22 Mar
2011
22 Mar
'11
11:36 a.m.
Hi all-- I'm Keith Tuxhorn, and this is my first post to this list. I'm a
caller in Austin, TX, and have been calling for about 4 1/2 years now. In
addition to calling around TX, I've called around the Midwest and Northwest,
and just got back from a weekend in CO. I've also called ECD for a year and
a half. I've been on the list for only a couple week, and already have been
given much to think about.
My first comment is more of a question. It seems Tina was asking for dances
that would suit 7-to-10-year-old girls and their fathers, who also probably
know nothing about this dance style. Plue they're going to be worrying about
doing it right, making sure their daughter has fun... Alan, your suggestions
seem quite advanced for the target audience. I've only called a couple
ONS's, to college age and older, and observe they have the most success, and
the most fun, when they don't have to worry about position changes and
direction changes. The dances stay simple, but the dancers have loads of
fun, because they get it quickly.
A couple of moves you include, I wouldn't think about calling for college
beginners until I see they've mastered 4-5 simpler dances. For what Tina
wants, well, I'd be real hesitant... So, my question is, have you called
these dances for children, with inexperienced adults, and how successful
were they? I know kids can sometimes learn faster than adults, but am
wondering what ends up being too much...? Is anyone here learned in
behavioral/growth studies that might tell us what a kid can "spatially" do
at a certain age? I've never called to a crowd with this age/skill
concentration, so whatever enlightenment you can
O
Today's Topics:
1. easy ONS dances where partner is kept? (Tina Fields)
2. Re: easy ONS dances where partner is kept?
(Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing)
My go-to Sicilians - which you may well already have -
Haste to the Wedding
[Sicilian Circle)
[Greatly benefits from the name tune]
A1: Circle left, Circle right
A2: RH *, LH *
B1: Neighbors back-to-back, clap, clap, turn 2 hands once round.
B2: Partners back-to-back, clap, clap, pass through.
Spanish Waltz
(Any waltz with nice 4-bar phrases)
[Sicilian Circle]
Note: In A1&A2, men use only right hand; women use only left hand
A1: 1-2: Holding *that* hand with partner, waltz-balance fwd&back to
neighbor
3-4: Givin that hand to neighbor, woman turns under to change
places; both finish facing partner.
5-8: Repeat above with partner
A2: 1-8: Repeat to home place.
B1: 1-4: RH*
5-8: LH*
B2: (this can depend greatly on the group. I like coming out of the LH
star
with partners holding left hands and gents stepping up to partner's
right
hand behind, then waltz-promenading (men's left shoulders closest to
each other) 1.5 to meet a new couple.
A group that can all waltz can waltz around; a group that can't manage
the promenade can do forward two waltz steps, back two waltz steps,
pass thorough and bow to a new couple.
---
SOLDIER'S JOY.
Sicilian Circle ("As for Spanish Dance")
32-bar reel.
My reconstruction (which is pretty much everybody else's reconstruction)
A1: 1-4: Forward and back
5-8: Opposites turn two hands (no progression)
A2: 1-4: Partners balance
5-8: Partners turn (could swing if wanted)
B1: 1-8: Ladies chain over and back
B2: 1-8: Forward and back, forward and pass through.
Original text:
All forward and back, swing the opposite-all balance to partners and
turn-ladies chain-forward and back, forward and cross to face the next
couple.
------------------
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Non-gallopy whole set longways:
UP THE SIDES AND DOWN THE MIDDLE (CDM, own tune or any bright jig)
Long set for four to six couples.
A1: Step-swing balance in lines twice; cross over with polka step.
A2: Repeat to places
B1: (Reel time) 1s down the middle (walking, 8 bars) while 2s lead a single
cast (polka step) down, then up through the 1s moving arch.
B2: Swing partners.
(Repeat until 1s at top again).
[Also the own tune has a jig part and a reel part, you really don't have to
worry about that. Experiment shows this works fine with old-timey reels.
If
you're tired, you can just do the whole thing walking and it still works.]
------------------------------
Let us know how it goes!
-- Alan
22 Mar
22 Mar
1:24 p.m.
New subject: Callers Digest, Vol 79, Issue 7
Keith wrote:
Hi all-- I'm Keith Tuxhorn, and this is my first
post to this list. I'm a
caller in Austin, TX, and have been calling for about 4 1/2 years now. In
addition to calling around TX, I've called around the Midwest and Northwest,
and just got back from a weekend in CO. I've also called ECD for a year and
a half. I've been on the list for only a couple week, and already have been
given much to think about.
Hi, Keith!
My first comment is more of a question. It seems Tina
was asking for dances
that would suit 7-to-10-year-old girls and their fathers, who also probably
know nothing about this dance style. Plue they're going to be worrying about
doing it right, making sure their daughter has fun...
I thought 7-10 years old was Brownies, and Tina said it was a Girl Scout event,
so I was thinking 11 or 12 and up. (Based really only on my having been in
Webelos at 11 and then having at 12 to decide whether to go on to Boy Scouts,
so I could have been way off.)
If that's right - 11-years-old and up, English-speaking, having a group signal
that means "shut up and pay attention" - I'd expect this to be an easier
crowd
than some. I haven't in fact called a father-daughter Girl Scout dance.
