13 Mar
2016
13 Mar
'16
7:06 p.m.
I do a few one night stand sorts of dance. Every year for a while we've
done a day-long dance in a local high school for a series of gym classes.
(This year we've been asked back to do it again next month!) It can be
interesting to get people to dance at 7:30 in the morning. (And even more
interesting to get the full band there playing good music at that hour!!)
But we all get there somehow and everyone has a great time.Let guys dance
with guys; women with mowne
At the gym class dance last fall, we had kids signing out of study hall to
come back and dance with the next class! Our biggest problems were teachers
who dropped in to try it out, usually without our basic instructions and
walkthrough.
Our rules for dance choices are the following:
1. No proper, improper, or similar dances. Don't chose a dance where there
is any more complicated role than simply "dancer", or "partner". Let
guys
dance with guys; women with women. Don't worry who is on the left or right.
2. With no specific roles, then a lot of even simpler calls are out,
including stars, ladies alamain, etc. Keep the calls simple: lines; walk
down the outside and back; partner do-si-do, etc.
3. It's only fun for the dancers if they are successful, so success has to
be your most important goal.
4. With the dances that we do, we only try to teach the concepts of
progression, and dancing to the music. There's not enough time for anything
more, and there will be another 60 or 80 kids in another hour and a half to
start all over with.
Dudley has a lot of good dances for this, as he has already mentioned. For
our gym class dances, we use something like Dudley's modified Jefferson &
liberty, a modified Virginia Reel, and a big circle dance, too. There are
a few others that we may try, depending on the skill level of the
particular class.
Rich Hart.
On Sun, Mar 13, 2016 at 12:42 PM, Paul Rosenberg paul(a)homespun.biz
[trad-dance-callers] <trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com> wrote:
All of this discussion on these two lists reminds me of my two long time
goals:
1. For a few years, I have thought about writing an article for CDSS News
about the value of community dancing (for lack of a better term, I refer to
community dancing as an evening of longways, circles, squares, and other
dances that can be done by anyone with no experience dancing at all, the
very first time they try it. No lessons, workshop, etc). However, this is
such a daunting task, and I keep running into day-to-day tasks that prevent
me from sitting down more than once every 3 months or so…..But I truly
believe that CDSS would be a great organization to promote community
dancing, as part of their mission! There are a few of you who said you
are willing to help to write this article. How can we get this project
underway? Maybe an in-person meeting among a few of us?
2. My very long term goal is to get a collection of a few hundred great
dances for community dance series as well as one nighters. If I can get
someone to help me collect them and put them into a book-like format, I
would be willing to fund the start-up of this collection. Hopefully, CDSS
will be interested in funding the publication of this book too!
OK, back to my day-to-day projects……..
Paul Rosenberg
Albany, NY
www.homespun.biz
518-482-9255
On Mar 7, 2016, at 5:14 PM, jdlaufman(a)comcast.net wrote:
The question of “contras” being called at ONSs has been raised before, and
fairly recently, and several of us chimed in quickly with “WHY?” If the gig
is a one nighter, and 95% of the folks there have not been exposed to
contras before, then no matter what you choose for a dance, it will have to
be taught and walked through, which, even if done well, can throw a damper
on that kind of a party. So, why? There are so many other good dances,
whole set, sets, circles.
We played for a rowdy barn dance near here once for another caller. After
a few fairly successful whole sets and circles he said “Oh, we haven’t done
a duple contra yet.” and proceeded to spend the next half hour trying,
unsuccessfully, to do
A-Roving. Train wreck and end of evening.
What happens is that the musicians are having a great time playing the
chunes and the dancers appreciate that, and the dancers are having a great
foot stomping time, but the poor caller is sometimes not getting much
attention and so cooks up a figger too complex so that the dancers have to
work too hard to get it which they might not, so they don’t feel
successful.....
But if you must do a “contra” at an ONS Jefferson & Liberty is the one.
Even ONSers like to swing, so I sometimes leave out the star, just call it
A1 circle left & right,/ A2 down the outside and back/ B1 Down the center
4 in line, inside arch, outside under/ B2 All swing partners.. Or, do it
with the stars, and do the swing at the end, adding an extra 8 bars of
music, making it a 40 bar dance. You can look around for a 40 bar chune,
or just roar into it and have it come out right occasionally.
Dudley
Dudley & Jacqueline Laufman
PO Box 61, 322 Shaker Rd
Canterbury, NH 03224
www.laufman.org
603-783-4719
jdlaufman(a)comcast.net
Education book & CD at www.humankinetics.com
Performance Calendar at www.laufman.org
*From:* mailto:trad-dance-callers@yahoogroups.com
<trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com>
*Sent:* Saturday, March 05, 2016 1:44 PM
*To:* trad-dance-callers(a)yahoogroups.com ; Caller's discussion list
<callers(a)sharedweight.net>
*Subject:* [trad-dance-callers] Contras for One Nighters
I rarely call a contra at a One Night Party Dance, but occasionally I am
asked to. I have a few in my cards, but can anyone make some sure fire
recommendations.
Assume 95%-100% non dancers.
Thanks, Rich
Stafford, CT