Hi Martha,

If the band was playing a medley of tunes, was this tune 1st, 2nd, or 3rd? If there was still another tune in medley after this one, then I would probably ask the band to switch to the next tune ASAP. And hope for the best that the next tune was better than the current tune. If the problem tune was the last tune in the medley, then I would just end the dance early and as gracefully as possible. Thank the band profusely for an "interesting" tune, everyone laughing. Then I would pull out a rock-solid fun dance -- maybe even an easy no-walk-through -- for the next dance and move on.

Woody

On 5/30/2017 2:16 PM, Martha Wild via Callers wrote:
So, a while back I was working with a band and they played a tune that was sort of new for them, and the A part was fine, but the B part was unusual anyway, and hard to know where the count was, in particular because they were unfamiliar with it, and I tried to count and call so the dancers could keep going, and it kept coming back together in the A, but falling apart in the B, until things snowballed and the dance completely fell apart. What is the best thing to do or say in a situation like that so that the band doesn’t feel too much as if it is their fault, and the dancers don’t feel it’s their fault? And yes, it’s always the caller’s fault, since I couldn’t for the life of me figure out what the heck was going on with that tune, but the dancers couldn’t find their way in it either. Anyway, back to what to do to make everyone feel a little better after that.
Martha