Alan, your suggestions
seem quite advanced for the target audience. I've
only called a couple
ONS's, to college age and older, and observe they have the most success, and
the most fun, when they don't have to worry about position changes and
direction changes. The dances stay simple, but the dancers have loads of
fun, because they get it quickly.
A couple of moves you include, I wouldn't think
about calling for college
beginners until I see they've mastered 4-5 simpler dances. For what Tina
wants, well, I'd be real hesitant... So, my question is, have you called
these dances for children, with inexperienced adults, and how successful
were they? I know kids can sometimes learn faster than adults, but am
wondering what ends up being too much...? Is anyone here learned in
behavioral/growth studies that might tell us what a kid can "spatially" do
at a certain age? I've never called to a crowd with this age/skill
concentration, so whatever enlightenment you can give.
I've called these dances for teens, inexperienced (and sometimes drunken)
adults, and randomly assorted people at weddings and other celebrations.
And Soldier's Joy works very well at Fezziwig's dance party at Dickens Faire,
with 100 patrons (some previously dancers, some not, lots of parent-with-child
pairs).
Here are the two significant problems I've had with these dances:
- At the 200+ person barn dance at Pie Ranch, my mic gave out while I was
teaching ladies chain. [I sweat a lot, and apparently I managed to sweat enouh
to short something out in the battery pack/transmitter unit, so changing the
batteries didn't do anything. Maybe I should start keeping that in a baggie.]
The very mixed crowd (parents with children, groups of teens, parents by
themselves, etc) who had done fine with Haste to the Wedding, Blobs, Spanish
Waltz, Cumberland Square, Three Meet variations - never really quite got Ladies
Chain over and back, and the dance was something of a mess, although people
seemed to enjoy it pretty well. (Even if sets were all finishing at different
times, the ones who finished earlier would wait and start the next round when
people got to them.] This has worked for me when I've been audible.
- Haste to the Wedding failed at a wedding dance at Ardenwood Historic Farm
because (a) we were doing a Victorian dance because it was the bride's dream to
do that and she was under the impression that the whole wedding party was
behind it; they were just humoring her and didn't really want to dance, but the
dance was going okay until (b) the bride's Victorian wedding dress, much
heavier than she expected, actually stretched until it was too long and she
tripped over it, after which she was sidelined and nobody had any more interest
in dancing, including even uncalled waltzes.
Other than that, great success records.
-- Alan
25 Mar
25 Mar
8:57 a.m.
New subject: Battery pack/transmitter unit shorting out
A friend of mine who is a union sound person and does a lot of the Broadway
touring companies that come through our area told me their solution to this
frequent problem. Every night, every battery/transmitter pack gets covered
with a clear condom to keep it dry.
on 3/22/11 2:24 PM, Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing at
winston(a)slac.stanford.edu wrote:
- At the 200+ person barn dance at Pie Ranch, my mic
gave out while I was
teaching ladies chain. [I sweat a lot, and apparently I managed to sweat
enouh
to short something out in the battery pack/transmitter unit, so changing the
batteries didn't do anything. Maybe I should start keeping that in a baggie.]
Will Loving
Downtown Amherst Contra Dances
http://amherstcontra.org
9:07 a.m.
New subject: Battery pack/transmitter unit shorting out
My husband is an audio engineer.
One of the gig's he's done is the summer Boston outdoor Shakespeare
performances. It's pretty darn funny when they give a backstage tour to a
visiting VIP and always make sure to take them right by the pile of
discarded mike condoms.
ProTip: the UN-lubricated kind!!!!
-Amy
On Fri, Mar 25, 2011 at 9:57 AM, Will Loving <
will(a)dedicationtechnologies.com> wrote:
A friend of mine who is a union sound person and does
a lot of the Broadway
touring companies that come through our area told me their solution to this
frequent problem. Every night, every battery/transmitter pack gets covered
with a clear condom to keep it dry.
on 3/22/11 2:24 PM, Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing at
winston(a)slac.stanford.edu wrote:
- At the 200+ person barn dance at Pie Ranch, my
mic gave out while I was
teaching ladies chain. [I sweat a lot, and apparently I managed to sweat
enouh
to short something out in the battery pack/transmitter unit, so changing
the
batteries didn't do anything. Maybe I should
start keeping that in a
baggie.]
Will Loving
Downtown Amherst Contra Dances
http://amherstcontra.org
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Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
3:09 p.m.
New subject: Battery pack/transmitter unit shorting out
Will wrote:
A friend of mine who is a union sound person and does
a lot of the Broadway
touring companies that come through our area told me their solution to this
frequent problem. Every night, every battery/transmitter pack gets covered
with a clear condom to keep it dry.
Probably important not to use the lubricated kind.
-- Alan
on 3/22/11 2:24 PM, Alan Winston - SSRL Central
Computing at
winston(a)slac.stanford.edu wrote:
> - At the 200+ person barn dance at Pie Ranch, my
mic gave out while I was
> teaching ladies chain. [I sweat a lot, and apparently I managed to sweat
> enouh
> to short something out in the battery pack/transmitter unit, so changing the
> batteries didn't do anything. Maybe I should start keeping that in a baggie.]
Will Loving
Downtown Amherst Contra Dances
http://amherstcontra.org
--
===============================================================================
Alan Winston --- WINSTON(a)SSRL.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056
Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025
===============================================================================
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4 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing -
Amy Cann -
Keith Tuxhorn -
Will Loving