Re: [Callers] Programming an Evening - Variety

Hi Ricky, As a dancer, you hit the nail on the head as far as my experience with the question: "Does it seem as repetitious to do dances that use the same figures if the rest of the dance has a very different feel" because the different feel causes me not to recall so much a particular figure unless it is one of the more uncommon ones (chain or do si do would not count there, in my experience). As a person who calls for mostly dances with a high percentage of beginners, I also find that using a lot of the same figures, but in dances that combine them differently, seems to allow for a high success rate for the beginners without boredom for the more experienced folks (most of my dances have a very small percentage of highly experienced folks). Varying the music significantly can have the same effect - so you might take your musicians into account as well as your dance selection. Love, -cynthia -----Original Message----- From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Rickey Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2007 4:23 PM To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Programming an Evening - Variety Hi all, I am programming an evening. Probably most of the dancers will have at least enough experience to know most of the figures. I have a question about variety for this program. There are some figures that you expect to see in most dances in an evening. Swings for instance today, and Right and Left Through in older dances could be in every dance without seeming too repetitious. More unusual figures, perhaps bucksaws in beckets (Right and Left Through on the diagonal, and then across), or California Twirls might not bear as much repetition during an evening before it might start to go stale. First question about variety: Where would you place Ladies Chains, and Do-si-dos in this spectrum. The evening I have just programmed has a Ladies Chain in between one half and two thirds of the dances (all but one over but not back), and a Do-si-do in from one third to one half of the dances, depending on my final selections. Does this seem like too many? Second question about variety: Does it seem as repetitious to do dances that use the same figures if the rest of the dance has a very different feel; if perhaps the "hook" (the unique figure) is very unique and different. For instance two dances that I am considering have a ladies chain into a hey - a wonderful transition. They are "Young at Heart" by Steve Zaikon-Anderson, which adds an allemande left twice into the Ladies Chain to start the sequence, and Don Flaherty's "Slapping the Wood" which does not use the allemandes to a ladies chain, but ends and starts with a Balance-the Ring to a California Twirl to a Do-si-do Neighbors As-a-Couple that gives the dance its flavor. So two questions about variety. What has been your experience? Rickey Holt _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers