On Oct 18, 2017, at 7:46 PM, Claire Takemori via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Paul and all,

I’m curious what the child age ranges are for the family & community dances? It sounds like they are young?  So then all the middle school kids and older go to regular contras?

I’m hoping to start a dance in SF bay area in CA, but not sure if it should be a family dance series, an old time square dance series,  or?  

Thanks Emily for getting this conversation going

Claire Takemori
SF Bay Area




Message: 1
Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2017 23:47:18 -0400
From: Paul Rosenberg <paul@homespun.biz>
To: Emily Addison <emilyladdison@gmail.com>
Cc: organizers shared weight <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Organizers] follow up to family dance questions :)
Message-ID: <6928B4B1-F53F-470E-992D-03CB7E80DC6D@homespun.biz>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="utf-8"

Hi Emily

I?m curious:  what were the two dances that DeLaura led at Ogontz?

My series has been going since 1994.  Generally it?s monthly from November through April.  I am the regular caller.

In the early years, I was inspired by seeing Peter Amidon and Andy Davis leading family dances, and I used a lot of their repertoire:

Zodiac
Chimes of Dunkirk
Bridge of Athlone
Black Joke
Sweets of May
Sasha
Galopede
Circassian Circle
Old King Glory
Brandy Rump Bump
Gramma Moses
Head and shoulders
Down in the Valley
Little Johnny Brown
Step it Down
Chee Chee Cha
Heel & Toe Polka

As the years went on, I learned more and more fun unique dances.  Another factor in my repertoire change was my change in attitude.  I became disenchanted with the evolution of the contra scene, with dance evenings becoming monotone.  Contras only.  No more circle mixers or squares.  No more chestnut contras.  Very few easy contras.  Choreography that is ?unforgiving?. So I quit calling at contra series and for the last ten years or so, all of my dances are family and community dances.

I find that lots of contra callers seem to want to groom the children to become contra dancers, and their choice of dances at the family dances are generally just simple contras.

My goal is to provide a fun, exciting repertoire of dances appropriate for young children.  Some may be a bit like contras, and some dances are totally different

We have several dances that children request at most of the family dances:

Spiral
Hoe Ana (Polynesian sit-down canoeing dance I learned from Sanna Longden)
Old Dan Tucker (longways dance I learned from a PE teacher)
Zodiac
Any dance with a ?Peel the Banana? figure, like Virginia Reel, Sweets of May, or Bridge of Athlone
Funga Alafia (West African dance)
Sasha

Other dances the children love, but don?t request necessarily:

Zemer Atik (Israeli dance)
Looking for a Friend aka Hang Peng You (Chinese)
7 Jumps (Danish, learned from Marian Rose and many other sources)
Mi Cuerpo Hace Musica (Puerto Rican)
Dance du Castor (Quebecois)
Baanopstekker (Dutch dance)
Can?t Jump Josie (American singing game)
Clap Your Hands (American)
Buffalo Gals (Square)
LaRaspa
Chay Chat Koolay (West African)
Yan Petit (Catalonian)
Cshebogar (Hungarian)
Le Bus (Quebecois)
Damat Halayi (Turkish)
Penguin Dance (I forgot where I got this)
Marching Through Georgia (Square)


Paul Rosenberg
Albany, NY
518-482-9255
www.homespun.biz

On Oct 17, 2017, at 1:37 PM, Emily Addison via Organizers <organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Hi Paul, Perry, Jeff, Chrissy, and David, AND others too!

Thanks so much for all the feedback. :)  I wasn't online for about four days so I've just been catching up and am learning SOOO much!

I'm going to follow up with a few of you regarding some additional questions that your posts peaked.  

I'm curious though about PROGRAMMING for FAMILY DANCES.

This is something that Jeff and David both brought up... the idea of perennial favourites and consistency.

I'm wondering if there are specific dances that your family dance series LOVES or goes over really well.  For instance, I remember two that DeLaura Padovan did at the Ogontz family week that kids just went crazy for.  And they clearly had done them previous years... everyone was SOOO into them.

I hadn't thought about the idea of consistency and kids being able to ask for dances they really liked etc until Jeff and David raised these ideas.

Having a repertoire of some super awesome crowd pleasers would be great.

Thoughts????

Emily


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