I remember dancing "Climate Change (Is) Reel' and enjoying it. Can anyone
share this dance, as I have not been able to find it.
Thanks,
Rich Sbardella
Stafford, CT
There is an interesting article on JSTOR entitled "Square Dance Calling: The African-American Connection":
https://www.jstor.org/stable/41446577?mag=the-slave-roots-of-square-dancing…
It suggests that:
"calling might have evolved in the black culture as an alternative to the formal instruction that white dancers received at dancing schools" with the earliest reference of someone calling a dance being a ball in New Orleans in 1819.
However back in England...
Thomas Wilson "The Complete System of English Country Dancing" 1816
Page 172.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
The persons who take upon themselves the
CALLING OF THE DANCE,
Should possess the necessary prerequisites for performing the duty they have to execute, in setting the company an example, and directing them (when required) in the performance of the Dance. Such a Dance should be called, as they thoroughly understand, and are able to perform with facility. When part of the company are indifferent Dancers, the persons forming the Dance should be selected and placed according to their talent and knowledge of Dancing; the best couples at and near the top, that by their performance the others may become instructed in the Figure, previous to their having to lead off, otherwise it frequently happens, that the Dance is obliged to be changed.
CROWDING TO THE TOP,
Is too frequently practised, and should be prevented by those whose province it may be to see that due respect if paid to the person calling the Dance; it being impossible to perform the Figure of the Dance with effect, or correctly, when the couples stand too near to each other.
= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =
But what did Wilson's caller actually do? I doubt it was calling as we know it today, but it probably contained some of the elements of it.
I guess calling evolved in parallel in many places.
Does anyone have any other insights?
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
Here's a clip from FARNE in which George Hepple and others descrbes the role of the dancing master at dances in Northumbria in the ealrly 1900s.
http://www.farnearchive.com/detail.asp?id=W0003008http://www.farnearchive.com/detail.asp?id=W0002009
It is evident that the role of 'caller' developed from traveling dancing masters at events they held. These are described well in the Fletts long out-of-print book Step Dancing in Lakeland. Also in the articles on traditional Irish dance written by Breandán Breathnach.
Here is a deilightful description of what happens when dancers relocate to a venue unfamiliair to them ...
http://www.setdance.com/archive/buckram.htm
CJB
--------------------------------------------
On Mon, 14/8/17, john(a)modernjive.com [trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Subject: Re: [trad-dance-callers] Origins of Calling
To: trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com
Date: Monday, 14 August, 2017, 13:20
Hi Richard,
Yes, I agree
completely with your description. However the words
"directing them (when required) in the performance of
the Dance" seem to me to imply that there may have been
some words used, i.e. something akin to calling as we know
it.
Happy dancing,
John
John
Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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Hello folks,
Does anyone have an easy contra with "star thru" in it.
I already have Twiddely Diddely by Walter Lenk.
Thanks,
Rich Sbardella
Stafford, CT
Rich Sbardella wrote:
> Does anyone have an easy contra with "star thru" in it?
Dick Leger called this one at the NEFFA Workshop in 1969. (Historical trivia: In those days the only Sunday programming at the NEFFA Festival was an afternoon workshop with one folk dance teacher and one square/contra caller. It was for members only, but you could become a member at the door for $1. The practice dated from a time when "blue laws" were still in force and Sunday events couldn't be open to the public.)
ON TO PITTSFIELD (Herbie Gaudreau, around 1960)
Contra, duple improper, double progression
A.1 Face neighbor, take closed (waltz) position
Footwork (lady start R foot, gent L foot):
Heel, toe, step-close-step away from center
Repeat toward center
Repeat away from & toward center
Call:
"Heel, toe, out you go, heel, toe, in you go;
Heel, toe, out you go, same people dos-a-dos"
A.2 Dos-a-dos same neighbor
Walk by, swing next neighbor
B.1 Ladies chain over & back
B.2 Right & left thru
Star thru, pass thru
(More trivia: Herbie Gaudreau, best known for Becket Reel, was a 1950s/60s MWSD caller who loved contras and wrote many for his SD club. Most were completely symmetrical; he was quite likely the first to write such contras, well before the trad-revival crowd. I suspect the earliest trad callers to write symmetrical dances were influenced by Herbie; I know I was when I wrote Shadrack's Delight in 1972 and Inflation Reel in 1973.)
Tony Parkes
Billerica, Mass.
www.hands4.com<http://www.hands4.com/>
New book! Square Dance Calling: An Old Art for a New Century
(to be published real soon)
Hello Folks,
Here is a simple sure I put together. It is called California Jitters
because of the sequence of Star Thru, California Twirl, and Swing. When
done as rapid sequence they have a jitterbug type feeling.
I would appreciate any constructive criticism, and also if the sequence
exists in the traditional dance world.
The sequence of Star Thru, California Twirl, and Swing was used by New
England dance caller, Dick Leger, and I always enjoyed it.
California Jitters
New England Square - Rich Sbardella
Heads Forward & Back
(Heads) Inside Hand Star Thru
Same Hand- California Twirl
with Oustside -Two Circle of Four
Corner Dosido
Star Thru
California Twirl
Corner Swing
Promenade
- - - -
[I'm sending this query to the trad-dance-callers list, to the
SharedWeight callers' and musicians' forums, and to a number of
individuals. Please send responses directly to me *off-list*
(see Note 1 below). I plan to collect responses for about the
next two months and will summarize results to the lists and to
individual respondents some time in July. Thanks. --Jim]
Folks,
As some of you may know, I've worked on and off in fits and starts
for some time at gathering lists of recommended tunes [see Note 2
below] for (traditional-style) patter squares. [In case you're
wondering what I mean by "(traditional-style) patter squares", see
Note 6 below.] My idea is to compile lists from a wide variety of
sources and to look for tunes mentioned independently by many
different recommenders. So far, I've compiled tune lists from a
few dozen books and albums, and I'm currently adding lists from
a bunch more books, articles, record catalogs, etc. I'm sending
this message because I'd like to supplement all these sources with
lists from current informants, possibly including you. So ...
* If you are a musician who has substantial experience
playing for (traditional-stye) patter squares and if
you have a list of recommended tunes that you're
willing to share--either an existing set list or a
list you come up with by sitting down and scratching
your head for a while--please send it to me *off-list*
[see Note 1] at
jim dot saxe at-sign gmail dot com
* If you are a musician who mostly plays for other things
than patter squares (e.g., contras or New-England-style
squares or concert performances) or even if you're not
a musician, but if you nonethelessAå have accumulated a
list of tunes you particularly like *for patter squares*,
I'd also be interested in hearing from you.
* I'd also be interested if anyone can supply lists of
tunes played *for patter squares* by players skilled
in the genre who are no longer living (e.g., Ralph
Blizard, Lyman Enloe, Benton Flippen, Bob Holt, Pete
McMahan, Lee Stripling, Joe Thompson, or Melvin Wine,
to name a few). However, see Note 5.
* If you know other people who might be willing and able
to contribute lists of recommended tunes, please feel
free to pass this request along. (But please try not
to put up my email address in places where spammers
are likely to harvest it. Also, see Note 1. Thanks.)
Below are some notes clarifying what kind of responses I am
and am not interested in. ***Please read at least Notes 1-3
before responding.***
Note 1: If you got this query via a mailing list, please send
tune lists directly to me and *not* to the entire mailing list.
As stated above, I'm trying to see which tunes get mentioned
*independently* by many recommenders, so I don't want the lists
anyone sends me to be influenced one way or another by whatever
suggestions other people have already sent. If you pass my
request along to some of your friends, I'd prefer that you each
send tune lists just to me rather than discussing tunes among
yourselves first and then sending me a combined list (unless
you and your friends are in the same regular band and such
discussions are how you normally create your set lists). Please
look carefully at the "To:" (and "Cc:") line of any reply and
make sure that that it doesn't include the address of any mailing
list. That would include addresses of the form
James Saxe via ... <...>
where <...> is a list address.
I plan to gather recommendations for the next couple months and
to post a summary some time in July.
Note 2: Please *don't* explain to me that the suitability of
a tune for a particular kind of dance can depend very strongly
on how it's played. I'm already quite well aware of that.
However, I also think it would be widely agreed that some tunes
lend themselves to being played well for dancing more than
others. (If you strenuously disagree, I will look forward to
your forthcoming album of rip-roaring square dance arrangements
of tunes from the Child ballads and _The Sacred Harp_. Meanwhile,
please don't respond to my query by attempting to un-ask it.)
After I've settled on a list of frequently-recommended tunes,
a possible follow-on project would be to try to identify one
or more renditions--online and/or on commercial recordings--of
each tune played in a danceable style worthy of study by
musicians learning to play for patter squares. For such a
project, style of playing would of course be a prime concern.
But that's not what I'm working on or asking about right now.
Note 3: Please *don't* give me lists (or references to lists,
albums, tune books, syllabi, etc) where tunes well suited for
patter squares are mixed with other sorts of tunes without
specific indication of which tunes are which.
Note 4: I'm not all that interested in recommendations for just
one or a few tunes. If you have substantial experience playing
for patter squares, I'd expect that you can come up with at least
ten tunes that you think are quite suitable, and perhaps you
can come up with many more than that without feeling that you're
starting to scrape the bottom of the barrel. (If you send a long
list, you might want to distinguish which are your favorites and
which are the second-tier or third-tier choices.)
