Hi Woody and all, I had the pleasure of dancing to Sandy's calling back in Philly in the mid 70's. She was guest caller a few times at the Wednesday night (or was it Thursday) square dance at the International House at the U of PA. I remember one time she showed up with the Arm and Hammer String band (Pete Sutherland, Joel Eckhaus, Sid Blum, Hilary Woodruff). What a night. What a crazy woman on stage! The "Potluck and dance Tonight" album came out in 1979 and a cassette shortly after. I have the cassette here somewhere but the vinyl LP has amazing liner notes with all the calls.. Several years ago there was a web page stickervillefiddle.org that had the whole recoding in MP3 as well as the liner notes. Unfortunately it has disappeared. Does anyone know if that got transferred somewhere else? It was a great resource. Several callers I know talk about learning from that recording. Susan Kevra and Will Mentor come to mind..

Sandy Bradley was THE premier caller of her time, for community dances. She called squares, of course, and party games and fun simple dances. But when she got up on a stage (or chair) and began to call, the energy in the room went through the roof. It was so much fun to be on the dance floor when she called!

(BTW, one of Sandy's contemporaries, another great caller, was John McCutcheon. The same folksinger who is well-known for the song "Christmas in the Trenches".)

I first learned to call from Sandy when she came to the Augusta Dance Week (Elkins, West Virginia) in 1979 with the Gypsy Gyppo String Band -- when Warren Argo was in it and he was still slim. Sandy conducted a caller's workshop every afternoon for the week. A few of us tried it out. I had never held a microphone before or given instructions to an actual crowd of people. That week changed my life.

One thing I still remember that Sandy told us novice callers: She said that after the evening is over and people are leaving, if they are smiling and had a good time and wanted to come back again to dance in the future . . . they may not remember your name as the caller, but you've done your job.

Woody
--
Woody Lane
Caller, Percussive Dancer
Roseburg, Oregon
http://www.woodylanecaller.com
cell: 541-556-0054

On 5/15/2024 1:51 PM, Tepfer, Seth via Contra Callers wrote:

I am no historian (paging David Milstone). However, talking about luminary and influential callers who are women, we would be remiss to not mention Sandy Bradly, from Seattle. I don't know when she started calling, but I know she had an LP with her playing dance music from 1981. I have heard that Sandy's calling inspired many future callers.

https://www.nodepression.com/the-old-time-camaraderie-of-sandys-fancy/

Purcbase a copy: https://www.ebay.com/itm/124513634047

Seth Tepfer, MBA, CSM, PMP (he, him, his)

Senior IT Manager, Emory Primate Center

Book time to meet with me

From: Emily Addison via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 15, 2024 4:43 PM
To: Jerome Grisanti <jerome.grisanti@gmail.com>
Cc: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [External] [Callers] Re: Wanting to learn more about Becky Hill - the choreographer

Thanks so much to those of you who have responded to my inquiry about Becky Hill. SO neat to learn more about her. :)
I love some of the stories about her personal philosophy about calling. So great. :)

And yes... lovely to also hear what other women were also calling in the 1980s and 1990s.

Emily

On Wed, May 15, 2024 at 3:53 PM Jerome Grisanti <jerome.grisanti@gmail.com> wrote:

The very first callers workshop I ever attended was lead by Becky. She encouraged us to take responsibility for whatever happened on the dance floor. "Own it. Win an Academy Award for sincerely saying, 'oops, I misjudged, let's try this a different way.' "

Years later, for a full-weekend event in which I was the lead organizer, the scheduled caller had to drop out suddenly and I was scrambling to find a substitute. I left Becky a message but meanwhile found someone else available. Becky called back that evening and was happy to chat a bit. She was a soothing voice and assured me that the caller I had found would do a great job. She said she would have thrown her stuff into her car and made the long drive if necessary, though, "cause that's what we do."

I still hear her voice when I use some of my favorite teaching tips. Rest in peace.

— Jerome Grisanti

On Wed, May 15, 2024, 11:09 AM Emily Addison via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi folks,

Over the past year, I'm realizing how many dances written by Becky Hill I absolutely adore. So, naively, I wrote to Becky Hill (this one!) whom I admire thinking that it was her who wrote dances. Turns out that flatfooter and old time square dance leader Becky Hill is not the same Becky Hill who wrote the contras and square that I have in my dance box.

So... I naturally became curious ... who is the other Becky Hill???

And this is all I've been able to find.

Did any of you know Becky? Any further information on her?

I know that many of her dances are super popular and called by so many folk.

Thanks,

Emily Addison in Ottawa ON

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