13 Jan
2025
13 Jan
'25
8:48 p.m.
The amount of AI energy used by Rick's application, compared to the amount
of AI energy in use is many orders of magnitude less than miniscule.
Most inquiries to search engines either already, or soon will use AI
On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 1:37 PM Keith Tuxhorn via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
What Louise Siddons said. I couldn't agree more.
Most AI is bad for the
planet, and bad for its people.
And Diane's comment about engaging with the material is so important, too.
No offense, Rick. Love your calling and your dances. But save the planet
and just re-type the damn things, okay?
Keith Tuxhorn
Springfield IL
On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 1:12 PM Julian Blechner via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I find the most important parts on my dance cards
are less the moves, and
more the liner notes, that is:
- beats of music
- when it's not obvious, which role is facing in which direction (wavy
lines, etc)
- key figures I write in the top-right of my card so I can see them
quickly
- the color coding of my card
None of these things are standard, and different callers have different
ways not just of writing them, but understanding them.
So, a standard contra format doesn't even seem like something that's
_possible_, let alone "AI" decipherable.
I also noticed the AI didn't understand "3/4" is the same as
"three-quarters".
So ... it's an interesting experiment, Rick, similar to the experiment of
having "AI" write a contra.
But, the experiment is so much less about results for choreographers, and
much more about seeing where "AI" tech is, and isn't.
In dance,
Julian Blechner
Western Mass, USA
On Mon, Jan 13, 2025 at 1:32 PM Diane Silver via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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Any teacher will tell you that engaging with the
material leads to
mastery. It's why authentic, problem-based learning is considered better
than book-learning, and it's also why, at the very least, you were assigned
study guides or outlines or such when you were in school -- forcing you to
re-write info from the textbook, rather than just reading it.
Most of my collection is dances I collected by dancing them myself. When
I was starting out, I was in deep collection mode, and kept a little
notebook in my dance bag. I'd finish a dance, get my next partner, then
scurry over to my notebook to jot down the dance we just did before I
forgot it, then scurry back to the line before the music started. I often
missed the walk-through, but I figured, if I can't dance without a
walk-through, I have no business trying to be a caller. Then at home I'd
transcribe the scribbles onto cards. I have no doubt that that process
helped me as a new caller. I have often wondered if it's really a service
to new callers when they ask to just take a picture of my card. The teacher
in me wants to take the road of tough love and make them do the same work I
did, but I usually let them just have it because they haven't asked for
that level of mentorship.
On Sun, Jan 12, 2025 at 5:01 PM Erik Hoffman via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
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From Louise Siddons:
Also, specifically in terms of programming (which someone mentioned),
there are aspects of calling where experience is a key element of the
learning process. Shortcuts will be detrimental to the caller’s experience
even if the dancers don’t notice.
From me:
This is much like late Larry Jennings’ decision to transcribe dances in
his book, *Zesty Contras* and *Give-and-Take* with abbreviations and
in a form that was not common in the time. His thinking was people using
his books would have to think about the dance they were planning to call
had to think about the dance as they re-transcribed it. I recall the
challenge of putting dances down on a card (remember those?) (and I know
people still use cards…) from *Zesty Contras* and doing just what
Larry intended: thinking a dance through as I put it down in my
re-abbreviated cards.
Cheers,
~Erik Hoffman
Oakland CA
*From:* Louise Siddons via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
*Sent:* Sunday, January 12, 2025 12:35 PM
*To:* Shared Weight Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
*Subject:* [Callers] Re: Unifying contra dance formats with AI
AI is resource-intensive and an environmental disaster. Using it for
trivial purposes feels worse than pointless to me.
Also, specifically in terms of programming (which someone mentioned),
there are aspects of calling where experience is a key element of the
learning process. Shortcuts will be detrimental to the caller’s experience
even if the dancers don’t notice.
In the spirit of slow food, might we not consider ‘slow folk dance’ as
taking a positive, sustainable position in relation to the climate crisis?
There is no actual need to make anything related to contra dancing more
efficient.
(I’m reminded of the joke that dancing is a very complicated way of
going nowhere. Surely in some sense we embody the idea that the journey is
the destination?)
Louise.
(Winchester, UK)
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