Re: [Callers] Trouble Getting Gigs

I have thought a lot about this lately as well, though maybe I have the opposite problem from the one Tina first described, though similarly coming from being at this stage of calling. I know that I do my best practicing and pulling together of new dances and new sets when I have the looming deadline of a dance -- I just find it hard to be motivated to keep at it regularly without something to work toward. I consider myself to be an advanced-beginner inching toward intermediate level caller despite the fact that I've been at it over five years because my gigs have been so irregular. In addition, I originally trained with the intention of focusing on family dances and ONS kinds of dances for communities, family gatherings and conferences, so my growth trajectory in true contras has been slower as well. BUT, this has all changed over the past half year since we started a regular monthly dance in my town. Our dance organizing committee is all about the community-building and youth involvement aspects of it so we keep our prices as low as possible (free to kids and teens) and include a nice local foods dinner and an hour of family dance, and we feature young local performers at the half hour break between the family dance and the evening contra dance. We have chosen to keep the same band and caller (me) to maintain consistency, to allow us all (band, caller, dancers) to grow together, and to allow a focus on food, decorations and other things than booking. We have some wonderful local sponsors to cover the cost of the hall, advertising and food and I donate my calling, so that we can pay the band members, most of whom travel from several towns away. When I have a conflict I find a substitute caller and that has been a nice change, and I donate the cost of paying the sub so it doesn't ding the dance committees' budget. We began in January and averaged about 50-60 dancers for the evening portion last year, with a strong turn-out for the family part. The challenge that I am feeling is that as our dance-free summer period comes to a close and I look at Sept-May of monthly dances I am both daunted / intimidated and extremely motivated to live up the faith that the dance committee is placing in me. As I read all of your postings, I sense a mastery in most of you that I am still falling short of. I am hoping that this year will leap me up to the next level, while still providing a good evening for all of our wonderful local following but I am stressed about how to pull that off to my own satisfaction. So, I guess I'm suggesting that maybe one answer to the glass ceiling problem is to start a local dance (labor of love, takes a lot of comrades) or to find an existing dance with a regular caller who might want to alternate months on the mic (as I have heard happens in the mid-west). But then, shoot, you have quickly to be good enough!! Kind of a chicken and egg conundrum! Delia Clark On Aug 19, 2008, at 12:56 PM, Chip Hedler wrote: