3 Jul
2006
3 Jul
'06
9:03 p.m.
Hi all,
I have just come back from a wonderful caller's workshop and have gotten
addicted to having other caller's to talk to. So I have two questions for
you. First, how do you prepare for an upcoming evening of calling? I am
wondering how you prepare AFTER you have selected the dances and programmed
the evening. Do you memorize the dances? Do you call to music and an empty
room? How do you keep focused on what might happen when nothing is
happening in front of you? How do you learn new dances that you want to
call? I have recently tried scripting a dance. It took over an hour to do
the one dance, but seemed very useful. Do you script your teaching in
advance? If so how do you use that script during the evening? Second, I
have heard dance described as controlled falling. In another form of dance
I was taught to lean into the direction of travel in order to commit my
weight to the dance. I have been watching experienced dancers recently and
see no evidence of this. I have danced for perhaps 30 years, and I cannot
remember what we used to do. AS A DANCER, how do you commit your weight to
a move?
Rickey Holt.
4 Jul
4 Jul
4:36 a.m.
Hi all,
I have just come back from a wonderful caller's workshop and have gotten
addicted to having other caller's to talk to. So I have two questions for
you. First, how do you prepare for an upcoming evening of calling? I am
wondering how you prepare AFTER you have selected the dances and programmed
the evening.
Good questions.
I work continuously on memorizing my repertoire of dances,
so, generally, the dances I choose for an evening are
already memorized. Any 'new' (that is, unmemorized')
dances I memorize after choosing them and before the
dance. If I have time I call and 'solo dance' the
whole program to music in an empty room. This is
both to help drill the dances in my head, and to make
sure the succession of dances works well. Sometimes I
call all the dances in the car to music while driving
to the gig.
At the dance itself I review the dance silently in my head
after dancers have lined up and before I start the walk through.
While the dance is going, once the dancers are on their
own, I practice calling (in my head or off mic) the next dance.
I memorize new dances by going for walks with an iPod of
dance tunes and a list of a few dances I am learning.
I drill dances already in my repertoire by periodically
going for an iPod walk and the list of dances in my
repertoire and calling each of them from memory
from just the title.
My goal is to see the title of a dance, say Mary Cay's
Reel, and to be able to immediately say: 'Becket:
circle left three quarters, pass through, allemande
left the one you meet . . . ' etc.
One of the ways of making this a more pleasant task is
to have a good collection of recordings of straight ahead
contra dance jigs and reels to practice to. Great Meadow
Music (www.greatmeadowmusic.com) has put out some great
CD's of straight ahead contra dance music; I would
particularly recommend 'Green Mountain' and 'Full Swing'.
New England Dancing Masters (that's Andy Davis, Mary Cay
Brass, Mary Alice Amidon and me) have put out two great
CD's of straight ahead contra dance music: Assembly's
'Other Side of the Tracks' and Andy Davis/Keith Murphy/
Becky Tracy's 'Any Jig or Reel': www.dancingmasters.com
Best,
Peter Amidon
--
Peter Amidon
peter(a)amidonmusic.com
20 Willow Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-257-1006
cell: 917-922-5462
http://www.amidonmusic.com
http://www.dancingmasters.com
8:49 a.m.
Peter,
Thanks so much for that detailed description of your process for
learning and maintaining your repertoire. I live in a household of
musicians and I know that I should be practicing as much as they are
but sometimes I find myself at a loss for HOW to practice without
getting totally bored, so now I'm going to try iPod walks! If I'm
understanding what you mean by straight ahead contra dance jigs and
reels, the other one I've been finding helpful for practicing to is
Great Meadow's New England Chestnuts set--they just seem very steady
and reliable for finding my way through and learning new dances.
The other thing I've been trying to do is to get the new band I'm
working with the most, the Floating Bridge Band, that just formed under
Jeremiah McLane's tutelage, to record their practice sessions so I can
practice to the tunes I'll actually be using. It's been hard to get
them to do this but I finally did get them to give me a recording and,
hey!, there YOU were, calling at a gig you did with them--what a
bonus!!
Thanks,
Delia
On Jul 4, 2006, at 5:36 AM, Peter Amidon wrote:
Delia Clark
PO Box 45
Taftsville, VT 05073
802-457-2075
deliaclark(a)adelphia.net
Hi all,
I have just come back from a wonderful caller's workshop and have
gotten
addicted to having other caller's to talk to. So I have two
questions for
you. First, how do you prepare for an upcoming evening of calling? I
am
wondering how you prepare AFTER you have selected the dances and
programmed
the evening.
Good questions.
I work continuously on memorizing my repertoire of dances,
so, generally, the dances I choose for an evening are
already memorized. Any 'new' (that is, unmemorized')
dances I memorize after choosing them and before the
dance. If I have time I call and 'solo dance' the
whole program to music in an empty room. This is
both to help drill the dances in my head, and to make
sure the succession of dances works well. Sometimes I
call all the dances in the car to music while driving
to the gig.
At the dance itself I review the dance silently in my head
after dancers have lined up and before I start the walk through.
While the dance is going, once the dancers are on their
own, I practice calling (in my head or off mic) the next dance.
I memorize new dances by going for walks with an iPod of
dance tunes and a list of a few dances I am learning.
I drill dances already in my repertoire by periodically
going for an iPod walk and the list of dances in my
repertoire and calling each of them from memory
from just the title.
My goal is to see the title of a dance, say Mary Cay's
Reel, and to be able to immediately say: 'Becket:
circle left three quarters, pass through, allemande
left the one you meet . . . ' etc.
One of the ways of making this a more pleasant task is
to have a good collection of recordings of straight ahead
contra dance jigs and reels to practice to. Great Meadow
Music (www.greatmeadowmusic.com) has put out some great
CD's of straight ahead contra dance music; I would
particularly recommend 'Green Mountain' and 'Full Swing'.
New England Dancing Masters (that's Andy Davis, Mary Cay
Brass, Mary Alice Amidon and me) have put out two great
CD's of straight ahead contra dance music: Assembly's
'Other Side of the Tracks' and Andy Davis/Keith Murphy/
Becky Tracy's 'Any Jig or Reel': www.dancingmasters.com
Best,
Peter Amidon
--
Peter Amidon
peter(a)amidonmusic.com
20 Willow Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-257-1006
cell: 917-922-5462
http://www.amidonmusic.com
http://www.dancingmasters.com
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
11:35 a.m.
Peter,
Thanks so much for that detailed description of your process for
learning and maintaining your repertoire. I live in a household of
musicians and I know that I should be practicing as much as they are
but sometimes I find myself at a loss for HOW to practice without
getting totally bored, so now I'm going to try iPod walks! If I'm
understanding what you mean by straight ahead contra dance jigs and
reels, the other one I've been finding helpful for practicing to is
Great Meadow's New England Chestnuts set--they just seem very steady
and reliable for finding my way through and learning new dances.
I agree, New England Chestnuts (which is also carried by
Great Meadow Music) is a fabulous recording of contra music,
and a wonderful time capsule of the contra dance music
(as played by Rodney and Randy Miller) typical of the
late 1970's, and a great recording for practicing calling.
I learned my contra dance piano from Randy's very clear playing
on that recording.
The other thing I've been trying to do is to get
the new band I'm
working with the most, the Floating Bridge Band, that just formed under
Jeremiah McLane's tutelage, to record their practice sessions so I can
practice to the tunes I'll actually be using. It's been hard to get
them to do this but I finally did get them to give me a recording and,
hey!, there YOU were, calling at a gig you did with them--what a
bonus!!
I LOVE that band. It is reminiscent of Dudley's early bands, with
lots of rollicking melody.
Best,
Peter
--
Peter Amidon
peter(a)amidonmusic.com
20 Willow Street
Brattleboro, VT 05301
802-257-1006
cell: 917-922-5462
http://www.amidonmusic.com
http://www.dancingmasters.com
5 Jul
5 Jul
11:06 p.m.
i work on memorizing my walkthru. i rarely practice actually calling. for
me, the calling comes naturally if i know my dance. if i've memorized my
walkthru, i really know my dance well.
i go over my complete beginners' workshop before every dance. i go over my
complete walkthru for every dance i'm considering, preferably the day before
the dance. i usually have about 25 dances i am ready to call.
though i don't time the walkthru, i think a lot about how to get the message
across with the fewest words.
barb
----Original Message Follows----
From: Peter Amidon <peter(a)amidonmusic.com>
Reply-To: Caller's discussion list <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
To: "Caller's discussion list" <callers(a)sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Preparing and Dancing
Date: Tue, 4 Jul 2006 05:36:20 -0400
Hi all,
I have just come back from a wonderful caller's workshop...
I work continuously on memorizing my repertoire of dances,
so...
4 Jul
4 Jul
9:14 a.m.
I'm with Peter on the value of calling while driving. My theory is
that it simulates the on-stage experience -- you have to avoid
accidents while keeping on eye on everything happening around you and
still call the right words at the appropriate time, over and over.
