Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 15:18:38 -0800 From: winston(a)slac.stanford.edu To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Dances which work with a wide variety of tune types? Gang -- I was going to put "Tofu Dances" in the subject line, but I thought that might dissuade some of you from reading it. I was thinking that tofu is a nutritious substance without a really strong flavor of its own, and that can harmonize with a lot of different treatments; it'll end up tasting like the dish you put it in. Bill Olson's "Cranky Ingenuity" is a terrific dance - quick teach, fairly low piece count, unusual enough figure (dosido as couples) that it provides some variety in a program, useful as a first dance to let you know the state of the crowd, useful as a last dance if you don't have a lot of time, real teamwork with partner, adequate neighbor time. And one of the things that's great about it is that it works with reels, jigs, old-timey, rags, swing-dance tunes, French-Canadian tunes, Irish polka - probably good for techno, too, although I haven't tried that. While it has strong enough flow that dancers don't float in space wondering what they're supposed to do yet, the transitions (other than the closing balance-the-ring, California twirl) don't have hit precisely to still be satisfying. The dancers react to the music and the dance takes on the flavor of the music. If there's some tune set the band wants to play - like, it's the last dance and it's their showstopper - Cranky Ingenuity will likely work out well. (It might not be the single best match possible to some particular tune, but it's likely to be a good match, and having it handy and walking it through in 30 seconds makes up for deficiencies.) That's a great feature. But if I use it all the time - and worse, if everybody uses it all the time - I'll wear it out. What other dances have this feature? (I think anything where the distinctive figure of the dance has short phrases and tight timing - eg, Rory O More balances in long or short waves; roll away across the set, catch partner and swing, Petronella sequences, balance and square thru - is going to be disqualified. But if you have experience that says otherwise, speak up!) In the meantime, Happy New Year! I'm calling for an hour tonight at an English dance and dancing for three at a contra dance; I hope you all have agreeable New Year's Eves and 2014s full of satisfying music and dance. -- Alan _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers