I'd like to share this because I think it's really fun.
Several months ago, I was approached by the coaches of a Theater on Ice
team about helping put together a program for their 2018-19 Choreographic
Challenge, which was to showcase cultural dance. Burlington's team, "On
Thin Ice" wanted to do a contra dance on ice.
There were various restrictions; style and historic elements that they
wanted included, coverage of the ring, movement on the ice, etc. What they
generated is not a contra dance, but does showcase several elements of a
contra dance, and they do it on ice.
You can check out their performance at
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EzYx4XtxSs&lc
It was a learning experience for me, and a fun exercise in deconstructing
and putting things back together with different constraints. For instance,
they needed percussive elements in the choreography; I'd originally tried
to sell them on petronellas; but they all balked at the turning over
"outside edges" on skates (a harder feat).
It's the first time I've every had folks dance to recorded calls, but they
wanted them to add to the feeling of a contra (and I won't be travelling
with them to nationals in Alabama this June).
As a side not, for historical reasons relating to how their program would
be judged, I used the term gypsy instead of my preference of an
alternative. I still think they do a wonderful job of bringing contra dance
to a different corner of the world.
When I went to my first contra dance, I'd never have guessed where it would
take me. Here's to more fun memories and interesting experiences in this
community and others.
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
Thank you so far for all your responses. I have learned a lot already. I just reread my original email and realize that I forgot to mention that most of the visually impaired are elementary, middle, and high school students so traditional dance may work well.
Someone mentioned a Snake dance and I actually thought of starting with that.
Thank you again. I look forward to reading more responses and suggestions.
Helle
From: Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com>
To: Shared Weight Callers' Listserv <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Cc: Helle Hill <hellehill(a)yahoo.com>; Mac Mckeever <macmck(a)ymail.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2019 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Callers] Calling for the visually impaired
(Technical note, I Mac's response, but not Helle's original post?)
I don't have extensive experience calling for visually impaired dancers. I have occasionally had an experienced blind dancer on the floor, but never a sizable percentage. But this is conjecture on my part; please trust your own judgement.
It sounds like you're calling for a bunch of folks who don't regularly dance? In which case, I'd recommend (as with most one-off gigs), not focusing on 'duple improper contras' and just get folks moving to music. Something as simple as a snake dance may be a good kick-off. It's not overly simplifying for them, that's often a dance that gets used at community dances.
It may be worth talking to the sound person ahead of time to see if a clear "head of the hall" can be established sonicly. Some gigs will put up more than one row of speakers or such to blanket the sound, but giving an audio clue about direction may be useful.
If you're shooting for hands-four contras, I wonder if some of the pass through progressions of simple contra dances could be re-worked to have a roll-away instead? For instance, A1: long lines neighbor swing, end facing down the hallA2Down four in line, turn as couples, come backB1Circle left three places, partner swingB2Circle left three places,balance the ring, gents roll neighbor lady away with a half sashay
As two-swing contras go, that's a relatively simple. Everyone is always holding on to at least one other person. But you've still got changes of direction and knowing your orientation when you end the swing.
But even that is more complicated than I would run for most community dances when most people aren't regular dancers. Even if you have one "seeing" partner in each pair, if you're not separating sets out by "this set has seeing gents role; that set has seeing ladies role" then if you do a neighbor swing, you'll end up with couples that don't have a "seeing" person.
Good luck! And please do let us know how it goes, and what you figure out.
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 4:21 PM Mac Mckeever via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
For several years we had a wonderful lady dance with us who was totally blind (could not even tell light or dark)- here are a few things I learned from her
She always danced in a line next to a wall - the reflections off the wall gave her as good a sense of direction as the rest of us.
Use dances where you stay connected to other dancers. With her experience she did well on dosido and hey - but down the outside alone was not possible.
You will have a problem any time dancers need to make new connections - like ladies chain, allemand, etc - someone has to be able to find the impaired dancer's hand.
She would not dance squares - too much uncertainty and dancers who are lost made it impossible for her to recover(in a contra you get past it quickly so only one time thru is challenging).
As I said - this dancer was totally blind (but so good that those who did not know her often did not figure it out). She also clapped at times when not connected to hear what was around her.
It sounds like your dancers will have various degrees of impairment, so some of this may not be as important.
Hope this helps some - while challenging - this should be very rewarding and fun.
Mac McKeeverSt Louis
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:53:33 PM CDT, Helle Hill via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening of dances for an outing. I know the basics of working with the visually impaired but does anyone have any suggestions for dances, how to handle the directional aspect, or any other ideas to make it a successful experience. I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a "seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle _______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening of dances for an outing. I know the basics of working with the visually impaired but does anyone have any suggestions for dances, how to handle the directional aspect, or any other ideas to make it a successful experience. I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a "seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle
Hi All,
Here's an offer from a packrat, finally cleaning out my old dance
archives. Rather than discard them for paper recycling, it would be
great to hand-off these materials to someone with an interest. All
are periodicals.
