[Callers] Ralph Page Legacy Weekend

Due to other commitments, I was unable to attend the full weekend. However, I was able to attend the callers workshops and the open mic. I also found time to talk to other callers and do some networking. Quite a few of the callers I talked to had students who they thought would be interested in the list, so I expect that we will have some new members soon (beside the recent additions: Welcome Jeremy, Karen and Lynn). I actually made up some business cards with the website address on them to hand out. I attached a picture of it. I also put a small stack of them on the flyer table before I left. Tony's workshop was titled "Calling Squares Without Fear". I don't think that I'll be interested in calling squares for a little while, but Tony had some good things to say about calling in general. He talked about the differences in a caller's rhythm (keeping the beat), timing (giving the dancers enough time to do the call) and phrasing (prompting so the dancers do the moves on the musical phrase) and how each could be good or bad independently. He had an audio cassette that had examples of each problem and asked us to identify each callers issue. He also talked about preparing to call a square in the same way that you prepare for a contra. Write the figure or break on a card, write the words and phrasing down and practice calling it to recorded music. He also suggested purchasing old recordings from the 50s of different callers (on eBay) and listening to them to hear what they do well and what they don't so you can learn what you want to include and listen for in your own calling. Mary's workshop was titled "Roots and Branches of Community Dance" and was generally a discussion about organizing a dance and how to create the environment that you want. There was a tangent discussion at one point about our duty as an itinerant caller to serve and support the vision that the organizer has for the dance and work creatively in that framework when we program an evening. During the discussion about community dances, we all introduced ourselves and talked about our background. When I expressed an interest in finding places to practice calling, I was told again about the Nelson dance on Monday nights. Lisa Sieverts said that she offers to put people up who travel to come to the dance. She asks for some warning, but said that some people just let her know at the dance. Her e-mail is: lisa(a)lisasieverts.com and her website is http://www.lisasieverts.com/contra . Lisa expressed an interest in joining the group along with her mentees. I was also told that the fourth Friday in Milford, NH is an open mic. Milford is significantly closer to the Boston area (and me!). Another good tip that I picked up from the workshop was from a discussion about communication between callers and musicians. Beth Parkes talked about what a caller can do to learn about the music and develop the lingo to talk to musicians. First, listen to music! Get as many CD's and learn the tune names and listen for what you like and write down your favorites. Talk with the musicians that you are going to work with. Ask them to play tunes in their repertoire and describe the "flavor" of the tune (smooth, bouncy, sultry, etc.), not just the technical terminology (jig, reel, French-Canadian, etc.). There was also a suggestion to have a metronome to provide a reference for tempo. I can't express enough the importance of networking with callers and organizers and putting yourself out there as an available caller. There was a couple at the workshop who were talking about starting a dance in Exeter, NH and were looking for people to call. He has the website and may or may not contact the list. I ate lunch on Saturday with Lynn Ackerman, David Millstone, his wife and his student and picked up a lot of information and advice. David recommended a book called Chimes of Dunkirk from the New England Dancing Masters Productions as a good resource for easy dances for groups with a high percentage of beginners. It has an accompanying DVD and CD (I only picked up the DVD). I met Lisa Sieverts and several other callers there, too. The best part of all of it, though, was the feeling of connection to the tradition and history of traditional dancing. We were doing dances that were popular 30-40 years ago and are still done in certain areas. We were talking to callers who learned under the people who helped make this a popular dance form again. Most of all, for me, was the reminder that the modern, urban contra dancing that I do is not the only game in town. It was a much needed reminder that the older forms are still out there and I need to learn them to be able to call any dance gig that I am offered (and accept) and succeed as a caller. The sad part of the modern contra dance scene is that it is not as supportive of the new caller in it's lack of tolerance for poor calling. The best opportunities for learning are in the smaller, community dances where the emphasis is on fun and interesting figures, not on partner swings and duple minor formations. My eyes were also opened to the opportunity and challenge in calling private parties. They require a totally different repertoire and teaching skill set, but also pay more and are potentially more satisfying. I don't know what I am going to do with this information, but I am going to try and prepare myself to take on whatever types of gigs that come my way. I signed up for the open mic. on Sunday (today) and was rewarded with the 7th slot out of 8 during the session. I signed up to call Mary Cay's Reel by David Kaynor. One of my favorite dances and one that I hadn't called yet. The crowd was very supportive and the band accommodating (I am a little ashamed that the only person I knew in the band was Peter Barnes. The others are probably pretty famous musicians that I should know). Everything went smoothly, and I was treated to a personal critique from Tony Parkes. He did a great job of listing the things that I did well as well as the things that I could improve on. Some of the things he liked were my clarity, my concise and efficient teaching, and the fact that I asked the dancers to get into position before the four potatoes were played. He noted that this was a philosophy of Larry Jennings that asking the dancers to prepare for the next move was a responsibility of the caller. My points for improvement mostly had to do with energy, enthusiasm and confidence. He suggested that I needed to express my excitement and love of the dance more (this will make up for a lackluster band, though hardly necessary with the musicians at RPLW). He also commented on my hesitancy in my calling. There was a note of "asking" instead of "telling" the dancers what to do. He noted that stage fright and excitement involved the exact same physical reaction. The trick is to channel the energy from nervousness into the calling instead of trying to suppress it. The last note had to do with putting more of the beat and rhythm into my voice. He talked about it in terms of letting the dancers know that I'm working with the music instead of working against it. He suggested that I practice calling into a tape recorder and listening to what I do right and wrong. He called the tape recorder the "callers friend" and indicated that we might hate it sometimes, but it's our friend, too. It was a very nice conversation and Tony was very supportive. He indicated that everything I did fell into the "acceptable" range for a caller, but that these things could be improved to make me better. Whew. I think that covers my experiences at Ralph Page. I would be interested in hearing about other people's experiences, too. Happy calling, Chris