New subject: Winter Whirlwind Weekend and Callers Workshop with Becky Hill

17 Jan 2008

Hello All--

The First Saturday Dance and Triangle Country Dancers will be hosting 
the Winter Whirlwind weekend February 29 - March 2 in Durham and 
Carrboro, NC.  We will have three dances plus a callers workshop, all 
led by Becky Hill.  On Friday 2/29, there will be a dance at Pleasant 
Green Community Center in Durham with the Elftones.  On Saturday 
(3/1) afternoon, we will have an advance dance, also with the 
Elftones and Becky.  Then on Saturday evening, we will have a dance 
with Footloose and Becky.  Finally, on Sunday afternoon (beginning at 
12:30), Becky will lead an intermediate level callers workshop 
(Becky's more detailed description of the workshop is at the end of 
this message.  More information about the weekend can be found at 
www.winterwhirlwind.com.  If you know if any other callers that might 
be interseted in attending, please pass this on to them!

I hope that many of you will be able to join us for some or all of 
these events.  If you are interested in attending the callers' 
workshop, please let me know as soon as possible.  We do require 
advance registration for the workshop.  Since I'm also the one that's 
coordinating housing for out of town folks, if you need housing with 
a local dancer, please let me know that as well (even if you think I 
already know!!!)

So, I need the following information:

Who you are
That you're planning on coming to the workshop
What calling experience (in a sentence or so) you've had (ie. "Called 
some single dances in an evening."  "Been calling for 20 years." etc)
If you need housing with a dancer (and if so, for which nights)
--if you need housing, are you allergic to anything (cats, dogs, 
stupidity.....)

Let me know if you have any questions!!

Hope to see many of you next month.

Jack

Workshop Description/Details:

1. We will begin the workshop by pairing new callers with experienced 
ones. Each team of two will "chart" a dance which will enable callers 
to parse the dance for the walkthrus, including specifics such as who 
and where each person lands in the  line, discovering shadows, and 
negotiating knotty end effects.

2. Programming: each team will be given 11 dances sequenced in the 
best order to program for a given evening. We will all share the 
outcome and explain how each team made their decisions.

3. Precision calling: the participants will be given dances with 
dicey timing issues.  Using the empty timing sheets in the large 
handout, the participants will fill in the blanks so that the timing 
is precise with the music.

4. Voice control: breathing from the diaphragm and "on the fly" deep 
relaxation techniques in the face of adversity. We will do some 
exercises for both men and women, so that they may avoid shrill 
female voices and angry sounding male voices.

5. Positive teaching techniques; avoiding the use of negative words; 
praising the dancers and the band for a job well done.

6. Maintaining variety; the participants will fill out the "Dance-at 
-a Glance" sheets with a sample program using the previous 
programming exercise to check for variety of dance moves.