1 Jun
2017
1 Jun
'17
1:41 a.m.
Hi everyone.
I’m looking for advice. I’m calling a FFF next Sat and live in SF Bay Area, where the
average person has never heard of contra dance. I got advice from Alan Winston, who
called the contra dance a couple years ago when it was a 2 day event and the contra was
Sunday evening. Now it’s a 1 day festival and the contra is Sat 630-10pm. The other
dance that evening is Blues/Fusion, which I expect will have a HUGE crowd. There is also
a contra dance about 30 minutes South of the venue and a waltz evening 30 minutes East, so
I’m not confident that a bunch of experienced contra dancers will show up. I’m sure some
will, as many are also musicians who will be volunteering that day.
I have several very easy contras (low piece count, connected, easy single progression,
stays in minor set, etc) and plan to slip in brief reminders during each walk through
(since new dancers can join at any time in the 3.5 hours). I’m sharing the contra calling
with one person, and there is a caller for a couple squares, and a caller of 3/4 time
contras. I don’t know how the eve will be broken down yet, but I’m likely to call 2-3
contras in each half.
It’s in a high school gym, so I know to keep calls short and clear due to acoustics.
I’m wondering about offering a 20 minute lesson before the dance???
Thanks for any advice about free folk festivals (assuming there won’t be a lot of
experienced dancer ringers). I’m just back from FolkLife and NEFFA and they are full of
experienced contra dancers……
Claire Takemori (SF Bay Area)
1 Jun
1 Jun
1:59 a.m.
Hi Claire,
That's a good idea -- will help make all the dances easier and more
rewarding for them. Can you do an initial impromptu lesson that lasts
about 15-20 minutes which then flows gracefully into your first contra
dance?
Woody
On 5/31/2017 6:41 PM, Claire Takemori via Callers wrote:
Hi everyone.
I’m looking for advice. I’m calling a FFF next Sat and live in SF Bay Area, where the
average person has never heard of contra dance. I got advice from Alan Winston, who
called the contra dance a couple years ago when it was a 2 day event and the contra was
Sunday evening. Now it’s a 1 day festival and the contra is Sat 630-10pm. The other
dance that evening is Blues/Fusion, which I expect will have a HUGE crowd. There is also
a contra dance about 30 minutes South of the venue and a waltz evening 30 minutes East, so
I’m not confident that a bunch of experienced contra dancers will show up. I’m sure some
will, as many are also musicians who will be volunteering that day.
I have several very easy contras (low piece count, connected, easy single progression,
stays in minor set, etc) and plan to slip in brief reminders during each walk through
(since new dancers can join at any time in the 3.5 hours). I’m sharing the contra calling
with one person, and there is a caller for a couple squares, and a caller of 3/4 time
contras. I don’t know how the eve will be broken down yet, but I’m likely to call 2-3
contras in each half.
It’s in a high school gym, so I know to keep calls short and clear due to acoustics.
I’m wondering about offering a 20 minute lesson before the dance???
Thanks for any advice about free folk festivals (assuming there won’t be a lot of
experienced dancer ringers). I’m just back from FolkLife and NEFFA and they are full of
experienced contra dancers……
Claire Takemori (SF Bay Area)
--
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Woody Lane
Caller, Percussive Dancer
Roseburg, Oregon
http://www.woodylanecaller.com
home: 541-440-1926 cell: 541-556-0054
7:17 p.m.
Clare,
I've called at the SF Free Folk Festival before. As Nick says,
you can expect to see a fair number of experienced contra dancers
there. This was true even last year, when SFFFF was also a one-day
event with the evening contra opposite the Palo Alto contra, and I
think the San Rafael contra as well. I wouldn't worry about losing
a ton of contra dancers to the blues/fusion dance. While some contra
dancers have eclectic tastes, quite a few stick to contras only.
Of course, you can also expect to have a much higher proportion of
total newbies and very occasional (and "rusty") contra dancers than
typical at a regular contra series.
You should be quite able to call simple duple minor contras, not
"barn dance" repertoire. And I'd expect to have quite a few people
there (a significant minority if not a majority) who do know the
difference.
You wrote:
... (low piece count, connected, easy single
progression, stays in
minor set, etc) ...
