program - Contra Callers

2 Dec 2004

I think that your advanced planning will really pay off.   I like many of these
dances and want to try them out in the future.  I have a question about two of
them.  I think it's Roll 11 that has a B2 with 1/2 promenade, circle left 3/4,
calif twirl.   If anyone has  danced this does it fits 16 beats?  If so, is it
rushed and would the tempo of the music make a difference (a bit too fast would
cause the dances to get behind)?    Rockin' Robin has a B2 that includes circle
left 1 1/4, veer left , veer right.  I really like the flow of this.  I assume
that the circle 1 1/4 takes 10 beats.  Therefore the veer left and veer right
would take 6 beats.   I'm guessing it's danceable but not at a fast tempo.  Has
anyone danced Rockin Robin?

I think that I'd like to know much more about the abilities of the dancers
before I could make any comments about the program.  What percentage of the
dancers will be beginners?   When I plan a dance I like the first 2-3 dances of
the evening to be bomb proof so that the beginners will build  confidence and
start to trust me.   If there'll be a high percentage of beginners, might you
be taking a chance with the circle mixer as a second dance?  Much confusion can
occur in the grand right and left-turn back.  I look forward to finding out how
your evening goes.
Tom

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 Today's Topics:

    1. Re: Seth--how was your first full dance? (Seth Seeger)
    2. Program for 12/4 (Linda A. Leslie)

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------

 Message: 1
 Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 16:33:37 -0500
 From: Seth Seeger &lt;seth(a)seeger.ws&gt;
 Subject: Re: [Callers] Seth--how was your first full dance?
 To: Shared Weight &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
 Message-ID: &lt;7F0B72A8-4317-11D9-BBA9-000A959CF174(a)seeger.ws&gt;
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed

 Thanks for asking!  I've been meaning to get this out for a few days
 now.

 My first full calling gig in East Sandwich, MA went VERY well!  East
 Sandwich is a wonderful dance community with fun people.  Sadly, it is
 one where attendance can greatly fluctuate.  Fortunately, I brought
 along 10 friends which brought the dance up to about 20 people.

 I think programming the dance was one of the hardest parts.  Mostly
 because my collection of dances is still pretty small, I didn't have a
 nice library to pull dances from.  (While I do have a good number of
 book resources, it's hard to pull dances out of them - I prefer dances
 that I've danced before.)  Half way through the planning, I realized
 that all but one dance had allemandes in them!  Linda Leslie was
 wonderful and spent a few hours on the phone with me helping me through
 dance placement and ordering.

 I started out using the planning matrix from the back of Give & Take,
 but found that it had too much information on it.  I ended up using a
 grid that I got from Lisa Greenleaf that only has 14 criteria, instead
 of the 35 in G&T.  I am planning on moving all my dances to white index
 cards, so I can highlight moves (all in different colors).  That will
 allow me to plan out my evening visually, instead of on a paper.
 (Rearranging cards on a table is easier than having to continually
 re-write the planning matrix.)

 Here is what I ended up with:

 1.  Cascades - Orace Johnson
 2.  Al's Safeway Produce - Robert Cromartie
 3.  Simplicity Give & Take - Linda Leslie (was Simplicity Swing by
 Becky Hill)
 4.  Carousel - Tom Hinds
 5.  Square Affair - Becky Hill
 6.  Roll Eleven - Sue Rosen & Larry Jennings
   *break*
 7.  Ramsey Chase - Joseph Pimentel
 8.  Mary Cay's Reel - David Kaynor
 9.  Happy As A Cold Pig In Warm Mud - Mike Boerschig
 10. Rockin' Robin - Rick Mohr
 11. Marian's Delight - Carol Kopp

 The evening was fun - surprisingly I wasn't nervous!  Working with Amy
 and John Larkin was fantastic.  Very flexible and easy to work with.  I
 didn't worry at all about what kind of music to put to each dance.
 Just show Amy the card and she makes great picks.

 A few times, I found myself calling an incorrect call (during the
 dance).  It would happen without me even knowing!  (Fortunately, the
 dancers weren't listing to me by that point!)  One dance did start to
 fall apart - I don't know if I said something incorrect or if the dance
 was just hard to keep track of.  Luckily, one of my trusty dancers knew
 where we were supposed to be and the dance continued on.  (I had lost
 my place too!)  By the end of the evening, I was completely exhausted,
 but I felt great.

 For three of the dances, I had written out the patter (because I had a
 lot to say).  However, I found reading off of this different format
 difficult and disorienting.  In the future, I will work harder to
 memorize the patter I want say so I can just call of my card like I did
 for the rest of dances.

 One last piece of difficulty I had was remembering where dancers had
 started in the line.  It must have just been one too many things for me
 to keep track of.  I tried remembering who was at the top of the line,
 and I tried picking one person and always looking to see where they
 started.  Neither worked with great success.  Everything worked out
 just fine in the end, though.  Amy was great about extending the dance
 out one more time through when I had miscalculated having everyone in
 for the last time through the dance.

 Now that all is said and done, I am pretty happy with my program.  It
 had a lot of dances in it that I really like to dance.  I still felt
 that it had a bit of repetition in the moves, but it can't always be
 avoided.

 Seth

 ------------------------------

 Message: 2
 Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:13:23 -0500
 From: "Linda A. Leslie" &lt;laleslierjg(a)comcast.net&gt;
 Subject: [Callers] Program for 12/4
 To: &lt;Callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
 Message-ID: &lt;BDD25AB3.891A%laleslierjg(a)comcast.net&gt;
 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

 So sorry that I will be out of town on December 4th! Looks as though all of
 you will have a great time....my best wishes to all of you: Seth, Chris, and
 Nathaniel.

 The program looks terrific! Two notes for Nathaniel, in "It's a Pirate's
 Life..." At the A2, a pass through to a wave only takes 4 beats of the
 music, then a wave balance (also 4 beats), and the Rory O'More spin (also 4
 beats); this means there are 4 beats still left. The gent's allemande will
 then start during the A2, rather than the beginning of the B1. So that
 partner swing will be a nice long one (unless you put a Balance in there).

 Also a question about American Gothic: Is the Mad Robin oriented toward your
 neighbor (along), or toward your partner (across)? The pass through along at
 the end of the dance makes me think that is with neighbor; otherwise, when
 passing through, each dancer must turn to face partner in order to
 accomplish the Mad Robin. I enjoy doing Mad Robins a lot! So your dance
 intrigues me, so I want to understand it in the way you intended it. Thanks!

 Linda Leslie

 ------------------------------

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 End of Callers Digest, Vol 4, Issue 1
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