Thanks for starting the thread,  Kalia.  I would like to start to include Triplets in one of our community series.  And tips like these from Louise are helpful.  I'll look at Ted's 24 later tonight. I was thinking of Ted's #41 which I have heard referenced either here or on Trad-dance-caller. I also was interested in David's Triplet #4 by David Smukler; also Packing the Boxes...  I believe David is on either this list or on Trad-Dance-Caller.  If here, David, can you give me any tips? Laurie PWest MI --- On Mon, 8/20/12, Louise Siddons <louise(a)eden2.com> wrote: From: Louise Siddons <louise(a)eden2.com> Subject: Re: [Callers] Triplets To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net> Date: Monday, August 20, 2012, 5:19 PM I recently prepped Ted's Triplet #24 for a dance that I knew would be tiny, at least at the beginning (Tulsa, OK). I chose it because after going through all of Ted's Triplets in Zesty Contras, it was one of the only ones (the only one?) that I felt confident the dancers would be able to handle. These are very experienced contra dancers who rarely leave their community dance, at which, I'm fairly certain, triplets are rarely if ever called. (There was no wild cheering.) We did a walkthrough for every couple, by which time I had figured out what was particularly confusing and they had figured out how to help each other. What confused them: casting without hands to an inverted line; left diagonals with so few people; and ending in 3-1-2 order. If I were going to teach this again, I'd probably try a demonstration of the A1 casting straight off the bat -- I let them try it and it was a pretty messy experience. I expect that most of our problem was that everyone in OK automatically does a butterfly-whirl style cast around (whereas I learned a hands-free cast in contra and ECD both). The idea that they had to make room for the 1s as they cast to middle place also baffled people briefly, but that was easily resolved. Left diagonals took experience and cooperation -- by the time we'd walked it twice, the third time was dancer-assisted and worked fine. The ending order just required emphatic reassurance that it wasn't wrong! As an English dancer/caller myself, I was struck by how much more "Englishy" Ted's Triplets are than the contras in the same book (which are what I think of as old-fashioned, and therefore a bit Englishy, already). They seem to exploit interesting and unfamiliar choreographic possibilities that result from the form, and so even when the figures are familiar, they can throw off experienced contra dancers. I travel a fair amount to dance -- in the SF Bay area and a bit in the LA area, throughout the midwest, and up and down the East Coast -- and I rarely encounter triplets at community dances (I feel fairly confident saying "never," actually). They do appear at weekends in my experience, although I can't remember the last time one was called at a weekend I attended -- probably Ann Arbor, MI's Dawn Dance several years ago? Louise. On Aug 20, 2012, at 2:34 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote:

I will include a triplet occasionally. I mostly do it as a means to provide variety - in an evening with 11 dances I would attempt to program 9 duple improper/becket dances plus two other formations. These could be any of: triplet, square, circle, sicillian circle, proper, indecent, mixer. My most used triplet is Bob's Triplet #1 (Bob Dalsemer) which contains a contra corners. This is a useful way to introduce this figure to new dancers and also to limit the damage which could occur. As well as the 'cheering' aspect that has been mentioned, there is also the tradition of calling the 1st 3 times fully, the next 3 partially and the last 3 not at all. Tradition does not have to be followed, but announcing that this will happen certainly sharpens the dancers' attention. It is a useful tool in encouraging the dancers to actually learn the dance rather than be spoon fed by the caller. Michael Barraclough www.michaelbarraclough.com

Michael Barraclough wrote: By dropping out gradually over the course of a dance and giving dancers just enough prompting, you're teaching them the dance without making them feel anxious and on their own. This applies to triplets just as well as regular dances. The old method of calling in full and then saying "you're on your own" actually requires more total calling from the caller *and* leads to more dancer frustration. This is because the caller hasn't built up the dancers' memories for figures by exercising them in each dance. Calling triplets as "1x-full, 1x-partial, 1x-none" isn't as bad as "you're on your own calling" but suffers the same problems. Instead the caller should watch the dancers closely and always try to give only prompts that are needed. Jeff