Those are all good ideas in this situation. Another point to note
is whether any move that could be tricky for complete newbies (e.g.,
roll away with a half sashay, or the courtesy turn in a "right and
left through") is done with a series of different neighbors or with
the same partner each time. If it's done with partners, a pair of
new dancers dancing together could repeatedly end up in the wrong
place or facing the wrong direction. To keep the significant
contingent of experienced dancers from getting ticked off you'll
need to include partner swings in most, if not all, contras. If
a couple persistently ends with the "lady" on the left, you'd like
the dance to be such that an easy recovery follows, or at least
such that the pocket of disorganization stays small and doesn't
spread up and down the set.
It’s in a high school gym, so I know to keep calls
short and clear due to acoustics.
Acoustics can definitely be a problem at SFFFF. I'd say to keep
calls _long_ and clear:
FACE aCROSS; LADies CHAIN
instead of
- - - CHAIN
and
GENTleMEN LEFT alleMANDE
instead of
- - MEN allemande LEFT
and
LONG LINES FORward GO
instead of
- - FORward and BACK
Newbies typically have slower reaction time to the calls than
experienced dancers have, and they also don't have as good a
sense of when the phrase is coming around. And even if they've
been told "better never than late," they may not appreciate how
to put that into practice. Even with a four-beat call instead
of a one- or two-beat call, you may occasionally see a couple
continue to swing a whole time around *after* you deliver the
last word of the call for the next action.
Try to project your voice into the mic, enunciate clearly, and
choose calls with not too many syllables per beat.
You might ask one of the other callers, or some other person
you trust, to listen at the back of the room while you teach and
call and to check on whether your words can be heard clearly
through the music and/or conversational buzz. You might even
make this request of the sound tech, perhaps wording it as a
request to check on *your* enunciation and mic technique.
--Jim
3:11 p.m.
My suggestion in situations like this is to not do contras. Or, at the hardest, do Sherry
Nevin's "Family Contra"*.
When you do not have support of experienced dancers, certain learned behaviors (leave lady
on right, cross over at top and bottom, concept of progression) are very challenging. I
speak from experience; having a program of mostly contras - even easy ones - ends up being
frustrating for the caller and the new dancers.
I strongly recommend an evening of Barn Dances such as Galopede, Patty Cake Polka, La
Bastrange, Monkey in the Middle, and the like.
1) the walk thrus are short
2) everyone will end up being successful
3) people are moving to music, you are calling - they will have no idea it is not
'contra dancing'
Here is a link to a Dancing for Non
Dancers<https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8nEfmPV1r6RRG1HRjhPVERndjA/vie…
handout that is woefully out of date but still useful.
Also, look at Thomas Green Barn Dance <https://barndances.org.uk/> website; an
fabulous resource.
Title: Family Contra
Author: Sherry Nevins
Formation: duple minor, proper or improper, doesn't matter
A1: Balance 2x, Circle Left
A2: Balance 2x, Circle Right
B1: Neighbor DSD; Partner DSD
B2: As couple DSD once and a half to progress
Seth Tepfer
Director of Administrative Computing
Oxford College
770-784-8487
seth.tepfer(a)emory.edu
Use AskIT for fastest response:
Oxford.emory.edu/AskIT<https://app.oxford.emory.edu/WebApps/OCIT/forms/A…
<https://app.oxford.emory.edu/WebApps/Directories/index.cfm?fuseaction=v.searchresults&searchname=tepfer>
________________________________
From: Callers <callers-bounces(a)lists.sharedweight.net> on behalf of Claire Takemori
via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 9:41 PM
To: Shared_Weight_Callers
Subject: [Callers] Calling at Free Folk Festival
Hi everyone.
I’m looking for advice. I’m calling a FFF next Sat and live in SF Bay Area, where the
average person has never heard of contra dance. I got advice from Alan Winston, who
called the contra dance a couple years ago when it was a 2 day event and the contra was
Sunday evening. Now it’s a 1 day festival and the contra is Sat 630-10pm. The other
dance that evening is Blues/Fusion, which I expect will have a HUGE crowd. There is also
a contra dance about 30 minutes South of the venue and a waltz evening 30 minutes East, so
I’m not confident that a bunch of experienced contra dancers will show up. I’m sure some
will, as many are also musicians who will be volunteering that day.
