28 Aug
2012
28 Aug
'12
10:20 a.m.
I'm curious about something else. By the third time Hull's was called,
were the dancers noticeably better at it? For example: Were they less
likely to rush the R&Ls or to be confused about who goes forward and
who backs up? Where they more likely to be on time coming up the middle
and casting off? Were they more likely to finish the twice-around
neighbor allemande on time and less likely to forget that the actives
still had an allemande to do in the middle before the second balance?
Stepping back from the specific details, was there any noticeable change
in the styling or in the general level of confidence?
--Jim
On Aug 27, 2012, at 8:25 AM, Ron Blechner wrote:
Curious... how did Hull's Victory go over with the
fireplace set?
On Aug 27, 2012 11:11 AM, "Don Veino" <sharedweight_net(a)veino.com>
wrote:
Hull's has so far been called three times at
the Concord, MA Scout
House in
two weeks. It has been interesting to see how things have gone each
time
and the dancers' reactions/experiences. Understandably, there was a
little
pre-dance grumbling as things started up on the third occasion's
walk-through, but once the music got going it was OK.
A couple of tips/observations gleaned from these repeats:
- Accentuate teaching the same-gender R&Ls through, including a
tip on
taking up all the time available - many folks have no idea how to
do it
and
most were finishing way too early (this was probably aggravated
by all
three callers suggesting a twice-around allemande, so folks got
used to
rushing)
- Only one of three callers went for forming short sets (done
across the
hall) - it seemed to me that the unusualness of that formation
made it
take
significantly longer to line up. I was in a short line at the
bottom of
the
hall with my partner and folks kept trying to tack on sideways!
It was a
full hall, so there were only limited options...
- If you're going to mention the history of the dance, know it
(and how
to pronounce key names in the story) [?]
- If you want folks to *hear* the history info, I suggest you put
it
between the walk-through and the music/dance starting
It's been fun dancing it (ind instructive to me), but even this
chestnut-friendly venue has probably had enough for now.
-Don
On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 3:48 AM, Nick Cuccia <
cuccia(a)mosswood-associates.com
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Hull's Victory was the first dance that I
called after break at
the Palo
Alto contra dance this past Saturday night, in homage to both the
200th
anniversary and to Charlie Fenton's tradition of starting the second
half of the evening at the San Francisco contra dance with a
chestnut
back when I started dancing and calling. More than a little bit of
grumbling from one or two of the hot-shot types that didn't like
standing around, but that was more than made up for by the two young
ladies (I guessed college age, one of my compatriots thinks they
may be
younger than that) who told me at the end of the evening, "You
called a
chestnut! That was so awesome!"
It was interesting to see the various ways that the inactives
occupied
their time while the actives took their trip. It was even more
interesting to hear almost no clapping by the inactives in a crowd
that
loves clapping on Petronella (and, increasingly, Rory O'More)
figures.
--Nick
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