Re: [Callers] What Makes A Program Varied

Over in English Country Dance land, where dances are tied to specific tunes, we think a varied evening has variety of music (different keys, meters (we get 2/2, 2/4, 4/4, hornpipe, waltz, minuet, polka, 3/2, and slip-jig choices)), tempi (we can range from maybe 85 to 110 bpm), mood, formation (triplet, three couple circle, two-couple set, four-couple longways, five-couple longways, four couple square, square with an extra couple in the middle, longways duple, longways triple, single circle, Sicilian circle, double circle, etc, but we don't generally do scatter mixers), complexity, and figures. I think David Millstone gets a bunch of this formation variation into his contra dance calling, but not many people do. So I used to worry about this in contra calling,a nd I do, still, worry about it a bit if I've got a band that only plays old-timey, but, really, the variety concern is somewhat overrated. In contra, the musical variety stuff is up to the band, but you still get to futz with mood - is the dance playful, flirtatious, incredibly flowy? Is it equal or unequal? Do you stick with your partner throughout or lose and regain your partner? Do you stick with one other couple for 32 bars or travel around? Is there a trail buddy? But if you're going to be doing, y'know, contras (longways dances with minor sets, whether that's improper/indecent/proper/duple/triple) the things that most non-caller contra junkies will notice are (a) How each round starts - if every single dance begins with "balance and swing neighbor" it'll not only seem like it's all the same damn dance, you'll screw up the muscle memory and for the next move they'll want to do the same thing they did in the last dance. So don't stack up dances with the same first figure. (b) transitions - how do you get on to the next couple? If they're all pass through right shoulder, or all California Twirl and face the next, etc, etc, that'll seem pretty similar. (Mixing in some Beckets will typically open up the transition menu.) (c) distinctive figures. If a dance has 8 bars of something unusual or distinctive - Petronella turns, balance short waves f&b and go on to the next wave - grand right and left around the whole outside of the ring - Rory O'More turns - then you don't get dinged for boringness for having circle / star / r&lt, much less ladies' chain/ hey for 4. Also, the extra-twirl crowd doesn't get bored by LC or H4 because they get to embellish. Figure count is probably worth noticing, but what makes things dull is a whole bunch of things that feel the same. Circle left to start a zigzag feels different from circle left half and slide one couple and circle some more feels different from circle left 3/4 and swing partner. If the kinetics are different, it's different. For ONS, mess around with easy formations (scatter mixers, big circles, etc) but _minimize the number of different figures_. Circle, star, swing, pass through, down the middle, trade with partner, trade back, allemande right, allemande left. You don't really need much more, figure wise, and they'll typically be happy just to be dancing. If you're doing an explicitly contra evening for a roomful of new contra dancers, variety isn't your problem. Don't throw a whole bunch of different figures or weird progressions or whatever at them just to be varied. Build your program to introduce a few figures in the course of the evening, but I don't think you should look at your figure matrix, notice that you didn't do "Give and Take", and feel like you've failed. They're dancing with different people, to different tunes; that's all the variety most of them need. -- Alan -- =============================================================================== Alan Winston --- WINSTON(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025 ===============================================================================