I started doing this for the Chicago Barn Dance Company, for a few months. Historically, I have been just writing it down at the dance, or asking the caller after the dance or by a followup email. So to date it has been more of a personal project to help my calling.
We discussed this at the last dance, and several callers and dancers were interested in trying to make this part of our group so we will be discussing this how we might do this as as community.
It was initially helpful to me as I began calling more often to see others programs, and as a board member for:
- Knowing the number of dances we are averaging per night (we want to encourage local callers to work on teaching well and calling for appropriate time)
- Know the dance figures that are being called (to determine if there are new figures we can work on for improving dance skills and experience)
- Know if a dance was called the week prior (for callers planning when calling the following week)
- To consider how much our program difficulty level varies by attendance (we keep a new dancer sign-in sheet)
I am attaching a copy of what I have been using as an initial tool…I would be interested in seeing what others are doing as well.