9 Feb
2014
9 Feb
'14
6:16 p.m.
Good morning,
My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New Mexico. I just called my
first full evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of
beginners, so much so that I could use neither my planned program nor even
my backup program that I thought would be appropriate for a mixed crowd. I
ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as smoothly as I would
have liked.
I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are
able to avoid it with prep work beforehand.
Thanks!
Danielle
--
Danielle Boudreau
<dbou(a)unm.edu> elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com
cell: (505) 377-3071
9 Feb
9 Feb
6:47 p.m.
I always have a programs worth it very easy dances in a bundle. If I must, I will use
those. But... As you get more experienced, your ability to teach new dancers so they can
handle at least your back up program will increase. You will help yourself by thinking of
best ways to teach each move, succinctly, by plotting each dance so you can give road
marks like who you are standing with, looking at etc., and assessing the true difficulty
of a dance. Even a dance with all glossary moves can bewilder a new dancer because they
have no dance sense yet, no instinct about which way to turn. Good luck as you continue
learning! There's always another level of better to achieve.
Andrea
Sent from my iOnlypretendtomultitask
On Feb 9, 2014, at 1:16 PM, Danielle Boudreau
<elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Good morning,
My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New Mexico. I just called my
first full evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of
beginners, so much so that I could use neither my planned program nor even
my backup program that I thought would be appropriate for a mixed crowd. I
ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as smoothly as I would
have liked.
I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are
able to avoid it with prep work beforehand.
Thanks!
Danielle
--
Danielle Boudreau
<dbou(a)unm.edu> elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com
cell: (505) 377-3071
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
8:16 p.m.
Danielle wrote:
I'd love to hear what other callers do in this
situation, or how they are
able to avoid it with prep work beforehand.
Integrating the hall is critical. Even when there are only a few regular
contra dancers getting them spread out and paired up with first-timers will
help a lot. The trick is to be very precise, clear, and confident to
convince everyone that you will make sure they don't fail.
Here is a technique I used recently: I started with an easy first dance
"Scout House Reel," and tried to end it as soon as folks learned the
moves. Then I announced that the next dance would be the very same dance,
repeated, and I authorized all of those on the floor to go out and pick a
new partner to lead through the dance. Most of them took the cue and the
people on the floor almost doubled--with almost all couples including at
least one who had already just learned the dance.
That worked much better than I had expected.
- Greg McKenzie
West Coast, USA
9:18 p.m.
On 2/9/2014 10:16 AM, Danielle Boudreau wrote:
My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New
Mexico. I just called my
first full evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of
beginners, so much so that I could use neither my planned program nor even
my backup program that I thought would be appropriate for a mixed crowd. I
ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as smoothly as I would
have liked.
I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are
able to avoid it with prep work beforehand.
Thanks!
Danielle
Hi Danielle,
Congratulations on calling your first evening! Welcome to the world of
juggling lots of things at once with everyone watching.
I always try to remember that the evening is a party of friends, with
music by our friends and everyone trying to have a good time. My role as
a caller is to help and lead folks in this good time. And also I try to
remember that the evening is not a classroom course with a syllabus or
even a backup syllabus. Sometimes the work of developing a program leads
to becoming invested in that program -- or even in the use of any
program -- which reduces our abilities to think outside-the-box and
adapt on-the-fly. So I always have a few alternative fun dances that
work for easy occasions -- circle dances, scatter mixers, old-time line
dances, a square or two, a grand march, etc. And while I am calling one
of those dances, I watch the crowd carefully and decide on the next one
or two dances. Sometimes this process may go through most of an evening.
But the end result is for people to have a good time.
Woody
11:29 p.m.
Congratulations, Danielle, on your first full evening.
What I do:
- I have a file of easy contra dances with me.
- I know a bunch of one-night-stand (super easy, often whole-set rather than duple-minor)
dances, including mixers, and will whip them out when necessary.
- Even without a bunch of beginners, no battle plan survives initial contact with the
energy. Always evaluate how your program is going, whether the next dance you had is
what's best for the people on the floor, etc.
(Sometimes they can handle more than you thought they could.)