Note 5: If you send me a list of tunes from the repertoire of
some deceased musician, please tell me something about how you
compiled that list. I'm not merely looking for a list of tunes
played or recorded by, say, late great fiddler Bestus Bowslinger,
but for a list of tunes that Bestus actually played *for patter
squares*. And if you happen to have some tapes of Bestus playing
at actual dances, and if they include 30 different patter-square
tunes, and if you send me the names of the 20 tunes you happen
to recognize, then I'd like to be informed that the your sampling
of Bestus's repertoire has been filtered by the limitations of
what tunes you recognize.
Note 6: When I say "(traditional-style) patter squares," I mean
to exclude singing squares and squares that are prompted to the
phrase of the music in the New England style (or in the style of
19th-century quadrilles) and I mean to include the kinds of
squares generally thought of as traditional to the western and/or
southern U.S. I specifically would include visiting couple dances
in this genre, even when the progression is around a big circle
or by a scatter promenade, rather than around a square of four
couples. I'd also include most "transitional" (50's era) western
squares (other than singing calls) as well as more recent
compositions in similar style. I do *not* mean to say that the
dances in question must be called in a style that includes a bunch
of rhyming doggerel ("do-si high, do-si low, chicken in the bread
pan scratchin' out dough") or other extra verbiage.
Much of the "hoedown"/"patter" music produced in recent decades
for the MWSD market is, IMO, very non-traditional in character
and thus not of interest for purposes of my current inquiry.
(Hint: If a tune isn't found in any tune books, played at any
jam sessions, or recorded on any non-MWSD label, it's not what
I'm after.)
I'm happy to get recommendations for recently-composed tunes in
traditional style, as well as for genuinely traditional (old)
tunes. I'm also happy to get recommendations for tunes from
"northern" sources that nonetheless have the right feel to work
well for traditional southern/western dances.
Of course I realize there aren't precisely defined and widely
agreed boundaries between different kinds of square dances or
different styles of calling (prompted vs. patter vs. singing;
phrased vs. unphrased; New-England vs. southern vs. traditional
western vs. ...). Ditto regarding precise definitions of musical
genres. I also realize that a particular choreographic pattern
might be danced to different styles of music and calling, etc.
That said, I still hope that the preceding paragraphs will suffice
to provide an adequate idea of what I'm looking for.
Thanks in advance to any of you who have tune lists to share.
Regards,
--Jim
Many years ago I attended a square dance club in Upper MIchigan. I had
recently moved there and sought out dances. I was greeted with the
question, Where is your husband? When I said he was home, unwell, the lady
at the desk said Nobody will dance with you. I'm the caller's wife and
nobody dances with me. I did have partners that night and went with my
husband Once.
Years later I saw an ad for a public dance, called to confirm that it was
open. When I arrived I was grilled about lessons, partners. Then told
that since I had not had lessons I would not be able to keep up with the
dancers and would spoil their pleasure. My 30 years of New England squares
experience didn't count.
No wonder they are losing dancers.
Sylvia Miskoe, Concod NH
A somewhat older than average lady friend of mine has just received a phone call asking her not to attend her Western Square Dance Club anymore. She has been a member for 30 odd years. At the time she was away on holiday looking after her grand-daughter whilst the parents were having a well-deserved quality break. So she missed an evening. She was absolutlely gob-smacked. The club had been doing A2 and she was getting along fine, but then was away for a week.
On A2 evenings the club is lucky to get 8 dancers = 1 square as it is. But apparently the club received complanits about her from a person / persons unknown - the details of the complainants were not relayed to her nor the exact specifics of concern. And this is a person who has been dancing with the club for over 30 years, and regularly did the tea roster whilst missing out on dances. In the past other dancers have also been ostracised and eventualy left.
This is why I wouldn't touch WSD with a barge pole. If this is an example of the attitude prevaling in WSD cubs then its a nasty, vinidictive, and arrogant scene. And even worse because this is in Southern England - where folks are rarely welcoming anyway. (Folks up North are far more welcoming).
Personally I've also had the same attitude when I've tried to join RSCD clubs. They're also up themselves and unwlecoming. EFDSS English CD / Playford Clubs in the South can also be unfriendly - as I know all to well to my cost.
On the other hand Irish Set Dancing is an amazingly friendly scene, full of joi-de-vi, and welcoming to all. But then at a certain Christmas Country Dance School in the Appalachians I was told "we don't want that rubbish here."
But it appears that WSD is the WORST.
CJB (London)
