[Callers] Calling weddings and private parties

Good morning everyone. I've been calling for 15 years and to this day, the hardest dances for me to call are private parties, like weddings. Usually, a "soon to be wed" couple comes to a regular dance for the first time, has a great time, and that's what they want at their wedding reception. What they fail to realize is the atmosphere of a wedding reception is completely different than a normal contra dance. The focus of attendees to a contra dance is the dance. The attendees of a wedding reception are there to socialize and usually drink. I learned through trial and mostly errors that actual contra dances are rarely a good idea at such an event. The stumbling block is the contra progression and has caused more private dances to crash and burn than I can count. You don't want to spend much time teaching as the dancers will lose interest very quickly. So, I keep a stash of very simple proper dances, circles, and squares which seems to work the best. The Virginia Reel is always a favorite because it can become totally messed up, will still be fun, and is easy to recover. Even little kids can join in. Would other callers share some of their experiences and solutions for these types of events? What dances have you found to be the most successful? I thought this might be relevant because if you call dances long enough, at some point you will be asked to do one of these. Harold -----Original Message----- From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Harold E. Watson Sent: Monday, February 10, 2014 9:03 AM To: Caller's discussion list Subject: Re: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly I echo the congrats on your full evening! I still remember mine. Balancing the planned program with the crowd you end up having is almost always a challenge. Your idea of a backup program was absolutely correct but sometimes you have to "dumb it down" further than you first thought. As with Alan, I keep an emergency list of very easy dances as a fallback. I call this list my "wedding" dances because if you ever call a dance for a wedding or a private party of non-contra dancers, this list is a must have (usually alcohol is involved). Maybe I'll start a thread on that. Harold -----Original Message----- From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Winston, Alan P. Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2014 5:30 PM To: Caller's discussion list Subject: Re: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly Congratulations, Danielle, on your first full evening. What I do: - I have a file of easy contra dances with me. - I know a bunch of one-night-stand (super easy, often whole-set rather than duple-minor) dances, including mixers, and will whip them out when necessary. - Even without a bunch of beginners, no battle plan survives initial contact with the energy. Always evaluate how your program is going, whether the next dance you had is what's best for the people on the floor, etc. (Sometimes they can handle more than you thought they could.) I echo Andrea's point that as you develop as a caller you'll be able to teach beginners more in less time. -- Alan ________________________________________ From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Danielle Boudreau [elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2014 10:16 AM To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly Good morning, My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New Mexico. I just called my first full evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of beginners, so much so that I could use neither my planned program nor even my backup program that I thought would be appropriate for a mixed crowd. I ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are able to avoid it with prep work beforehand. Thanks! Danielle -- Danielle Boudreau <dbou(a)unm.edu> elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com cell: (505) 377-3071 _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers