16 Dec
2009
16 Dec
'09
2:06 p.m.
How bad would it have been to have the board basically put its foot down
and, after one of the not-very-great evenings, suggest that the next time
that person is asked to call, they prepare just half a night, or a third of
a night?
I'm curious - how did you "bring along" the new callers? Was there a
teacher/student relationship, or more of a peer-to-peer setup? I ask because
we have a bunch of cubs - I'm one of them - and it's always been
peer-to-peer, with input from experienced callers only from time to time. To
a certain extent, we critique each other. When one of us manages to screw
up, we have a friendly enough atmosphere at our Calling Parties that we can
admit it, figure out what to do better, and move on. We've been at it for
almost two years, and are only slowly moving into the rotation, mostly at
shared caller nights until someone is "ready", and even then, not as often
as the regular callers.
So far, it seems to be working. I hope that we don't develop a situation
such as the one you described! We should remain on our toes, just in case.
Interestingly, we previously had a couple of regular callers whose dances
broke down often enough that it was becoming noticeable, but after the cub
callers started calling, it happened less often! I'd like to think that the
improvement was less from the competition than from the fact that more
people were paying attention to the callers' art, and so what had become
somewhat routine took on renewed energy.
M
E
On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 9:48 AM, Lindsay Morris <lindsay(a)tsmworks.com>wrote;wrote:
Our dance group brought along a group of half-a-dozen
"cub callers" a few
years ago.
It was a bad thing.
After they got into the calling rotation at our weekly dance, they never
wanted to get off, of course.
Our really good callers got to call less often; the new callers only got to
call a dance once every 3 months, so they never got any better. The dance
was plagued with inexperienced and not-very-great calling for years.
Sorry to offer problems without solutions, but this well-intentioned
debacle
has stayed on my mind. Seem like this is the place to share the
"cub-callers" problem.
Lindsay Morris
Principal
TSMworks
Tel. 1-859-539-9900
lindsay(a)tsmworks.com
On Wed, Dec 16, 2009 at 10:42 AM, Delia Clark <delia_clark(a)comcast.net
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--
For the good are always the merry,
Save by an evil chance,
And the merry love the fiddle
And the merry love to dance. ~ William Butler Yeats
wrote:
David,
Let's do one of these for VT/NH! Aren't you just the guy to organize
it!!
;-) OK, I would help -- how about you put me in
charge of organizing
supplies for the schmoozing part!
Delia
On Dec 15, 2009, at 9:25 PM, Katy Heine wrote:
Hi, David--
>
> Ever since the "Ted's Triplets" marathon eight years ago, we in
Central
> New
> York have had an annual callers' gathering on different themes. These
have
> been more an opportunity to share repertoire
than for older, more
> experienced callers to mentor younger, less experienced callers--so
really
> not a parallel to what you're talking
about, but maybe of interest
anyway.
>
> The topics over the years have included dances in unusual formations;
> "living room dances" (i.e., dances for small numbers of people); the
Gene
> Hubert legacy; English for contra dance
callers; and calling for
community
> dances, weddings, and one-night-stands. The
next one (March 6) will be
> "Zesty Contras," which will be dances from Larry Jennings' first book.
> (Many
> of us have the book on our shelves but have not actually mined it for
the
> gems that assuredly lie within.)
>
> These annual workshops are a great opportunity for the community of
> regional
> callers to come together to schmooze, share, and enjoy each other's
> company.
> I strongly encourage callers everywhere to give it a try!
>
> --Katy Heine
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net
> [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of David Millstone
> Sent: Tuesday, December 15, 2009 6:48 PM
> To: Callers(a)sharedweight.net
> Subject: [Callers] Callers' workshop
>
> Dear fellow dance callers,
>
> I have an opportunity coming up next spring to lead a day-long workshop
> for
> dance callers. It'll be a small group, perhaps 10-12 people, with a
range
> of
> experience. Some will have had only 2-4 years of active calling while
> others
> may
> have had 20 years or more. These will be folks who are comfortable with
> contras
> and with traditional squares. They will know each other already. They're
> open to
> a wide variety of topics and teaching methods.
>
> I've been invited to address just about any topics that are near and
dear
to
me,
so I'm relishing this prospect.
At the same time, I'd like not to spend an entire day on a soapbox. With
that in
mind, I'm soliciting opinions from this group-- rather than, say, the
trad.dance.callers listserv-- because this Shared Weight group includes
some
callers on the less experienced end of the spectrum.
So, what are topics that _you_ would like to see in a workshop? Assuming
that
one already has the nuts and bolts of programming an evening, teaching a
dance,
and delivering the calls in good fashion, what skills would be useful to
address?
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
David Millstone
Lebanon, NH
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Delia Clark
PO Box 45
Taftsville, VT 05073
802-457-2075
delia_clark(a)comcast.net
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