Re: [Callers] ONS Squares

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Re: ONS Squares from Beth (James Saxe) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 09:03:12 -0700 (PDT) From: Robert Livingston &lt;rlivngstn(a)yahoo.com&gt; To: &quot;callers(a)sharedweight.net&quot; &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: Re: [Callers] Quiet or am I no longer getting posts? Message-ID: &lt;1348416192.54369.YahooMailNeo(a)web112605.mail.gq1.yahoo.com&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Lots of circle lefts, forward & backs and? promenades as you would in a circle dance Single active couple; out to the right and circle 4 - leave that couple (important that you say this) on to the next and circle 4, etc? All home with forward and back and/or promenades.? Use fiddle tunes or simple songs: Red River Valley, You Are My Sunshine All forward and back, ladies (gents) center back to back, gents go right single file. goin' wrong, other way back.? Swing corner, whatever;? Use fiddle tunes, maybe Comin' Round the Mtn. Last night at a wedding reception: 1st couple back to back separate around the outside of the set? (could swing each other as they pass half-way round)? All the way around swing into the center while we circle 6 hands around? All home swing and promenade.? Fiddle tune or Wabash Cannonball, something like that. Also did Little Sisters Make a Ring - added the men using arm turn/stars rather than a circle (rings) in the center Buffalo Gals / Marching Through Georgia / Cage the Bird, 7 Hands round / Grapevine Twist A simple Forward 6 - all F& B, head or side gents bring back the ladies held in each hand - do something simple here, not right hand high left hand under. Using heads or sides, make up your own quadrille but rather than using chains, do something like heads forward, gents bring back opposite lady, or gents cross to swing. Cutaway dances 6-4-2 - Dancers with one couple is working and no partner changes are good. Grand right and left without allemandes. Lots of circle lefts, forward and backs and promenades; show 2 hand swings (a swing is just a 2 person circle left for all ages)? if the dancers are getting disorientated and jumpy with elbow swings. The bonding can be deeper between couples in a square set - you can't drop out - you are recognized individually and as being responsible to the rest - so you pull for each other.? I'm glad to see squares getting more attention in Country Dance. Bob Livingston Middletown, CT ________________________________ From: Delia Clark &lt;deliaclark8(a)gmail.com&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 10:03 AM Subject: Re: [Callers] Quiet or am I no longer getting posts? Which squares did you do?? I find that some of my squares fall apart as easily as duple minors with new dancers, but it may just be my calling :-)? My stand-bys for less experienced dancers are: Simple Square, Cumberland Square 8 and Redwing.? Can you recommend others?! On Sep 23, 2012, at 9:58 AM, beth(a)hands4.com wrote: <>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<>:<> Delia Clark PO Box 45 Taftsville, VT 05073 802-457-2075 deliaclark8(a)gmail.com _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 09:19:42 -0700 From: Kalia Kliban &lt;kalia(a)sbcglobal.net&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: Re: [Callers] Hmmm Message-ID: &lt;505F369E.3050509(a)sbcglobal.net&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed On 9/23/2012 8:10 AM, beth(a)hands4.com wrote: I know what you mean though, it was awfully quiet for a while. I noticed it too. Kalia ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 12:13:02 -0700 From: James Saxe &lt;jim.saxe(a)gmail.com&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: Re: [Callers] Hmmm Message-ID: &lt;EC04F764-79A8-49AC-B112-8F4F491C93A6(a)gmail.com&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes If anyone ever wonders whether their mail from (or to) this group--the SharedWeight callers forum--isn't getting through, one way to check would be to look at the archive http://www.sharedweight.net/pipermail/callers/ and see whether the latest archived messages have reached your inbox (or whether the last messages you've sent have been archived). It's also easy to navigate from the SharedWeight home page to the archives for the other SW forums. --Jim On Sep 23, 2012, at 9:19 AM, Kalia Kliban wrote: ------------------------------ Message: 4 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 14:15:43 -0700 From: James Saxe &lt;jim.saxe(a)gmail.com&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: Re: [Callers] Quiet or am I no longer getting posts? Message-ID: &lt;EC7C10F7-7F85-4C63-9D2B-CB2A8C18CD78(a)gmail.com&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes On Sep 23, 2012, at 8:05 AM, beth(a)hands4.com wrote: I'd be interested in hearing what Beth, or anyone else, does to get people back onto the floor after a break (or at the beginning of the dancing) at ONS events. * * * * * * * * * * * * One of the few ONS gigs I've called was a company party where the band's repertoire included songs as well as dance music. The format for the event, announced well in advance, was dinner followed by dancing. I don't recall whether the dancing was described as "square" dancing, "barn dance" or what, but I'm pretty sure people were expecting some kind of dancing with a caller/teacher/leader, not jut a band playing current popular music that they could bop around to. Anyway, when people were pretty much finished with dinner, the band started with a song. This helped get people's attention and let them know that the dancing was about to start. (There might also have been some announcement by someone from the company before or after the song.) Then we did two or three dances, and took a break for a few minutes. I decided that starting with a song had worked well, and the band had more songs that they were interested in playing, so we followed the same pattern for the rest of the evening, using a song