30 May
2012
30 May
'12
3:09 p.m.
over the past few decades, we have held 51 dance weekends using the open/multiple caller
format (each caller gets 2 dances) and dancing at least 7 hours each night (often
longer). We have never attempted to track this and have not had a problem with caller
using the same dances or ones that are similar. Reasons include - callers form various
regions have different favorites, callers are frequently dancing before they call so they
know what has been done recently and, most importantly - most dancers don't really
care. I have often changed my dance because I thought it was similar to recently called
ones - but really didn't have to.
The only problem I remember was when we had a really hot square danced fiddler and the
callers called about 8 squares in a row (but they all knew they were doing it) We did get
a couple unfavorable comments on that one.
Mac Mckeever
St Louis
________________________________
From: Brian Hamshar <bhamshar(a)yahoo.com>
To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 30, 2012 1:44 PM
Subject: Re: [Callers] practice vs. preparation
Becky's comments about keeping records of what dances are called are interesting. My
experiences that this is often done at longer events with multiple callers in the same
day, but I've never heard of it done at a community dance series. I do agree that it
would be easy to do and potentially beneficial to many.
Brian Hamshar
Virginia
Becky Nankivell <becky4dance(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Andy Shore (Tue, 29 May 2012 14:05:31) wrote:
"How did the previous caller fair and were there any pitfalls or
problems in that session that I can learn from or avoid? What dances
have been called thus-far and should I avoid ones that are too similar
(e.g., there were LOTS of dances with "balance the ring, california
twirl" progressions called this weekend.)"
Once upon a time when I was starting calling and also involved with
organizing the multiple-caller contra dance in Tucson, Arizona, we
maintained a notebook where each caller (or an organizer) recorded the
dances that had been called in an evening, and a few other notes on
the evening. The idea was that this would be a resource that a caller
could use in planning the next dance.
I don't know that any of the callers except for me actually ever used
this (and I know I didn't use it frequently), and after a few years
the practice was dropped.
This still seems like a good idea to me for venues where there are
multiple callers. I know that I keep a record myself so that I don't
call the same dances too frequently at one venue, (and in planning an
evening I check for the distribution of figures). If you're not a
regular dancer at a venue (whether you're visiting, or just dancing
less frequently), without some record it's hard to know what's been
called.
Nowadays, an electronic record would be easy to share, via web posting
or a file. Our not using the TFTM notebook was probably because the
dance planning happened at each caller's home, and the notebook wasn't
handy.
Are there communities that are keeping such records and making them
available? Comments on that from organizers and/or callers?
The trick is, as with any record keeping, it requires someone or some
people to make sure it happens and to keep track of the file(s)...
As an additional note, I believe the dance records are still in the
TFTM archives, and undoubtedly show some interesting changes in the
style of dances called. As someone with an interest in dance history,
I think it would be great if there were more records like this out
there.
~ Becky
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