I echo Andrea's point that as you develop as a caller you'll be able to teach
beginners more in less time.
-- Alan
________________________________________
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of
Danielle Boudreau [elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2014 10:16 AM
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly
Good morning,
My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New Mexico. I just called my
first full evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of
beginners, so much so that I could use neither my planned program nor even
my backup program that I thought would be appropriate for a mixed crowd. I
ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as smoothly as I would
have liked.
I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are
able to avoid it with prep work beforehand.
Thanks!
Danielle
--
Danielle Boudreau
<dbou(a)unm.edu> elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com
cell: (505) 377-3071
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
10 Feb
10 Feb
2:43 p.m.
Greg, I think the same-dance twice idea is BRILLIANT!!
--------------------
Lindsay Morris
CEO, TSMworks
Tel. 1-859-539-9900
lindsay(a)tsmworks.com
On Sun, Feb 9, 2014 at 6:29 PM, Winston, Alan P.
<winston(a)slac.stanford.edu>wrote;wrote:
Congratulations, Danielle, on your first full
evening.
What I do:
- I have a file of easy contra dances with me.
- I know a bunch of one-night-stand (super easy, often whole-set rather
than duple-minor) dances, including mixers, and will whip them out when
necessary.
- Even without a bunch of beginners, no battle plan survives initial
contact with the energy. Always evaluate how your program is going,
whether the next dance you had is what's best for the people on the floor,
etc.
(Sometimes they can handle more than you thought they could.)
I echo Andrea's point that as you develop as a caller you'll be able to
teach beginners more in less time.
-- Alan
________________________________________
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net]
On Behalf Of Danielle Boudreau [elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2014 10:16 AM
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly
Good morning,
My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New Mexico. I just called my
first full evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of
beginners, so much so that I could use neither my planned program nor even
my backup program that I thought would be appropriate for a mixed crowd. I
ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as smoothly as I would
have liked.
I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are
able to avoid it with prep work beforehand.
Thanks!
Danielle
--
Danielle Boudreau
<dbou(a)unm.edu> elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com
cell: (505) 377-3071
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
3:03 p.m.
I echo the congrats on your full evening! I still remember mine. Balancing the planned
program with the crowd you end up having is almost always a challenge. Your idea of a
backup program was absolutely correct but sometimes you have to "dumb it down"
further than you first thought. As with Alan, I keep an emergency list of very easy
dances as a fallback. I call this list my "wedding" dances because if you ever
call a dance for a wedding or a private party of non-contra dancers, this list is a must
have (usually alcohol is involved). Maybe I'll start a thread on that.
Harold
-----Original Message-----
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf
Of Winston, Alan P.
Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2014 5:30 PM
To: Caller's discussion list
Subject: Re: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly
Congratulations, Danielle, on your first full evening.
What I do:
- I have a file of easy contra dances with me.
- I know a bunch of one-night-stand (super easy, often whole-set rather than duple-minor)
dances, including mixers, and will whip them out when necessary.
- Even without a bunch of beginners, no battle plan survives initial contact with the
energy. Always evaluate how your program is going, whether the next dance you had is
what's best for the people on the floor, etc.
(Sometimes they can handle more than you thought they could.)
I echo Andrea's point that as you develop as a caller you'll be able to teach
beginners more in less time.
-- Alan
________________________________________
From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of
Danielle Boudreau [elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com]
Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2014 10:16 AM
To: callers(a)sharedweight.net
Subject: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly
Good morning,
My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New Mexico. I just called my first full
evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of beginners, so much so that
I could use neither my planned program nor even my backup program that I thought would be
appropriate for a mixed crowd. I ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as
smoothly as I would have liked.
I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are able to
avoid it with prep work beforehand.
Thanks!
Danielle
--
Danielle Boudreau
<dbou(a)unm.edu> elle.boudreau(a)gmail.com
cell: (505) 377-3071
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
3728
days inactive
3729
days old
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
6 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Andrea Nettleton -
Danielle Boudreau -
Greg McKenzie -
Harold E. Watson -
Lindsay Morris -
Winston, Alan P. -
Woody Lane