Hello All--
The First Saturday Dance and Triangle Country Dancers will be hosting
the Winter Whirlwind weekend February 29 - March 2 in Durham and
Carrboro, NC. We will have three dances plus a callers workshop, all
led by Becky Hill. On Friday 2/29, there will be a dance at Pleasant
Green Community Center in Durham with the Elftones. On Saturday
(3/1) afternoon, we will have an advance dance, also with the
Elftones and Becky. Then on Saturday evening, we will have a dance
with Footloose and Becky. Finally, on Sunday afternoon (beginning at
12:30), Becky will lead an intermediate level callers workshop
(Becky's more detailed description of the workshop is at the end of
this message. More information about the weekend can be found at
www.winterwhirlwind.com. If you know if any other callers that might
be interseted in attending, please pass this on to them!
I hope that many of you will be able to join us for some or all of
these events. If you are interested in attending the callers'
workshop, please let me know as soon as possible. We do require
advance registration for the workshop. Since I'm also the one that's
coordinating housing for out of town folks, if you need housing with
a local dancer, please let me know that as well (even if you think I
already know!!!)
So, I need the following information:
Who you are
That you're planning on coming to the workshop
What calling experience (in a sentence or so) you've had (ie. "Called
some single dances in an evening." "Been calling for 20 years." etc)
If you need housing with a dancer (and if so, for which nights)
--if you need housing, are you allergic to anything (cats, dogs,
stupidity.....)
Let me know if you have any questions!!
Hope to see many of you next month.
Jack
Workshop Description/Details:
1. We will begin the workshop by pairing new callers with experienced
ones. Each team of two will "chart" a dance which will enable callers
to parse the dance for the walkthrus, including specifics such as who
and where each person lands in the line, discovering shadows, and
negotiating knotty end effects.
2. Programming: each team will be given 11 dances sequenced in the
best order to program for a given evening. We will all share the
outcome and explain how each team made their decisions.
3. Precision calling: the participants will be given dances with
dicey timing issues. Using the empty timing sheets in the large
handout, the participants will fill in the blanks so that the timing
is precise with the music.
4. Voice control: breathing from the diaphragm and "on the fly" deep
relaxation techniques in the face of adversity. We will do some
exercises for both men and women, so that they may avoid shrill
female voices and angry sounding male voices.
5. Positive teaching techniques; avoiding the use of negative words;
praising the dancers and the band for a job well done.
6. Maintaining variety; the participants will fill out the "Dance-at
-a Glance" sheets with a sample program using the previous
programming exercise to check for variety of dance moves.
