Here goes:
First off, keep your band and dancers happy -- don't call a medley as
the last dance. The dancer are brain dead by that point, and the
band wants to be able to place knock-em-dead tunes (which no one will
hear if the caller has to call for the whole dance.
Otherwise, here are my guidelines for medleys:
1) Know your dances!! Know where folks should be, who they should be
with and where they should be going. You may need to toss additional
information into your calls if you see a particular problem. You
need to be able to do that concisely and without thinking about
it. (This is also another vote for simple dances for medleys)
2) Figure out the dances that you are going to use for the medley and
(unless you are at a dance weekend or otherwise somewhere that
everyone is experienced) make sure that you've done a dance that
includes each of the moves that you plan to use in the medley. If
you want to use petronellas in the medley, make sure you've called a
dance with 'em at least once earlier in the evening. Even so, it's
still good to stick to nice, simple (but good) brainless dances that
don't make the dancers try to think. (Unless you're Robert Cromartie
at a dance weekend, where he once called Contra Corners in the 2nd
dance of a 3 dance medley -- don't try this at home, he's a professional ;-) )
3) Unless you're very careful and *very good* don't have two of the
dances have the same (or similar sounding) first calls. (ie. First
dance starts with Balance and Swing, 2nd dance with Do Si Do, third
with B&S). Also be wary of dances that have the same series of three
figures -- it's easy for dancers to revert to the previous dance if
they're too similar and not thinking on their feet -- had that happen
recently at an advance dance. Two dances had the same set of figures
in the middle, and people kept wanting to follow them with the figure
from the first dance rather than the one we were on.
4) Communicate with the band. Is the band going to change tunes with
you? If so, work out the communication from the start. What sort of
signal does the band want? Remember, that you want to change dances
when the couple at the head of the set is going back IN, not when
they're coming OUT -- that way everyone gets to dance the first time
through the new dance. That means that you signal the band for 1
more time as a couple is coming OUT at the top of the hall. Also,
you're going to do the first two dances an odd number of times, and
the last dance an even number of times (to get the couple at the top
back in for the last time through the dance). ie. 1st and 2nd dances
5 times, 3rd dance 6 times.
5) As you're choosing your calls and dances look out for things that
you wouldn't normally have to call, but you have to call -- and even
emphacize -- in a medley. Have you change neighbors? Then the call
needs to be "NEW NEIGHBORS circle left" or "WITH THE NEXT balance
and swing" Is it unclear whether you have changed
neighbors? Ambiguity is NOT your friend. If it's ambiguous, find a
way to make it clear.
Say it's two stars in a row -- are you progressing or not? The
difference between:
Left hands in for a left hand star
Right hands in for a right hand star
Left hands in for a left hand star
SAME FOUR right hand star
and
Left hands in for a left hand star
WITH THE NEXT right hand star
Is really important!!
So....that's a little more longwinded than I meant to be, but I think
it's said most of what I wanted to say. Almost all of the above
rules have resulted from (mainly) me screwing up and realizing --
"Hey that didn't work so well -- I should do that differently!! -- or
(less frequently) from seeing something happen to another caller. I
hope that they help. Feedback from other experienced callers would
be welcome!!
Jack Mitchell
Durham, NC
At 09:26 PM 1/30/2007, you wrote:
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
_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
[email protected]
http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
