I have a few in my collection, and usually use them at dances at the end or
beginning of the evening when the crowd is tiny. I even have one that I made
up on the spot one time at a tiny dance when I did NOT have any in my
repertoire and had only six dancers.
I first encountered a triplet at a dance at Bates College (Lewiston, Maine
USA) about twenty some-odd years ago. I believe that Wild Asparagus was
playing. It had been a marvelous evening - and the crowd had dwindled as the
hour got late. I was thrilled that the caller knew a dance that we could do
with so few of us.
If the crowd is inexperienced I often walk it three times (similar to the
way some callers walk squares so everyone gets to try the figures). But if
the crowd is experienced then once is enough since the ones in my collection
are pretty straightforward.
-cynthia
Maine, USA
-----Original Message-----
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net
[mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Kalia Kliban
Sent: Monday, August 20, 2012 3:34 PM
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: [Callers] Triplets
Hi all
I just encountered a triplet in the wild for the first time (they don't
get called much around here, and I've been out of the dancing loop for a
bit) at our Santa Rosa (CA) contra last Friday. It was Ted's Triplet
#24. Apparently wild cheering is traditional when one of Ted Triplets
is announced?
As an English dancer, I found it to be a pretty simple and
straightforward dance and a nice break from loads o' longways, but the
contra dancers all around me were falling to bits, apparently completely
flummoxed by the small sets.
How often do triplets show up in programs where you dance? How often,
and in what sorts of settings, do you call them? What do you do
differently to teach them, to help contra dancers with the unusual
formation? They seem like useful dances, both for a change of pace and
for those dreaded dinky crowds, but as I mentioned, this was my first
time encountering one in years of dancing. Are they more common on the
East Coast?
Kalia
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