CDSS News - I have a whole box of these. I think the collection is
mostly complete from late 1970s up to 20-teens. Full of amazing
articles, photos, dances, and history.
Country Dance & Song - I think this was an annual publication for
CDSS, with in-depth articles on a range of subjects (Abbott's
Bromley, historic dance reconstruction, sword dance choreography,
etc.). This collection is just one modest shopping bag.
American Squares and The Folk Dancer - These periodicals were
inherited from an older caller - I think mostly from 1950s. This,
too, is just one modest shopping bag.
Please contact me off-list if you are interested. I'd love to hand
these off this weekend at NEFFA if possible ! -- Scott
Higgs -- scottATscotthiggsDOTcom
Take care,
Scott
--------------------------------------------
Scott(a)ScottHiggs.com
I got this inquiry. Anyone interested contact Pamela directly.
Rich
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Pamela Thomas <thomasp.nyc(a)gmail.com>
> Date: April 10, 2019 at 10:15:51 PM EDT
> To: rich(a)richgoss.com
> Subject: Caller Enquiry
>
> Hi Rich, I am looking for a caller for a square dance on Saturday, June 15. The dance is a community celebration and will likely be held in Red Hook, Brooklyn.
>
> Might I enquire as to whether you are available and or interested in calling the dance? Appreciate your consideration to do so!
>
> Kind wishes,
>
> Pamela Thomas
> Brooklyn
Hi All,
Recently two situations started me thinking about formations.
Firstly, three different times, in different places, with different people,
the topic came up of why so many dance sessions consisted of a single
formation: "Longways for as many as will", also known as "contra lines".
Secondly, there was a long discussion on one of the forums
about how much space is needed for a dance. All the replies, without
exception, assumed that it was the space required for longways sets! There
was just one brief comment at the bottom of one post acknowledging that
other formations might have different space requirements.
So, I did some research and made a Web page:
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Formations.html
I list over EIGHTY different formations, with sample dances
(including links to instructions or videos) for every formation.
I hope you find it useful, and maybe you will try
choreographing, calling or dancing a different formation.
Please let me know of any additions, corrections, comments,
etc.
Thanks.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com
<mailto:john@modernjive.com> 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://contrafusion.co.uk/KentCeilidhs.html for Live Music Ceilidhs
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
http://www.modernjive.com for Modern Jive DVDs
On Mar 21, 2019, at 2:29 PM, Rich Sbardella wrote (in part):
> Many MWSD calls have left versions. For example Pass Thru (by right shoulder) and Left Pass thru (by left shoulder). Swing Thru is another. Swing thru is turn half by the left, half by the right, but Left Swing Thru is turn half but the left, then half by the right. Left Square Thru is one that starts with the left hand, BUT the dancers walk the exact same pattern as a normal, right handed square thru.
>
> In the case of a star thru and slide thru, I have never danced or called a Left Star Thru or a Left Slide Thru. ...
The term "Left Star Thru" was indeed sometimes used in to refer to a varian of Star Thru using the gent's right hand and lady's left. That usage now appears to be deprecated. The reason, I presume, is that in contrast to calls like "Left Pass Thru" or "Left Swing Thru," the call "Left Star Thru" exhibits the historical bias of directing calls preferentially to the gents.
As an example, in the current version of the definition document for the CallerLab Advanced program, the call "Double Star Thru" is defined as follows:
From any appropriate formation (e.g. Normal Facing Couples):
Those who can Star Thru. Those who can do the mirror image
of a Star Thru (an arch is made with the man's left hand and
the woman's right hand; the man goes around the arch while the
lady goes under). In each part of the call, some dancers must
be active. Normal facing couples will end as sashayed couples
back-to-back.
I've seen versions of the document from c. 2000 that describe the second half of Double Star Thru as a "Left Star Thru" (for those who can) rather than as "the mirror image of a Star Thru."
--Jim
On Mar 24, 2019, at 3:53 PM, Andy Shore via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote (in part):
> Left Star Thru (edited slightly)
> From a boy facing a girl: boy holds left hand up and girl places her right palm against it. boy steps forward and does a quarter left as the girl passes the boy left shoulders under the raised arms and does a quarter right. Finishes as a couple.
> https://www.ceder.net/oldcalls/viewsingle.php?RecordId=3616
Just to expand people’s idea of “techno”, let’s include “non-traditional music contras”. People often conflate these. As an umbrella term, “techno” does not have to mean dimmed or special lighting. There’s a lot of fun in dancing to any music appropriately edited for contra dancing in normal hall lighting! (I include live and DJ’d music in this definition.)
With normal hall lighting, demos are perfectly appropriate. Again, keep the dances simple, so demos shouldn’t need to be long.
\Bob
> On Apr 7, 2019, at 12:33, Maia McCormick via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
> Ah, whoops, wrong link: http://contra.maiamccormick.com/blog/2019/04/07/techno-reflections/
>
>> On Sun, Apr 7, 2019 at 12:26 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>> (And if anyone wants to refer back to this, it's up on my blog!)
>>
>>> On Sun, Mar 31, 2019 at 4:27 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>> Thanks for the advice, all! While it's fresh in my mind, wanted to report back and call out a few pieces of advice from this thread that were particularly helpful (or that I ignored to my own detriment). Just my observations--hope this is helpful to someone!
>>>
>>> 1. Demos are indeed hard
>>> I agree with everyone who warned me away from demos at a techno -- it's dark and hard to see, and dancers just want to groove. "If you need a demo for it, the dance is probably too hard" was a great yardstick for my programming, thanks Chuck!
>>>
>>> 2. Keep calling
>>> Jonathan nailed it -- if the phrasing is at all hard to follow, dancers will tend to swing too long. I definitely found myself calling more than I would in a non-techno contra (by the end of the dances, my calls were all one beat, but I was often still calling at least some moves). Knowing to look out for over-long swings in particular was super helpful, thanks!
>>>
>>> 3. Choose easy dances
>>> I got cocky in the second half and programmed some stuff that was above the level of the crowd, and had to fall back to Hey in the Barn when a weird box circulate dance fell apart. The advice that many people gave is super sound -- it's harder to see and harder to focus, dancers probably just want to groove etc., and so easier dances are the way to go.
>>>
>>> I want to add one more thing I noticed, which is that I as a caller couldn't get a read on the hall because it was so dark. If I'd been better able to see how ropy the previous dance had been, or that a lot of the experienced people had left at the break, I would have been better able to adjust my program. So there's another point in favor of calling easier dances -- not so much that they dancers can't handle it, as a rule, but rather that you as a caller can't tell as easily whether the dancers can handle it.
>>>
>>> 4. If you can, listen to the tracks in advance!
>>> I worked with Mark Moore (DJ Flourish) from Philly--he's great! Among other things, he sent me his tracks in advance, which meant that I could get extra precise with the dance/track pairing--super helpful because it's much harder to request specific track features to go with a dance when working with a DJ than with a band. Also, I knew how many potatoes to expect for each track, if they were at all fake-out-y, etc.
>>>
>>>> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 5:17 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Ah, more specific questions!
>>>>
>>>> - have you found on-the-floor demos doable at techno, or should I not even try?
>>>> - techno no-walk-through's: do they work?
>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 5:13 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>> Hey folks,
>>>>>
>>>>> I haven't called all that many techno contras, and I'm slated to do so this weekend. Any tips or things to keep in mind about how techno differs from your standard contra evening? (Particularly curious about anything relating to dance choice and dance length.)
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers,
>>>>> Maia
> _______________________________________________
> List Name: Callers mailing list
> List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
Ah, whoops, wrong link:
http://contra.maiamccormick.com/blog/2019/04/07/techno-reflections/
On Sun, Apr 7, 2019 at 12:26 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> (And if anyone wants to refer back to this, it's up on my blog
> <http://contra.maiamccormick.com/blog/2019/03/31/techno-reflections/>!)
>
> On Sun, Mar 31, 2019 at 4:27 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks for the advice, all! While it's fresh in my mind, wanted to report
>> back and call out a few pieces of advice from this thread that were
>> particularly helpful (or that I ignored to my own detriment). Just my
>> observations--hope this is helpful to someone!
>>
>> *1. Demos are indeed hard*
>> I agree with everyone who warned me away from demos at a techno -- it's
>> dark and hard to see, and dancers just want to groove. "If you need a demo
>> for it, the dance is probably too hard" was a great yardstick for my
>> programming, thanks Chuck!
>>
>> *2. Keep calling*
>> Jonathan nailed it -- if the phrasing is at all hard to follow, dancers
>> will tend to swing too long. I definitely found myself calling more than I
>> would in a non-techno contra (by the end of the dances, my calls were all
>> one beat, but I was often still calling at least some moves). Knowing to
>> look out for over-long swings in particular was super helpful, thanks!
