7 Oct
2004
7 Oct
'04
5:03 p.m.
For someone who is calling a square for the first time, I would suggest that you
first make sure the figure works and that you understand the dance inside and
out. Draw out the dancers at each stage of the dance. Pick a break that uses
movements that are different than those used in the figure. Check to make sure
that the ending and beginning of the break meshes well with the ending and
beginnings of the figure and visa versa. Example: You may find a break that
ends with promenade once around and a figure that begins with heads promenade
half (or all) of the way around. Not the end of the world here but do you want
the heads to promenade once and a half? Other transitions may just not work or
be awkward.
If this is your first time calling a square, call something that is different
for your group BUT is bomb proof. You want the dancers to win. The dancers want
you to win. I want you to win and call squares for a living! Practice calling
the dance all the way through (breaks and figures) without cards to music.
Don't practice the day of the dance only. Practice maybe a week before, a
couple of days before and the day of and WITHOUT CARDS.
Music- for the most part music for squares is happy. This means that you'll
want to use music in a major key. But break the rules. I do. If you want,
you can create different moods with minor tunes. But make sure it fits into the
program so that minor tunes are over used. Many of the CDs out there are
terrible to practice calling to. They're meant for listening not dancing. You
can't beat New England Chestnuts (Rod and Randy Miller) for NE style music.
Old time music can be what I call the 'drone' type which some people love and
others hate. This type of music is hard for some people to hear the A and the
B music because it lacks much of a melody. I would suggest A. Robic and the
Exertions as an excellent recording to practice to. The cuts are long and there
is a melody. One cut has a crocked tune. Quebec Pure Laine (French-Canadian
music) is a recording that has two long cuts (atleast the cassette has two cuts-
one on side A and the other on side B) but no 4 beat intro.
Tom
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Today's Topics:
1. Re: Re: Dance organization? (Lisa Greenleaf)
2. Re: OK, I'll start off with a question. (Lisa Greenleaf)
3. (no subject) (Jenna Watson)
4. Crooked Tune (Clark Baker)
5. Re: (no subject) (Lisa Greenleaf)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Message: 1
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 12:04:12 -0400
From: Lisa Greenleaf <greeny(a)rcn.com>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re: Dance organization?
To: The Witful Turnip <wturnip(a)sympatico.ca>ca>,
<callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Message-ID: <BD898FBC.16A4A%greeny(a)rcn.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
One other thing I do, which I've found
helpful, is to note on the back of
the card the date I called the dance. I found that in the beginning, I was
calling the same dances over and over again for a while.
Keeping track of dance frequency is a good idea. I don't write on the card,
but I do have a little notebook in which I write down the program, the band
and the pay. Lisa
------------------------------
Message: 2
Date: Wed, 06 Oct 2004 12:10:38 -0400
From: Lisa Greenleaf <greeny(a)rcn.com>
Subject: Re: [Callers] OK, I'll start off with a question.
To: Chris Weiler <chris.weiler(a)weirdtable.org>rg>,
<callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Message-ID: <BD89913E.16A4B%greeny(a)rcn.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
Is it difficult to find music that
is good for practicing? What is the same or different between practicing
for squares and practicing for contras (besides the material and talking
a whole lot more)? 8^)
Squares tend to be a bit faster than contras, but it really depends on the
square. If you have a 32 bar square, then any lively contra music should
be enough for you to practice to. It also need to have a very good downbeat
drive; syncopated tunes aren't great for calling squares.
There's also the question of patter. If you want to build excitement by
inserting patter in a square, that takes practice. Again, it's just a
matter of picking motivating music and getting into a rhythm.
Lisa
------------------------------
Message: 3
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 02:48:47 -0400
From: Jenna Watson <watsonj75(a)earthlink.net>
Subject: [Callers] (no subject)
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Message-ID: <F09E08C3-182C-11D9-AB30-0050E4797B04(a)earthlink.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed
I have a question about music that an aspiring caller could practice
to? What is something that would be a good beginner band to listen to
while practicing at home?
