21 Jan
2025
21 Jan
'25
8:13 p.m.
One of the first tips I got from Bob Dalsemer was along similar lines:
If you drove several hours to call a dance and just realized that you'd
forgotten your cards, how many dances could you recall or reconstruct from
memory?
I call my memorized collection my "back pocket" dances. Especially handy in
a small series where the first dance might be a triplet or square.
Organizers in Louisville used to keep a set of "house" cards in the cabinet
with the sound system.
On Tue, Jan 21, 2025, 2:53 PM Amy Wimmer via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
My spouse and I are both callers who run a weekly
dance. In the 20+ years
we've been doing this I can only think of 2 times the caller was a no-show.
The first time it happened there were 3 callers in the hall. While I drove
home to get my dance collection the others called dances they had
memorized. Since that time my spouse has brought his dance collection to
every dance, just in case. But sometimes we're not there. What a great idea
to leave a collection, even a whole program, at the dance! Gonna do it!
Thanks for the tip!
On Tue, Jan 21, 2025, 10:48 AM sdgola--- via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I was greeted at the door once by Organizers
telling me that the
scheduled caller was a no-show. This was 5 minutes before the start of the
dance (I was attending with the expectation of being a dancer). The money
box had a few scraps of paper with dances written on them, so we started
with those. I asked a couple of dancers to sit out and use their phones to
look up dance figures while I got the dance going. The originally booked
caller had forgotten, so I became the caller for the full evening.
Now I carry a couple of printed programs with me.
Sue Gola
Princeton/Mt Airy
On Tuesday, January 21, 2025 at 01:21:01 PM EST, Colin Hume via Contra
Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
On Tue, 21 Jan 2025 10:11:33 -0800, Gary Shapiro via Contra Callers wrote:
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I haven't been a contra caller for many
years, but last night I dreamt
I was at a dance and the caller did not show
up. There were no other callers in attendance. So
I got up there
wondering what dances I knew by heart. I think I
knew how A Nice Combination went. Then I woke up
and thought about it
some more. I decided that every dance venue
should keep a dance program, with instructions,
somewhere.
I've been in that situation at a Festival - the caller was delayed on the
motorway - and I realised I only knew two
contras by heart, neither of which was a good one to start with. I
actually had my lap-top with all my dances on it,
but it was at the other venue. I managed to remember Bob Dalsemer's
"Maggie's Hobby". I now have some cards
for a few contras and squares in my shoulder bag along with the other
vital stuff like Mars Bars and cough medicine!
And yet I can remember lots of quite complicated English dances!
Colin Hume
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