2 Dec
2011
2 Dec
'11
2:01 a.m.
Don --
Brand new to the list. I'm one of the organizers
for the MondayContras
series at the Concord, MA Scout House and have been an avid dancer for just
over 4 years now. Hi to those I already know and to those of you I'll get
to know from here!
Hi, Don!
I've been an occasional caller for dances on
shared evening programs and
camper nights, etc. but have my first full evening coming up later this
month, which I'm excited about. This is for a smaller regional dance that
attracts a mixed crowd of mostly periodic dancers. I've done some basic
"how to call" workshops at festivals, etc. but have not taken a formal
caller's course.
I'm planning to tailor my dance selection to the
expected crowd and build
in some flexibility to address variability. I'm pretty confident in my
dance selection skills but I'm definitely still counting my way through the
music to call. So one concern is with making sure I stay firmly anchored to
the music, without depending upon the crowd for cues. I craft my calls to
fit the phrasing and rehearse with music to get confident but dance
breakdowns are a fear. I've come close a couple of times early on but have
been able to set things right somehow on the fly... however, I was not very
confident doing so at the time.
Hmm. Do you pay attention to the music when you're dancing? Do you know where
you are in the tune when you're on the floor? You kinda need for that to be
second nature - something you don't have to spend conscious brain cycles on.
If it isn't, I can only suggest even more practice with recorded music than
you're doing, plus trying to be conscious about it when you're dancing, so you
always know what phrase you're in. (If you're a good dancer, you probably do
actually know this, but you might not know you do.)
So with that concern, a couple of related questions:
- Do you have practiced recovery routines (more than just "get home and
swing your partner")? Is that common? Or do most callers just make it up on
the spot?
I don't have practiced recovery routines. If the dance has been going on long
enough to be done when it breaks down, something like "Listen up - find your
partner, balance and swing" while signalling the band so they know they're
going out is fine. If it's really not done, you can just stop the music and
regroup if you have to, but you have to figure out where it's breaking down.
If you're trying to repair it without stopping, then you need to get people
into the progression in the right orientation, which is really challenging in
some dances. If I were worried about it - and I'm not, particularly, and don't
think you should be if you're confident in matching your dance choices to the
floor - I would identify the moment in each dance when you're with your partner
with the man on the right and the lady on the left and craft my recovery call
around getting people to that point.
- In working with the musicians, are there any
customary "I've lost track,
where are we in the music?" signals?
No, and you really don't want to do that. It's much likelier that they're
going
to repeat something they shouldn't or not to repeat something they should than
that you're going to get lost. You need to be ready to say to somebody "Play
another B!"
Find some couples who are doing the dance right and check in on where they are
in the pattern. If there aren't any you can rely on, then you picked the wrong
dance.
-- Alan
--
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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
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