to mark the end of each break and the start of the next set of dances. The pattern of song, dances, break, song, dances break, ... seemed to work very nicely on that particular occasion. I don't have enough experience with ONS gigs to say when and would or wouldn't be good in general. Obviously, it wouldn't work with a non-singing band. Also, I think the songs helped connect the band and the attendees in ways that would have been irrelevant for an event where the caller was using recorded music. * * * * * * * * * * * * One topic I've always discussed with event organizers before taking on a ONS gig is whether the organizer is committed to helping get people onto the dance floor, including by getting onto the floor him/herself and also by making sure that the dance aspect of the event is well publicized in advance (including, btw, the fact that it's a kind of dancing where high heels are strongly discouraged). * * * * * * * * * * * * At weddings, a grand march led by the bride and groom (with caller and a partner as the couple just behind) can be an effective way to gather people for dancing. You can meander around past all the tables, etc. and people will see a that there's something going on that (a) involves the wedding couple and (b) is clearly simple enough for everyone to join in. Once you've got a nice long parade of couples, you can lead them around into a circle and--poof!--you're set up for a simple circle dance. One word of caution, though. The first time I did this, the band (an Irish band that I hadn't worked with before, hired by the wedding couple) played rahhther faster than I was expecting for the circle dance (a mixer), and it didn't seem as if slowing them down on the fly was going to be a happening thing. I noticed an older woman (perhaps an aunt of the bride or groom?) who looked like she might be tiring and wanting to drop out, but not doing so lest she abandon her partner of the moment. I was just about to signal the band to go out when a woman on the sidelines also noticed and stepped in to take the place of the tiring dancer. So I let the dance run a few more rounds (still not as long as I'd have run it, even for a "non-dancer" crowd, if the tempo were more moderate), before stopping. And then I talked with the band about keeping the tempo more moderate for the remaining dances. --Jim ------------------------------ Message: 5 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 22:24:38 -0500 From: Jerome Grisanti &lt;jerome.grisanti(a)gmail.com&gt; To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] ONS Squares from Beth Message-ID: &lt;CAD6SnUTG3gHgjF7mNhuTTw=pwW-TkEB4PioSRM1eEJFnGTRUgw(a)mail.gmail.com&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Beth, I enjoyed picturing all those squares you shared -- sure sounds like a fun program. I do have a question about Kitchen Lancers. Since you indicated well-phrased New Englandy tunes, does that break evenly into an AABB structure? If so, can you indicate those phrases? I also presume that after the sides jump in, the formation resembles a longways proper set as for Virginia Reel. Is the sliding across the hall (couples), or up and down the hall (lines)? Kitchen Lancers - well phrased New Englandy tunes First couple promenade inside the square, face out Sides jump in behind the ones into lines. Forward & Back Slide right & left Lady one lead the line of ladies around the line of gents Gent one lead the line of gents around the line of ladies Face partner, lines go BACK and forward Swing partner home to place in square All forward & back twice -- Jerome Grisanti 660-528-0858 http://www.jeromegrisanti.com For the good are always the merry, Save by an evil chance, And the merry love the fiddle And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats ------------------------------ Message: 6 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 22:07:05 -0700 From: James Saxe &lt;jim.saxe(a)gmail.com&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: Re: [Callers] ONS Squares from Beth Message-ID: &lt;71C345BE-06DB-439B-A47A-82374D8CD556(a)gmail.com&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On Sep 23, 2012, at 8:24 PM, Jerome Grisanti wrote: I enjoyed seeing the descriptions of Beth's squares also, and I have different question for Beth than Jerome had. Beth, you described the square "Ladies Chain" (named after a featured figure) as a "quasi-singing call" and you described "Heads Arch" as done "with Midwestern patter calling" but your descriptions of both dances simply state the choreography without giving the calls. Could you share the "quasi-singing" words you use for "Ladies Chain" and the patter you use for "Heads Arch"? If so, it could be helpful if you would also give some indication of the timing, for example by writing out the calls 4 or 8 beats to a line with black lines lines separating 8-bar or 16-bar chunks. I recognize that call timing can sometimes involve syncopations or other nuances that are very hard to communicate in print without the aid of an audio recording. I also recognize that any caller who wanted to use one of these dances would have the responsibility of adapting the calls, if necessary, to a form that he or she could deliver comfortably and effectively to dancers present. But I'd still be interesting in seeing call lines that you might use. --Jim ------------------------------ Message: 7 Date: Sun, 23 Sep 2012 22:10:44 -0700 From: James Saxe &lt;jim.saxe(a)gmail.com&gt; To: Caller's discussion list &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt; Subject: Re: [Callers] ONS Squares from Beth Message-ID: &lt;9934B32B-D776-46A6-9D14-513ABA68A76D(a)gmail.com&gt; Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed On Sep 23, 2012, at 10:07 PM, I (Jim Saxe) wrote: Ooops. The words "black lines lines" should have read "blank lines". --Jim ------------------------------ _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers End of Callers Digest, Vol 97, Issue 13 ***************************************