[Callers] Re: Most difficult contras

Ah, Neal’s post stirred memories… True, context is everything, but I was a bit surprised to read that MWSDers had trouble with Inflation Reel. I (not Don Armstrong) wrote it and Shadrack’s Delight specifically to appeal and be accessible to both trad and MWSD groups. I’ve used both dances at Intro to Contra sessions at National SD Conventions, with no trouble. Perhaps the caller at the Tucson event was relatively new to contras and/or hadn’t worked out how to present Inflation. (Note: On occasion I’ve used Inflation as a first contra with MWSD peeps, and avoided the wait at the ends by calling Trade By after the Pass Thru. [Trade By = those facing a couple Pass Thru, those facing out Partner Trade… which takes care of the cross over.]) And I have fond memories of my two summers with the Lloyd Shaw Fellowship, an invitational group that was the predecessor of the Folk Fellowship. (I didn’t realize the FF lasted into the 21st century.) John Bradford was one of several respected callers in that world, which straddled the trad square and MWSD worlds. Others were Gib Gilbert and Bob Howell. It was Don Armstrong who got me an invitation to the Shaw Fellowship, and who made me a household name among MWSD-affiliated contra callers by publishing Inflation and Shadrack, first in Sets in Order magazine (of which he was Contra Editor) and shortly thereafter in the Contra Manual that he wrote for SIO. He recorded the calls for both dances on the Lloyd Shaw label (using music I wouldn’t have chosen, but you can’t have everything). Tony Parkes Billerica, Mass. www.hands4.com<http://www.hands4.com/> New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century (available now) From: Neal Schlein via Contra Callers &lt;contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Tuesday, September 26, 2023 10:51 AM To: Jerome Grisanti &lt;jerome.grisanti(a)gmail.com&gt; Cc: Michael Fuerst &lt;sjapartments(a)gmail.com&gt;om>; Shared Weight Contra Callers &lt;contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: [Callers] Re: Most difficult contras I have a couple of answers that are not exactly on-topic, because the answer is contextual: Inflation Reel by Don Armstrong when attempted at a MWSD convention in Tucson. (I was dancing.) Anything called to the Eastern-European-style band that played in Bend, Oregon circa November of 2003. (I was calling, it was their first time playing for a dance.) A contra written for the caller’s son’s wedding and pre-tested at the Folk Fellowship dance camp, circa 2002; it was the first time most (any?) of us had encountered an Orbit. In the camp yearbook notes it said that John Bradford had deemed the dance, “the greatest mixer ever written…although there was some question whether it was supposed to be one.” (This was a closed group and an expert caller with 50+ years experience. In my entire life, I have never seen another dance devolve like it. Couples peeled from the end and individuals were staggering out of the middle of the line because they were so disoriented, yet somehow it continued to grind on. The dance went off phrase, out of rhythm, the caller himself got lost and couldn’t maintain the sequence…in the end he didn’t even cut the music off for us; the line just fatally disintegrated all at once. ) Neal