6 Mar
2018
6 Mar
'18
8:41 p.m.
Dance logs, a cumulative record for a series of which dances have been
called on any given evening, are very common in the English dance
community but vanishingly rare in the contra community. Why is that?
They're really helpful for incoming callers, and it's probably nice for
the dancers not to keep getting the same dances week after week.
I've only ever known of one contra series that kept a log, and it's
probably because I suggested it when they started out (the Queer Contra
series in Oakland, CA). Are there any contra organizers out there who
maintain a dance log? Those of you who do, how do you get the dance
lists from the callers? The Oakland series had a little book on the
stage and the callers would write their programs down as they went or at
the end of the night.
Part of it comes down to record-keeping on the part of the callers. I
keep a personal log of all the dances I've called so I can avoid
repeating myself when I return to a given venue. That makes it easy for
me to produce a set list after the fact if an organizer wants to fill in
a gap in the log. Fellow contra callers, do you all keep records of
what you call, and if you don't, how do you avoid repeating yourself or
remember what worked well (or not) the last time you called at a
particular place?
If you work with something like Caller's Companion, do you update the
program list with what you actually danced as opposed to what you
programmed?
Just curious about other people's process on this.
Kalia in Sebastopol, CA
6 Mar
6 Mar
9:07 p.m.
Huh! I never thought of that for the dance we run. I keep a file of each
gig and the dances I called at each. I also write on each dance card the
date and location of each time I've called it, so I don't repeat myself too
often.
There's a record of contra dances called at Northwest Folklife Festival. I
don't know how far back it goes.
I'll talk to my fellow organizers about starting this at Emerald City
Contra Dance.
-Amy
On Tue, Mar 6, 2018, 5:42 PM Kalia Kliban via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Dance logs, a cumulative record for a series of which
dances have been
called on any given evening, are very common in the English dance
community but vanishingly rare in the contra community. Why is that?
They're really helpful for incoming callers, and it's probably nice for
the dancers not to keep getting the same dances week after week.
I've only ever known of one contra series that kept a log, and it's
probably because I suggested it when they started out (the Queer Contra
series in Oakland, CA). Are there any contra organizers out there who
maintain a dance log? Those of you who do, how do you get the dance
lists from the callers? The Oakland series had a little book on the
stage and the callers would write their programs down as they went or at
the end of the night.
Part of it comes down to record-keeping on the part of the callers. I
keep a personal log of all the dances I've called so I can avoid
repeating myself when I return to a given venue. That makes it easy for
me to produce a set list after the fact if an organizer wants to fill in
a gap in the log. Fellow contra callers, do you all keep records of
what you call, and if you don't, how do you avoid repeating yourself or
remember what worked well (or not) the last time you called at a
particular place?
If you work with something like Caller's Companion, do you update the
program list with what you actually danced as opposed to what you
programmed?
Just curious about other people's process on this.
Kalia in Sebastopol, CA
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10:47 p.m.
I started doing this for the Chicago Barn Dance Company, for a few months.
Historically, I have been just writing it down at the dance, or asking the caller after
the dance or by a followup email. So to date it has been more of a personal project to
help my calling.
We discussed this at the last dance, and several callers and dancers were interested in
trying to make this part of our group so we will be discussing this how we might do this
as as community.
It was initially helpful to me as I began calling more often to see others programs, and
as a board member for:
- Knowing the number of dances we are averaging per night (we want to encourage local
callers to work on teaching well and calling for appropriate time)
- Know the dance figures that are being called (to determine if there are new figures we
can work on for improving dance skills and experience)
- Know if a dance was called the week prior (for callers planning when calling the
following week)
- To consider how much our program difficulty level varies by attendance (we keep a new
dancer sign-in sheet)
I am attaching a copy of what I have been using as an initial tool…I would be interested
in seeing what others are doing as well.
Thanks ! Cheryl
Cheryl Joyal
clmjoyal(a)aol.com
clmjoyal(a)gmail.com
630-667-3284 (cell)
On Mar 6, 2018, at 7:41 PM, Kalia Kliban via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Dance logs, a cumulative record for a series of which dances have been called on any given
evening, are very common in the English dance community but vanishingly rare in the contra
community. Why is that? They're really helpful for incoming callers, and it's
probably nice for the dancers not to keep getting the same dances week after week.
I've only ever known of one contra series that kept a log, and it's probably
because I suggested it when they started out (the Queer Contra series in Oakland, CA).
Are there any contra organizers out there who maintain a dance log? Those of you who do,
how do you get the dance lists from the callers? The Oakland series had a little book on
the stage and the callers would write their programs down as they went or at the end of
the night.
Part of it comes down to record-keeping on the part of the callers. I keep a personal log
of all the dances I've called so I can avoid repeating myself when I return to a given
venue. That makes it easy for me to produce a set list after the fact if an organizer
wants to fill in a gap in the log. Fellow contra callers, do you all keep records of what
you call, and if you don't, how do you avoid repeating yourself or remember what
worked well (or not) the last time you called at a particular place?
If you work with something like Caller's Companion, do you update the program list
with what you actually danced as opposed to what you programmed?
Just curious about other people's process on this.
Kalia in Sebastopol, CA
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
11:32 p.m.
On 3/6/2018 7:47 PM, Cheryl Joyal wrote:
I started doing this for the Chicago Barn Dance
Company, for a few
months. Historically, I have been just writing it down at the dance,
or asking the caller after the dance or by a followup email. So to date
it has been more of a personal project to help my calling.