>>
>> *3. Choose easy dances*
>> I got cocky in the second half and programmed some stuff that was above
>> the level of the crowd, and had to fall back to Hey in the Barn when a
>> weird box circulate dance fell apart. The advice that many people gave is
>> super sound -- it's harder to see and harder to focus, dancers probably
>> just want to groove etc., and so easier dances are the way to go.
>>
>> I want to add one more thing I noticed, which is that *I as a caller
>> couldn't get a read on the hall because it was so dark*. If I'd been
>> better able to see how ropy the previous dance had been, or that a lot of
>> the experienced people had left at the break, I would have been better able
>> to adjust my program. So there's another point in favor of calling easier
>> dances -- not so much that they dancers can't handle it, as a rule, but
>> rather that you as a caller can't tell as easily whether the dancers can
>> handle it.
>>
>> *4. If you can, listen to the tracks in advance!*
>> I worked with Mark Moore (DJ Flourish) from Philly--he's great! Among
>> other things, he sent me his tracks in advance, which meant that I could
>> get extra precise with the dance/track pairing--super helpful because it's
>> much harder to request specific track features to go with a dance when
>> working with a DJ than with a band. Also, I knew how many potatoes to
>> expect for each track, if they were at all fake-out-y, etc.
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 5:17 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Ah, more specific questions!
>>>
>>> - have you found on-the-floor demos doable at techno, or should I not
>>> even try?
>>> - techno no-walk-through's: do they work?
>>>
>>> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 5:13 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Hey folks,
>>>>
>>>> I haven't called all that many techno contras, and I'm slated to do so
>>>> this weekend. Any tips or things to keep in mind about how techno differs
>>>> from your standard contra evening? (Particularly curious about anything
>>>> relating to dance choice and dance length.)
>>>>
>>>> Cheers,
>>>> Maia
>>>>
>>>
(And if anyone wants to refer back to this, it's up on my blog
<http://contra.maiamccormick.com/blog/2019/03/31/techno-reflections/>!)
On Sun, Mar 31, 2019 at 4:27 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Thanks for the advice, all! While it's fresh in my mind, wanted to report
> back and call out a few pieces of advice from this thread that were
> particularly helpful (or that I ignored to my own detriment). Just my
> observations--hope this is helpful to someone!
>
> *1. Demos are indeed hard*
> I agree with everyone who warned me away from demos at a techno -- it's
> dark and hard to see, and dancers just want to groove. "If you need a demo
> for it, the dance is probably too hard" was a great yardstick for my
> programming, thanks Chuck!
>
> *2. Keep calling*
> Jonathan nailed it -- if the phrasing is at all hard to follow, dancers
> will tend to swing too long. I definitely found myself calling more than I
> would in a non-techno contra (by the end of the dances, my calls were all
> one beat, but I was often still calling at least some moves). Knowing to
> look out for over-long swings in particular was super helpful, thanks!
>
> *3. Choose easy dances*
> I got cocky in the second half and programmed some stuff that was above
> the level of the crowd, and had to fall back to Hey in the Barn when a
> weird box circulate dance fell apart. The advice that many people gave is
> super sound -- it's harder to see and harder to focus, dancers probably
> just want to groove etc., and so easier dances are the way to go.
>
> I want to add one more thing I noticed, which is that *I as a caller
> couldn't get a read on the hall because it was so dark*. If I'd been
> better able to see how ropy the previous dance had been, or that a lot of
> the experienced people had left at the break, I would have been better able
> to adjust my program. So there's another point in favor of calling easier
> dances -- not so much that they dancers can't handle it, as a rule, but
> rather that you as a caller can't tell as easily whether the dancers can
> handle it.
>
> *4. If you can, listen to the tracks in advance!*
> I worked with Mark Moore (DJ Flourish) from Philly--he's great! Among
> other things, he sent me his tracks in advance, which meant that I could
> get extra precise with the dance/track pairing--super helpful because it's
> much harder to request specific track features to go with a dance when
> working with a DJ than with a band. Also, I knew how many potatoes to
> expect for each track, if they were at all fake-out-y, etc.
>
> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 5:17 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Ah, more specific questions!
>>
>> - have you found on-the-floor demos doable at techno, or should I not
>> even try?
>> - techno no-walk-through's: do they work?
>>
>> On Thu, Mar 28, 2019 at 5:13 PM Maia McCormick <maiamcc(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Hey folks,
>>>
>>> I haven't called all that many techno contras, and I'm slated to do so
>>> this weekend. Any tips or things to keep in mind about how techno differs
>>> from your standard contra evening? (Particularly curious about anything
>>> relating to dance choice and dance length.)
>>>
>>> Cheers,
>>> Maia
>>>
>>
