7 Jan
2013
7 Jan
'13
5:20 a.m.
On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 3:00 PM, tavi merrill
<melodiouswoodchuck(a)gmail.com> wrote:
...I'm specifically looking for low to medium
piece-count dances WITHOUT
down the hall.
I'm wondering if anyone could point me towards dances that really hit a
homer - things like: Jubilation (Gene Hubert), Thanks to the Gene (Tom
HInds) Another Nice Combination (Tome Hinds), Star Struck (Nick Boulet),
Simplicity Swing (Becky Hill), The Carousel (GH), The Baby Rose (David
Kaynor), All You Can Eat (Ted Crane), 20 Below (Bill Olson)... dances that
can be the bread and butter of a less advanced evening, or just a handy
fall-back for more capable crowds. Dances without down-the-hall, and
without awkward transitions (right&left through -> circle L?! agh!).
By the way, The Carousel is by Tom Hinds.
What are the best places to go looking for other
bread-and-butter
repertoire like those? Anybody have a favorite fall-back or
last-of-the-night dance they'd like to share?
As a new caller, I often think about this question of discovery. The
problem with collecting dances from published collections is that they
don't reflect the statistical reality of what dances actually get
called (which is a close enough approximation to what you're looking
for). Better, then, is to find sources that sample from a distribution
that's more similar to what dances actually get called. I like two
kinds of sources best: (1) going to contra dances, and (2) YouTube
videos (thanks to Chris Page for annotating many of them).
Incidentally, yesterday I prepared a lengthy list of relatively simple
dances (I wasn't sure how many I was going to need). These are the
ones without down the hall figures. In no particular order:
Simplicity Swing (Becky Hill)
The Second Time Around (Jim Kitch)
Easy Street (Bob Isaacs)
I Wish They All Could Be California Twirls (Jim Kitch)
Trip to Cleveland (Becky Hill)
Small Potatoes (Jim Kitch)
Hocus Pocus (Lisa Greenleaf)
Winter Storm (Linda Leslie)
Cranky Ingenuity (Bill Olson)
Judah Jig (Charlie Fenton)
A Last Hurrah (Erik Hoffman)
Summer of '94 (Mike Richardson / Lisa Greenleaf's variation)
Fairport Harbor (Paul Balliet)
You Can't Get There from Here (Carol Ormand)
Spring Fever (Tony Parkes)
Travels with Rick and Kim (Shari Miller-Johnson)
A Dance for Dan (Bill Olson)
More than one other caller, I think, has also chosen Tica Tica Timing
(Dean Snipes) as a last dance.
Hope this helps,
Yoyo Zhou