Re: [Callers] Solo fiddler or recorded music? - Contra Callers

27 Mar 2015

Ah! the trials and tribulations of what some of us call The One Night 
Stand Dance. Many of us have learned that, when calling to a group of 
beginners, hands-four dances come way late in the evening, if at all. 
Right & left thru, women chain, progressing, are all big challenges for 
beginners. Even understanding the line is a challenge.

You might want to purchase a book or two on the subject. Dudley's 
/Traditional Barn Dances with Calls/, is a great one, as are Marian 
Rose's /Step Lively /books, and The New England Dancing Masters books.

And, of course, I could use this for unsolicited self promotion, as I 
wrote a book called /Old-Time Dance Calling for Weddings, Parties, and 
One-Night Stands/. ($18 to be mailed to you, $15 if you come get it...).

~erik hoffman

On 3/27/2015 7:47 AM, Brooks Hart via Callers wrote:
...
  So, as the original poster, I am reporting back.

 The dance with the solo fiddler was a mixed bag.  The music was very 
 nice, but because I am new to calling, and our dancers are 99% 
 beginners, way too much time was spent on walk-throughs and teaching. 
 The fiddler sat out for long stretches of time, which seemed like a 
 waste of his time and the money spent on live music.

 I thought I had picked easy dances, but you wouldn't believe how 
 confounded so many of the people were at "right and left through", 
  and that falls on me and my lack of experience with teaching and 
 crowd wrangling.

 A special moment for everyone, though, was doing a circle waltz dance 
 with the fiddler playing, unplugged, in the center of the circle.

 So, thanks again for everyone's input and encouragement,
 Brooks

  Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 03:50:51 -0700
 To: callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
 Subject: Re: [Callers] Solo fiddler or recorded music?
 From: callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net

 [resting up before the CALLERLAB convention, catching up on some older
 messages]

 On Thu, Mar 05, 2015, Neal Schlein via Callers wrote:
 >
 > So, the moral of the story is that if a caller isn't USED to   working
with a
  > band, live music isn't necessarily going
to result in the best   experience
   for the
dancers. 
 My experience as a relatively new caller is that it also depends on the
 caller's experience as a dancer. My hearing makes it a bit difficult to
 tune into the phrasing of a live band to call at the correct times, but
 because I've been contra dancing for so many years (almost   exclusively to
  live music) I can roughly manage it -- and I know
what it's supposed to
 sound like.
 --
 Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/
 <*> <*> <*>
 Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html
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