7 Feb
2005
7 Feb
'05
11:09 a.m.
----- Original Message -----
On Tuesday, February 01, 2005 12:40 PM, Lisa G wrote:
Subject: Re: [Callers] RE: dance guidelines
On Jan 28, 2005, at 11:27 PM, The Witful Turnip
wrote:
After calling a dance in a smaller community, I had the organizer tell me
after the fact that they hadn't done beckets very often because their
dancers had found them confusing. I was surprised to hear that and had put
two of them in my programwithout even thinking about it. The organizer
suggested to me that the reason they were confusing in the past was because
the caller wasn't clear enough, and said the dancers didn't have any
problems that night. I know I called Star Trek, I just can't remember off
hand what the second one was. Mostly, the questions I ask today came out of
comments that came to me during or after dances I've called in the past.
Most organizers say that beckets are ok. If an organizer makes any other
comment about beckets, I'm just more careful about which ones I choose and
how I explain the progression. I typically call at least 2 becket dances a
program, even for less experienced dancers.
- If beckets, contra corners and double
progressions are ok to call.
Why ask about beckets? A becket is just an improper dance started in a
different place.
If it's a dance that flows into its progression, it makes no difference
to the dancers.
I think calling a becket is at the discretion of the caller: are the
dancers ready for one
more piece of info (hands 4 and circle L one place, etc). So I'm not
clear why
you would ask the organizer if it's OK to call them. Double progressions are an interesting topic. Larry
Jennings dislikes
them
and way back when encouraged me to limit them to only one a night.
Obviously, if the sets are short, then it doesn't make sense to call
them, but there are some
pretty cool DoPros out there that i enjoy dancing. When Ic all them I
encourage the lines to
have an unequal number of couples so that dancers will have more
variety in neighbors
(as a dancer I can often engineer this by jumping lines).
I typically call only one double progression dance a program but I do like
to include them, just as a change. I've got some that are quite
straightforward, so the more beginner crowds feel like they accomplished
something. There are plenty of more interesting/challenging dbl progs. And
as you say, I replace them if the sets are short. I sometimes forget to
mention that having an unequal number of couples is better. Note to self:
always mention that !