We discussed this at the last dance, and several callers and dancers
were interested in trying to make this part of our group so we will be
discussing this how we might do this as as community.
It was initially helpful to me as I began calling more often to see
others programs, and as a board member for:
- Knowing the number of dances we are averaging per night (we want to
encourage local callers to work on teaching well and calling for
appropriate time)
- Know the dance figures that are being called (to determine if there
are new figures we can work on for improving dance skills and experience)
- Know if a dance was called the week prior (for callers planning when
calling the following week)
- To consider how much our program difficulty level varies by
attendance (we keep a new dancer sign-in sheet)
I am attaching a copy of what I have been using as an initial tool…I
would be interested in seeing what others are doing as well.
You're tracking more info than we do for the local English. Our
spreadsheet includes just the dance name, sometimes the author or
original publisher, caller and date.
Since it seems to be ok to send attachments here, I'm including a few
months of our Sebastopol ECD log, to show what we're tracking. List of
dances down the left side, list of dates and callers across the top.
Yellow column shows number of times the dance has appeared in the
selected stretch of time (lots of blanks here since it's a very small
time sample) and the yellow row shows the number of dances called during
that session.
Kalia from Sebastopol
7 Mar
7 Mar
8:49 a.m.
I keep a personal log on notecards. I put the date of the event and the
venue and any other information that might be helpful for me when going
back. Then I write out my intended program (in case I drop my ordered
cards). If I make a change to the program, I'll update the card with any
additions, rearrangements or deletions. I'll also put short notes about
how 'good' that program is: "Too many ladies chain into RH Star" or
"This
dance is confusing early in the evening" or "Too few neighbor swings" or
whatever will help me when planning for the future. On the back of the
card I put the band name, names of members, their instruments and other
notes for announcement time so I can make sure the band gets introduced and
the sound person gets introduced and I make sure that whoever's in charge
of getting the hall taken care of has recognition and help.
Someone suggested it would be a lot of work and little benefit and hard to
share. In our modern, connected world. A shared platform like google docs
or google sheets or any blogging platform would allow the callers and
organizers of the dance to document it in a shared space, publicly
accessible or not. Because it's a thing I already track, the extra work
for me is almost none. If it's not a thing you already care about, it adds
some work, but really not that much.
--Ryan
3:15 a.m.
On Tue, 6 Mar 2018 17:41:55 -0800, Kalia Kliban via Callers wrote:
If you work with something like Caller's
Companion, do you update the program list with what you actually danced as
opposed to what you programmed?
I work with my Dance Organiser, and yes, I always update the list afterwards. I usually
call a mix of Playford-style, English
traditional, Contra, Square and the occasional Scottish, so I'm not a typical contra
caller.
Colin Hume
Email colin(a)colinhume.com Web site http://colinhume.com
8 Mar
8 Mar
4:18 a.m.
In Oklahoma, Sandy Knudson has been active maintaining (and encouraging the rest of us
contra callers to help maintain) a Google spreadsheet of dances in the state (because our
org is statewide and many of our dancers travel to other cities for dances). It includes
location, caller, dance name, and choreographer. I agree with Kalia that it’s useful to
share with visiting callers, and it’s also handy for me to have a record of what I’ve
called.
Carol Barry keeps a similar record for our Oklahoma City English dances, especially the
experienced-dancers series; although it isn’t currently online, I believe we’re working on
transitioning it to a Google spreadsheet, as well.
I also keep a personal record of my programs-as-danced when it’s a new-to-me or infrequent
venue/community, so that I have it for reference when I go back.
Louise.
http://www.scissortail.org/siddons/
7 Mar
7 Mar
2:10 p.m.
On Tue, Mar 6, 2018 at 5:41 PM, Kalia Kliban via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Dance logs, a cumulative record for a series of which
dances have been
called on any given evening, are very common in the English dance community
but vanishingly rare in the contra community. Why is that? They're really
helpful for incoming callers, and it's probably nice for the dancers not to
keep getting the same dances week after week.
Another factor is that English dances usually specify the tune that goes
with them. Contra dances very rarely do. So if a dance series has a house
band that plays most of the time, as some of the Bay Area English dances
do, then a repeated English dance may be the same figures done to the same
tune played by the same musicians. For a contra, even if the same band
played the same set of tunes, it's typical to change tunes partway through
the dance, anyway, so it's hard to achieve the same degree of repetition.
Of course, repetition isn't always looked down upon. I've heard that the
weekly dance in Nelson, NH always has Chorus Jig on the program, and other
dances that repeat week to week. Some contra dancers do appreciate
recognizing dances - ah, Poetry in Motion, I know how that one goes.
As Mac says, the type of repetition that contra dancers really notice is
within an evening - when four dances in a row have heys, or half of the
dances have Petronella turns, and all start to feel the same... and that's
a type of repetition that's less likely to appear in ECD, where dances that
have similar figures could easily be done to different tempos or meters.
Personally, I keep track of all the dances that I've actually called,
because I don't want to call the same dances all the time; most of the time
it's slightly different from what I programmed originally. I add notes to
myself if something didn't go well. I can't remember if I've been asked by
organizers for my program, but it may have happened once or twice.
Hope this helps!
Yoyo Zhou
2235
days inactive
2236
days old
import1@lists2.sharedweight.net
7 comments
7 participants
participants (7)
-
Amy Wimmer -
Cheryl Joyal -
Colin Hume -
Kalia Kliban -
Louise Siddons -
Ryan Smith -
Yoyo Zhou