Re: [Callers] contradance materials and/or calls in Spanish or any non-English language

First: Even if the calls are in English, the teaching must be done in Spanish. And, if you're doing one night stand dances, English in other countries doesn't work. I've called simple dances in both France and Italy, after asking people how to say long lines forward & back, right hand turn, swing, etc. Would not have worked to speak English, no way, no how... Now, if it were at a place where people came to learn the dance, take a few classes, become familiar with the names put on the figures, then saying, "This is an American dance, so let's learn the American words," that works great. Well, almost great. I was calling a dance in Denmark, to an older crowd of practiced dancers (all young people speak English). They had been dancing to their regular caller for years, knew all the moves. So, when calling a square dance I was surprised when I called, "Allemande Left your corner, back to your own with a Right & Left Grand," and they didn't have a clue. After a struggle with trying to teach and wondering why they didn't know that move, I somehow said, "Grand Right & Left," and they immediately knew what to do. They only knew one word order for the name of the figure... As far as word choices go, when I first started calling dances and playing fiddle, when teaching the dance I'd teach a do si do. Then I'd say, "so the move you're going to do is a do si do, but it'll sound like this, 'oshiho'," "and balance & swing will sound like this, 'halnacenswin'." Even with these garbled calls, dancers did fine. So, when you have an audience that is there to learn dances -- came to learn -- teaching the English calls is fine. But, again, if it's a group of people, who came to a gathering for a different reason, and you just are to call a few dances, you do need to know how to give descriptive calls in the local lingo. ~erik hoffman oakland, ca On 7/21/2013 10:54 AM, Aahz Maruch wrote: