisions. 3. Precision calling: the participants will be given dances with dicey timing issues. Using the empty timing sheets in the large handout, the participants will fill in the blanks so that the timing is precise with the music. 4. Voice control: breathing from the diaphragm and "on the fly" deep relaxation techniques in the face of adversity. We will do some exercises for both men and women, so that they may avoid shrill female voices and angry sounding male voices. 5. Positive teaching techniques; avoiding the use of negative words; praising the dancers and the band for a job well done. 6. Maintaining variety; the participants will fill out the "Dance-at -a Glance" sheets with a sample program using the previous programming exercise to check for variety of dance moves.