Re: Passing of Ralph Sweet

Ralph Sweet was one of my all-time favorite callers, and--up until disease took its toll in the last couple years or so--one of the sharpest, most perceptive guys you could hope to meet. Among my peak dance experiences was dancing to Ralph at the 2011 Northwest Passage weekend, his last west-coast dance camp gig, where his performance, at the sprightly age of 82, was simply superb. I recently sat down and re-watched my DVD of _Sweet Talk_, the delightful interview/documentary that David Millstone recorded with Ralph in 2004. Starting about ten minutes before the end, there's a segment titled "Advice for Callers", where Ralph says, among other things: The other most important thing [Ralph had just been talking about teaching so that dancers "have fun from that first night so they'll come back the second night"] is your personality. ... They've got to like you. If they feel that you're being critical of them, or something, they're not gonna come back even if you do a good job in the calling per se. ... opposite coasts), he had a mighty likable personality, on mic and off. Condolences to Carol and the rest of the Sweet family. --Jim