What signifies a "crooked tune"?
Jenna
------------------------------
Message: 4
Date: Wed, 6 Oct 2004 23:39:14 -0400
From: Clark Baker <cmbaker(a)tiac.net>
Subject: [Callers] Crooked Tune
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Message-ID: <200410070339.XAA01543(a)localhost.localdomain>
From: Jenna Watson
<watsonj75(a)earthlink.net>
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 2004 02:48:47 -0400
What signifies a "crooked tune"?
For contra dance purposes, a tune that isn't in the usual AABB (or A1,
A2, B1, B2) form, especially one that doesn't repeat in 64 beats.
Almost all of our dances expect the music to be phrased in 8-beat
phrases and to repeat every 64 beats.
--
Clark Baker, Belmont, MA
cmbaker(a)tiac.net
------------------------------
Message: 5
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 11:19:58 -0400
From: Lisa Greenleaf <greeny(a)rcn.com>
Subject: Re: [Callers] (no subject)
To: Jenna Watson <watsonj75(a)earthlink.net>et>, <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Message-ID: <BD8AD6DE.16A9C%greeny(a)rcn.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
I have a question about music that an aspiring
caller could practice
to? What is something that would be a good beginner band to listen to
while practicing at home?
Any contra dance band CD that has a good beat and clear melody line: Rodney
Miller, Nat Hewitt, Larry Unger. Frank Ferrell. Note that these are all
classic New England musicians. If you want to practice to old time,
The Horseflies CD "In the Dance Tent" is a good one. Lift Ticket and other
new bands have very nice CDs out, but some of the tunes are very syncopated
and may not be easy to practice to, although listening to that kind of music
makes for good ear training.
What signifies a "crooked tune"?
Contra tunes are 32 bars/64 beats. A crooked tune has more or fewer bars,
usually just within one part of the tune (the A or the B). You can feel a
crooked tune because it's like a hiccup. Ruthie Dornfeld plays a lot of
crooked tunes; there's one on her "Egyptian Dominoes" album. Old time
bands
love crooked tunes, so Bruce Molsky and Dirk Powell play them on their
respective CDs.
Lisa
------------------------------
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End of Callers Digest, Vol 2, Issue 5
************************************* 
11 Oct
11 Oct
12:05 p.m.
New subject: callers: what are you guys up to?
So you took Tom's class at Pinewoods, and now you're asking questions and
going to dances with a different eye and ear. Have you been calling? Got
any stories you want to share? What did you learn? What delighted you?
What surprised you? Keep us posted!
Lisa
3:48 p.m.
New subject: callers: what are you guys up to?
A couple things have happened to my dancing:
I now pay more attention to the dances themselves and what in
particular I may not like about a dance. I'm also listening very
closely to the caller's walk through, looking for things I would have
done differently or nice ways of explaining something that I may want
to remember.
During a dance however, I'm still able to get into my "zone" where I'm
not thinking about the dance - just letting my body move with the
music. If it's a dance that I want to write down, I have to really
work at coming out of that zone so I can remember the dance. (If I
just let my muscle memory handle it, I have a hard time recalling the
details afterwards.)
Writing down dances is an interesting task: If it's a dance I like,
I'll repeat the moves to myself as I'm dancing it. In hopes that will
help me write it down afterwards. (I've been carrying pen and paper in
my pocket.) I usually have trouble remembering the name and author.
I've emailed the callers afterwards asking for clarifications on ones
I'm not sure about.
As for calling, I've got a gig on Nov 20th in East Sandwich. I've very
excited (and nervous) about it. I'm going down to East Sandwich this
weekend to see what the dancing is like and to get a feel for the
dancers.
I also tried calling a square to a small group of friends recently - it
was MUCH harder than I thought it would be. The hardest parts were
keeping up with the music, remembering when to come in after a swing,
and the transition between the square and the break. (I hadn't
practiced to the music that I ended up using.)
