7 Aug
2011
7 Aug
'11
3:43 p.m.
Greg McKenzie wrote:
There are calls, prompts, and cues. I use "calls" to refer to words
that can instruct everyone during the first walk-through. (Others
might call this "instructions.") Prompts are what you give out when
the music starts. Cues are what the dancers use to help them
remember what the figures are after the prompts stop. Cues can be
music, examples by other dancers around them, eye contact, or other
leads from surrounding dancers. They can also be lights.
These sound like potentially useful words, but don't match my mental
model. I think of the hall as a big mush of people with different
abilities to turn external signals into dance and different abilities
to turn danced actions into short term memory. It all works as long
as the dance chosen and signals given fit the abilities of the crowd
as an organism. So when a caller goes 'sss' right when the dancers
are either about to do long lines or circle left, that can be just
enough for the hall to consense onthe right next move. They don't
need to give a full call, just a small signal. I see these lights as
taking on a similar role to short calls (circle, star, chain, swing):
they don't tell you all of what you need to do next, but they tell
enough of the crowd enough that enough people remember which of
several moves they have primed from the walkthrough goes next.
To keep the dance form open to the general public we will need some
kind of instructive calls to start.
Yes. I don't want initial teaching to go away, and I have trouble
imagining light-calls working the first time through the dance.
Jeff