I have several very easy contras (low piece count, connected, easy single progression,
stays in minor set, etc) and plan to slip in brief reminders during each walk through
(since new dancers can join at any time in the 3.5 hours). I’m sharing the contra calling
with one person, and there is a caller for a couple squares, and a caller of 3/4 time
contras. I don’t know how the eve will be broken down yet, but I’m likely to call 2-3
contras in each half.
It’s in a high school gym, so I know to keep calls short and clear due to acoustics.
I’m wondering about offering a 20 minute lesson before the dance???
Thanks for any advice about free folk festivals (assuming there won’t be a lot of
experienced dancer ringers). I’m just back from FolkLife and NEFFA and they are full of
experienced contra dancers……
Claire Takemori (SF Bay Area)
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3:46 p.m.
On 05/31/2017 06:41 PM, Claire Takemori via Callers wrote:
Hi everyone.
I’m looking for advice. I’m calling a FFF next Sat and live in SF Bay Area, where the
average person has never heard of contra dance. I got advice from Alan Winston, who
called the contra dance a couple years ago when it was a 2 day event and the contra was
Sunday evening. Now it’s a 1 day festival and the contra is Sat 630-10pm. The other
dance that evening is Blues/Fusion, which I expect will have a HUGE crowd. There is also
a contra dance about 30 minutes South of the venue and a waltz evening 30 minutes East, so
I’m not confident that a bunch of experienced contra dancers will show up. I’m sure some
will, as many are also musicians who will be volunteering that day.
Claire, I've called that evening dance a small handful of times,
including calling squares as part of Alan's cavalcade two or three years
ago. That year (and in years previous to that), the festival included
an hour-long introduction to contra dance during the afternoon prior to
the evening dance; that was where I got my introduction to contra dance
twenty-mumble years ago, and I taught that class a couple of years ago.
Unfortunately, the festival planners don't appear to have scheduled such
a class this year. Anyways, because of that class, the evening dances
didn't usually feature much of a newcomers' lesson, since that was
covered by the workshop earlier in the day.
Given the standard mix of dancers that dance has had (a combination of
fresh-off-the-street newbies, folks that are familiar with contra
dancing but are not regular dancers, and regular dancers in need of
their "fix") in the past, your planned approach (easier dances with low
piece counts and that avoid things like heys and courtesy turns,
combined with a short newcomers' lesson) seems like a reasonable
approach. If you haven't already, I would also suggest raising your
concerns with the folks that booked you, to ensure that they are with
you on this; at the very least, the festival organizers should consider
that not having a proper contra teaching session earlier in the day can
impact how the evening's dance proceeds.
--Nick
8:52 p.m.
On 5/31/2017 6:41 PM, Claire Takemori via Callers wrote:
Hi everyone.
I’m looking for advice. I’m calling a FFF next Sat and live in SF Bay Area, where the
average person has never heard of contra dance. I got advice from Alan Winston, who
called the contra dance a couple years ago when it was a 2 day event and the contra was
Sunday evening. Now it’s a 1 day festival and the contra is Sat 630-10pm. The other
dance that evening is Blues/Fusion, which I expect will have a HUGE crowd. There is also
a contra dance about 30 minutes South of the venue and a waltz evening 30 minutes East, so
I’m not confident that a bunch of experienced contra dancers will show up. I’m sure some
will, as many are also musicians who will be volunteering that day.
I'm
encouraged by Jim's response that there was a good experienced
dancer turnout last year on Saturday night. That's going to make your
life considerably easier.
It’s in a high school gym, so I know to keep calls
short and clear due to acoustics.
I’m wondering about offering a 20 minute lesson before the dance???
I don't think that's a bad idea, but I think many of the people who need
it won't be there. In my experience people tend to trickle in as their
workshops end or they come back from dinner. You could get in touch
with dance coordinator Cassandra and try to get a lesson on the
printed/posted schedule, if it's not already too late.
-- Alan
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5 comments
6 participants
participants (6)
-
Claire Takemori via Callers -
jim saxe via Callers
-
Nick Cuccia via Callers
-
Tepfer, Seth via Callers
-
Winston, Alan P. via Callers
-
Woody Lane via Callers