[Callers] Planning for Medleys

[Lisa Sieverts]

Hi gang,

So we're planning for a medley and I had a concern that perhaps  
people were aiming too high. So I wrote:

As you're thinking about dances for a medley, keep in mind that  
there will be no walk-through so you  have to plan for the  
excellent words you will use (taking up no more than 8 beats of  
music) for the more complex calls. We shouldn't be late with a  
single call during a medley, since (IMHO) that takes all the fun  
out of dancing the medley.

In response, I heard back that I'd only succeeded in frightening  
callers out of their wits (an exaggeration, but you get the point).

My response:
there's an easy answer: call dances that you know inside out,  
forwards and backwards. The medley is not a time to show off fancy  
dances. All we need are good dances that flow.

You can also practice by trying out your selected dances over the  
next couple of months. If appropriate for your dancers, try calling  
it no walk-through. If you can't do that, then try to use all the  
words you'd need during the first time or two through the dance.

I'm not saying it's impossible to call hard dances, but iit takes a  
lot of preparation to be able to call dances with non-standard  
moves and we do the dancers a huge disservice if we screw up.

So pick dances that you love and that you feel comfortable about  
calling, and then practice practice practice.



Am I being too judgmental? BTW, it's not NEFFA that we're planning  
for, so we can't assume that every dancer knows every possible move.  
And please share any other tips you have for planning medleys.

Thanks,
Lisa