Re: [Callers] practice vs. preparation

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