10 Feb
2014
10 Feb
'14
4:23 p.m.
On 2/10/2014 7:33 AM, Harold E. Watson wrote:
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.
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've been doing more of these lately, and one thing I've noticed is a
need to be really flexible about phrasing. If you've got a dance
pattern that's going to break if folks take more than 8 beats to get
round in a circle or a dosido, then don't use it. Keep your eyes open
and adjust the calls to fit how fast the dancers are moving. Don't
worry if you're way off the music. As long as the dancers are having
fun, you're doing your job right.
As Greg mentioned in a different context, you can use the same exact
dance twice, and the dancers will often be really happy since they "know
this one." Sometimes I'll use a spiral wind-up to both start and end an
evening. The 1-2-3 poussez! dance is Le Brandy, and it's great for
grown-ups or kids, and goes well with alcohol.
I'm often surprised at how well the super-simple dances will satisfy a
group. The mere fact of dancing together is often such a novel
experience that the dance patterns themselves are secondary to the
experience of dancing itself.
Kalia