I will confess that I've missed more than a few exits on the highway ...
Lisa
11:19 a.m.
Hey Everyone:
I think it is very important to practice the walk-through. Practice
teaching and know what language you are going to use to teach a dance.
My guidelines are usually that I am trying to keep a walk-through no
more then 3 minutes, one time through, and of course everyone
understanding and feeling comfortable with the dance.
Of course with those guidelines set for myself, effective language is
key and identifying unnecessary words is important. I think that
nothing loses dancers faster, when I caller is up on stage doing a
walk-through and going on and on and on and on... Well you get the point.
I think of the walk-through like effective writing. When every I write
something for the first time, and proof read to just take out words first
And of course a good walk-through, makes calling a lot easier.
-JMP
5 Jul
5 Jul
9:16 a.m.
Rickey,
One thing that has been very helpful outside of the great advice you have received so far
is pages
36 & 37 of Larry Jennings "Give & Take". These pages mathematically
breakdown a contra dance.
Math has always made sense to me and can relate to it very easy. Mr. Jennings provides
sample
times for a minmum, average and no walk thru. How this helped me is when I taped myself
doing a
walkthrough (the recorder device also has a timer) I was amazed how much longer time than
I
thought it was. This has been very helpful to prepare the walkthroughs. Where I dance
time
management is very important. The caller is supposed to get things going promptly and
then get
out of the way. This has been something after taping an evening, that became very
apparent that
work was needed. There is also much more information in the book regarding preparing but
that is
the information that has been helpful to me.
See when I see ya,
Dan
--- Rickey <holt.e(a)comcast.net> wrote:
Hi all,
I have just come back from a wonderful caller's workshop and have gotten
addicted to having other caller's to talk to. So I have two questions for
you. First, how do you prepare for an upcoming evening of calling? I am
wondering how you prepare AFTER you have selected the dances and programmed
the evening. Do you memorize the dances? Do you call to music and an empty
room? How do you keep focused on what might happen when nothing is
happening in front of you? How do you learn new dances that you want to
call? I have recently tried scripting a dance. It took over an hour to do
the one dance, but seemed very useful. Do you script your teaching in
advance? If so how do you use that script during the evening? Second, I
have heard dance described as controlled falling. In another form of dance
I was taught to lean into the direction of travel in order to commit my
weight to the dance. I have been watching experienced dancers recently and
see no evidence of this. I have danced for perhaps 30 years, and I cannot
remember what we used to do. AS A DANCER, how do you commit your weight to
a move?
Rickey Holt.
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9:16 a.m.
Rickey,
One thing that has been very helpful outside of the great advice you have received so far
is pages
36 & 37 of Larry Jennings "Give & Take". These pages mathematically
breakdown a contra dance.
Math has always made sense to me and can relate to it very easy. Mr. Jennings provides
sample
times for a minmum, average and no walk thru. How this helped me is when I taped myself
doing a
walkthrough (the recorder device also has a timer) I was amazed how much longer time than
I
thought it was. This has been very helpful to prepare the walkthroughs. Where I dance
time
management is very important. The caller is supposed to get things going promptly and
then get
out of the way. This has been something after taping an evening, that became very
apparent that
work was needed. There is also much more information in the book regarding preparing but
that is
the information that has been helpful to me.
See when I see ya,
Dan
--- Rickey <holt.e(a)comcast.net> wrote:
Hi all,
I have just come back from a wonderful caller's workshop and have gotten
addicted to having other caller's to talk to. So I have two questions for
you. First, how do you prepare for an upcoming evening of calling? I am
wondering how you prepare AFTER you have selected the dances and programmed
the evening. Do you memorize the dances? Do you call to music and an empty
room? How do you keep focused on what might happen when nothing is
happening in front of you? How do you learn new dances that you want to
call? I have recently tried scripting a dance. It took over an hour to do
the one dance, but seemed very useful. Do you script your teaching in
advance? If so how do you use that script during the evening? Second, I
have heard dance described as controlled falling. In another form of dance
I was taught to lean into the direction of travel in order to commit my
weight to the dance. I have been watching experienced dancers recently and
see no evidence of this. I have danced for perhaps 30 years, and I cannot
remember what we used to do. AS A DANCER, how do you commit your weight to
a move?
Rickey Holt.
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers(a)sharedweight.net
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
__________________________________________________
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8 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
barb kirchner -
Dan Black -
Delia Clark -
Jeffrey Petrovitch -
Lisa Sieverts -
Peter Amidon -
Rickey