I'm going to try to go to the Nelson NH dance every now and then (it's
an open mic), but it's 1.5 hours away.
Seth
On Oct 11, 2004, at 12:05 PM, Lisa Greenleaf wrote:
So you took Tom's class at Pinewoods, and now
you're asking questions
and
going to dances with a different eye and ear. Have you been calling?
Got
any stories you want to share? What did you learn? What delighted
you?
What surprised you? Keep us posted!
Lisa
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11 p.m.
New subject: callers: what are you guys up to?
I, too, am paying more attention at dances. I notice what I like and
don't like about particular dances. I bought a cheap digital voice
recorder to keep in my pocket (I sweat too much to keep paper in my
pocket). If I like the dance I dictate the dance into the recorder
before the next dance starts (along with who called it what night and
what they said about the name/author).
I find that I'm only taking mental notes about wording/teaching, etc.
with callers that I enjoy instead of critiquing callers that I don't.
I have been doing some work on figuring out how I am going to organize
my dances. Being a geek working in a digital environment, I am working
on a system where my dances are formatted on my computer and I print
them on colored card stock and cut them to index card size. (The data
has a backup!) 8^) I plan on using the colored card system that Bob
Issacs (and Nathaniel Jack) use. Bob sent me a basic library of 50
dances that he uses as part of the callers workshop that he teaches and
that I plan on using as the seed of my collection.
A friend has helped organize a new callers dance on December 4th from
2-5pm in Arlington (Park Ave. Church). Seth, Nathaniel and I are each
doing 1/3 of the program. I have been doing some thinking about my
program (I'm calling the first 4 dances) and the feeling that I am going
to try for, but haven't picked out the dances yet. I will probably do
that once I have my dances organized on cards. I have also talked to
another caller about doing an entire evening at another dance. I'm also
going to try and get to the Milford, NH dance this month. A (different)
friend told me that the organizer might be open to allowing a new caller
to call half or all of an evening and I want to go there and see what
it's like and meet him.
Once I have some calling experiences to share, I will definitely share
them with the list!
Chris
Seth Seeger wrote:
A couple things have happened to my dancing:
I now pay more attention to the dances themselves and what in
particular I may not like about a dance. I'm also listening very
closely to the caller's walk through, looking for things I would have
done differently or nice ways of explaining something that I may want
to remember.
During a dance however, I'm still able to get into my "zone" where I'm
not thinking about the dance - just letting my body move with the
music. If it's a dance that I want to write down, I have to really
work at coming out of that zone so I can remember the dance. (If I
just let my muscle memory handle it, I have a hard time recalling the
details afterwards.)
Writing down dances is an interesting task: If it's a dance I like,
I'll repeat the moves to myself as I'm dancing it. In hopes that will
help me write it down afterwards. (I've been carrying pen and paper
in my pocket.) I usually have trouble remembering the name and
author. I've emailed the callers afterwards asking for clarifications
on ones I'm not sure about.
As for calling, I've got a gig on Nov 20th in East Sandwich. I've
very excited (and nervous) about it. I'm going down to East Sandwich
this weekend to see what the dancing is like and to get a feel for the
dancers.
I also tried calling a square to a small group of friends recently -
it was MUCH harder than I thought it would be. The hardest parts were
keeping up with the music, remembering when to come in after a swing,
and the transition between the square and the break. (I hadn't
practiced to the music that I ended up using.)
I'm going to try to go to the Nelson NH dance every now and then (it's
an open mic), but it's 1.5 hours away.
Seth
On Oct 11, 2004, at 12:05 PM, Lisa Greenleaf wrote:
So you took Tom's class at Pinewoods, and now
you're asking questions
and
going to dances with a different eye and ear. Have you been
calling? Got
any stories you want to share? What did you learn? What delighted you?
What surprised you? Keep us posted!
Lisa
7129
days inactive
7134
days old
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Chris Weiler -
Lisa Greenleaf -
Seth Seeger -
Tom Hinds