Calling and timing - Contra Callers

28 Mar 2016

Some thoughts on timing, in part inspired by the recent discussion of
"Young Adult Rose" (btw, I hope we get a series of dances up to and
including "Revered Elder Rose" -- alternatively "That Old Rascal
Rose").

As the dancers get the dance into their body, I'll shift from calling early
for direction to calling on the beat for timing. Of course it would be
ideal to be able to do both; I think it's possible with artful word choice,
but not always, not for me.

Sometimes I get the control thing going and want to exert a strong
influence over the timing -- "balance Now!".  It's often more fun to shut
up and let the dancers sort out the timing - it's great to see people
adjust to make a dance flow.

Sometimes I enjoy dancing a dance with imperfect timing or flow, just to
see how the hall will adjust and make sense of it. A lot of the figures we
dance are not so precise as we think they are; for example, many "allemande
once" figures are really more like 1/2, to reverse direction. This is why I
prefer to teach with "far enough so you can..." rather than "exactly
N" --
I want the dancers to think about flow and connection, not about completing
one figure before attending to the next.

On the other hand, I'm a total curmudgeon about lazy not-quite-far-enough
circles. And being late for your neighbor? Awful. Breaks down the trust
that builds up when we're all there for each other, on time and in the
right place.

- Roger Hayes