15 Feb
2010
15 Feb
'10
8:20 a.m.
Thanks for all the terrific suggestions of dances and ideas for the Valentine's dance.
This list is a great resource!
So I thought I'd follow up with what actually transpired. Here's the program I
wound up with:
Bob's Valentine - Chris Ricciotti
Gypsy 'Round Two - Tom Hinds +
Young at Heart - Steve Zakon-Anderson +
Pam's Clock-wise Valentine (2.5) - Seth Tepfer +
Love & Twirls - James Hutson +
Spring Dance Romance - Dean Snipes
Love Sting - Rick Mohr +
Heart of Glass - Cary Ravitz
Lover's Leap - Peter Stix +
Two Hearts in Reel Time - Lisa Greenleaf +
Always My Love - Dean Snipes +
I had several extra/alternative dances in reserve as well.
The program was a bit overly-ambitious for the crowd we got, but it was fun and we made it
through. There were more "new to me" (marked with the + above) dances than I
like to present in an evening, mostly because I was determined to stick with the theme.
In retrospect that wasn't the best idea.
Given the dances I chose, I'm not so sure I presented them in the best order. Again -
this was in part due to the high number of "new" dances. I've been using
Will Loving's excellent CCDB for a few weeks and the "Program Matrix" and
"Phrase Matrix" features of it really helped, however.
A few of the new ones will definitely be "keepers" for me. Others, maybe not so
much.
The toughest ones for the crowd were Spring Dance Romance and Lover's Leap. Finding
who's across from you after the diagonal moves proved to be troublesome. I'll
need to work on that.
/Andy Shore
http://andyshore.com/
andyshore(a)gmail.com
15 Feb
15 Feb
11:25 a.m.
At 05:20 AM 2/15/2010, Andy Shore wrote:
The program was a bit overly-ambitious for the crowd we
got, but it
was fun and we made it through. There were more "new to me" (marked
with the + above) dances than I like to present in an evening,
mostly because I was determined to stick with the theme. In
retrospect that wasn't the best idea.
Thank you Andy for this cogent and self-critical analysis. We need
more of that. It is clear that you are learning from your experience.
I admit that I view dance program "themes" with considerable
dread...as soon as I become aware that the caller is embarking upon
one. As your analysis reflects, the selection of dances for a
"theme" evening often veers far from the course of what program would
"work" best for the crowd, the hall, and the music...all for the sake
of keeping the names of the dances in character with some
"theme." This idea is a recipe for a difficult evening of
over-teaching and long walk-throughs and "theme evenings" should be a
signal of danger to all in the hall.
I wish callers would consider any "theme" to be the developing
story-line of all of the dances considered from the perspective of a
mixed crowd of dancers looking for an enjoyable social evening. This
is how any good evening of contra dance should be programmed and the
name of the dance is seldom a useful indicator of where the dance
would best be positioned in the evening's program, or if it should be
included at all.
Just a thought.
12:06 p.m.
I agree, Greg....a theme should never carry more importance than the actual
programming. However, if a caller has a large enough collection of dances
to choose from, and enough experience to know what will work and what won't,
then a theme can add a little fun to the evening. In other words, having a
theme is not NECESSARILY a recipe for disaster. But it certainly requires
extra care to avoid getting in over one's head.
~Barbara
----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg McKenzie" <gregmck(a)earthlink.net>
To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>et>;
<callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, February 15, 2010 11:25 AM
Subject: Re: [Callers] Valentine's theme dance - followup/aftermath
At 05:20 AM 2/15/2010, Andy Shore wrote:
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02:35:00
The program was a bit overly-ambitious for the
crowd we got, but it
was fun and we made it through. There were more "new to me" (marked
with the + above) dances than I like to present in an evening,
mostly because I was determined to stick with the theme. In
retrospect that wasn't the best idea.
Thank you Andy for this cogent and self-critical analysis. We need
more of that. It is clear that you are learning from your experience.
I admit that I view dance program "themes" with considerable
dread...as soon as I become aware that the caller is embarking upon
one. As your analysis reflects, the selection of dances for a
"theme" evening often veers far from the course of what program would
"work" best for the crowd, the hall, and the music...all for the sake
of keeping the names of the dances in character with some
"theme." This idea is a recipe for a difficult evening of
over-teaching and long walk-throughs and "theme evenings" should be a
signal of danger to all in the hall.
I wish callers would consider any "theme" to be the developing
story-line of all of the dances considered from the perspective of a
mixed crowd of dancers looking for an enjoyable social evening. This
is how any good evening of contra dance should be programmed and the
name of the dance is seldom a useful indicator of where the dance
would best be positioned in the evening's program, or if it should be
included at all.
Just a thought.
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2 comments
3 participants
participants (3)
-
Andy Shore -
Barbara Groh -
Greg McKenzie