[Callers] Trouble Getting Gigs (very long)

Hi folks – I seem to have hit an interesting wall in my newish calling career, and would love to know your thoughts and strategies about how best to deal with it. I’ve been calling contra for two years, the first year learning through guest spots, classes, and half-dances. Since last November I’ve called full dances, averaging 2-3 dances/month, mostly contras with a few barn dances. My problem is this: I’m having trouble getting a couple of our local programmers to book me. In their defense, we do have a lot of good callers around here vying for the few slots. And one of our local programmers is trying to run a consistently high-powered dance, booking many world-class callers and bands. I have never asked her about calling that dance, and in fact aspire to become a caller she seeks out some day in the future. But the other dances are a different story. The one that prompted me to reach out to you here is a medium-sized hometown type dance featuring lots of different callers and bands. I dance there often; it’s one of my home venues. I have called one half-dance there, to great reviews from both the dancers and the other caller. The band said they enjoyed working with me too. Unfortunately, the programmer was away at a camp that evening. He has only seen me call guest spots – all of which he says he thoroughly enjoyed – but only one full evening elsewhere, and here’s the rub: wit wasn’t my best evening. It was a special 4-hour dance, the longest gig I’ve ever done solo. I made a few minor mistakes. And the band was a primarily English band – which meant very nice music, but mild, not at all zesty. The programmer in question is a friend of mine in the dancing community. We’re fond of each other as both dance partners and people. When I realized he might not be asking me to call his dance because he doesn’t think I’m a good enough caller, it felt devastating. But I got up the guts to approach him at the end of last night’s dance after the fiddler, notorious for his curmudgeonly pickiness, asked when I was calling next and announced that he and his girlfriend are my ‘biggest fans’. (I was quite floored, and grateful. An ego boost can do wonders at moments like that.) So I approached the programmer. “Can I ask you a question?” I asked. “I don’t know if I want to answer,” he replied, looking very nervous and obviously knowing what was coming. “Well, I’m gonna ask it anyway,” I told him, and took his arm as we walked away from the others in the room. “If, as I now suspect, you don’t like the way I call, what is it about it you don’t like so I can work on improving that?” He looked relieved then, and was kind enough to respond very honestly. He named a number of things he hadn’t liked about the one full dance he’d been at. He gave the hairy eyeball to my inclusion of a particular mixer. He also said at one point in a contra, one knot of folks was having trouble and I came down on the floor to help them, but that left the rest of them floundering awhile with no prompting. His memory was astounding – I don’t remember that at all. Perhaps I didn’t think anything of it at the time, or perhaps I was even proud of myself for being able to then get back up on the stool and call to everyone correctly after helping like that. I definitely still have a LOT to learn. I believe the biggest mistake he pointed out (and rightly) was that I didn’t seem perfectly familiar with how to teach one of the dances, and dancers had to ask a question to clarify. It’s likely true: I try to call one dance that’s new to me each evening, in order to expand my repertoire, and every time I call one I seem to learn some new nuance about how to lead it better. He said he therefore thinks I need more practice. I heartily agreed with that, and then pointed out that the way to get it is by having gigs that allow me to do more calling! He then said that that’s what the tiny venues are for. But I feel troubled by this answer. I’ve been calling those venues, and will gladly continue to. However, it seems to me that if a caller is only exposed to small halls half-full of beginners, s/he will learn to call to that level very well, but not to call dances appropriate for more advanced dancers. How will I ever gain that skill if I’m not given the chance to try it? It’s a catch-22. These venues also often book very inexperienced bands, who don’t know what I’m talking about when I try to discuss pairing dances/tunes. So I have ideas of how I’d like to become a better caller, but these circumstances are keeping me from achieving that. I also strongly believe that it’s every dance organization’s responsibility to foster new talent, if they want the group to stay alive. My local group has acted on this seriously in the past, in fact giving me and others matching scholarships to go to CDSS camp’s calling classes. (In my case, perhaps they figured out I wasn’t going to go away, so it was in their best interest to help me learn to do it better. <g>) What’s happening now, though, is that I’ve hit some sort of glass ceiling. I’m like in my calling adolescence: no longer the cute beginner but also not yet a rock star. If given the opportunity to call at a more high-powered gig, I will not be perfect at it, no. But I will get better and better, given the chance. Hearing some programmers talk about callers and bands, I have the sense now that a problematic gig like the one Chris described in his recent ‘growth’ post could be a death sentence around here. That caller might never be invited back. My experience of hitting a wall didn’t only happen that one time. Earlier this month, trying to be proactive, I inquired about potentially calling at a venue a bit more than one hour from my home, another medium-sized/level dance I’ve danced at many times in the past but not recently. That programmer asked the very good question, ‘what sort of program do you do, and is it suitable for our dancers?’ I sent him a sample program I successfully called at a similar venue, along with an offer to discuss his current community’s particular dance level and to craft my program accordingly. I have not heard back. Some say that he likes to call most of the dances there himself, so may be reluctant to share. It feels so disheartening to be kept out, I’m now considering whether it’s worth it to continue trying to call. Really, it’s been through frequent repetition that my skills have improved so far. I’ve popped a new level of understanding in terms of how to envision the moves in space, how to teach geometrically and in terms of people the dancers will encounter, and how to really work with the band to create a synergistic ball o’ fire. These skills have recently grown exponentially. I enjoy doing it, and have gotten some excellent positive feedback from dancers, bands, and other programmers – some of it even in writing, so I can prove it. But if I have to fight to get one gig every few months, I never will get better. I’ll forget the nuances of how to do it. Instead of building on each other, every dance evening will be a singular struggle. And I doubt it’s worth it. I love giving to the dance community through calling, but also love dancing – and that I feel unquestioningly welcomed to do. Thoughts? Strategies? Commiseration? How to best handle this situation? Is there a way to encourage programmers to nurture local talent? How did you manage to wrangle getting gigs that allowed your skills to continually grow? Sorry for the length of this post and the ‘woe is me’ tone. But I figured some detail might help in this case, and I’m really feeling at a loss. Thank you, comrades, for any insight you might offer. Tina Fields