Ok. I'll jump in on the medley question.
My guidelines for medleys are
0) Before anything else, are you comfortable calling all of the
dances you're going to use in the medley as no walk thrus? Have you
done so before? That might be a good place to start.
1) Contrasting first moves -- this makes it easier to get folks
attention at the top of the dance -- if your first dance starts with
DoSiDo, then the second one could start with a Balance and Swing (or
allemande R, or something else)
2) Make sure that all of the moves needed for the dance are known by
the dancers -- better still, make sure that you've actually used them
(and seen that they went with no trouble) yourself earlier in the
evening. I've had times that I've put a medley together, looked at
it and realized that the medley had a right and left thru, and that
I'd made it through the entire dance without using a R&L Thru -- I
quickly changed dances for the medley
3) Make sure that the progressions work together. While it is
possible to do a medley where you go from becket to improper or vice
versa, I wouldn't recommend trying it until you're comfortable with
medleys. Make sure that folks don't have to use the same hand twice
in a row to make the progression (ie Right Hand Star to end one dance
and allemande R to start the next
4) You may get the medley started and realize that 30 new dancers
just got off the bus and that if you change dances when planned the
whole thing is going to fall apart. If so, there's nothing wrong
with just deciding to keep the same dance for the rest of the
set. Let the band know, and then let it go. The dancers probably
won't even notice.
5) You can also do a medley where the first dance is slightly more
complicated. Walk it through, dance, switch to another nice simple
dance, and then switch back to the first dance to finish.
As far as the band goes
1) Give them a heads up that you want to do a medley.
2) Let them know that you'll cue the changes from tune to tune --
discuss how many time through for each tune -- you'll want an even
number for the first two dances, and an odd number for the last
one. That way everyone's in for each new dance, and then it ends
with everyone in. ie 4-4-5
3) Don't do a medley as the last dance of the evening. Your band
will thank you. The last dance of the evening, they want to pull out
the stops and play some rip roaring tunes, and it's hard to do that
if the caller's calling the whole time. Better to do it earlier in
the evening -- maybe first dance after the break or last before,
depending on the group.
Example of a 2 dance medley I've used. The transition from
Delphiniums to Nice Combination isn't quite as good as I'd like, but
it works ok -- allemande R into B&S works ok, but not as well as I'd
like. Anyone else have any other favorite medleys?
Hey in the Barn
A1 N B&S
A2 L Chain
1/2 Hey
B1 P B&S
L Chain
1/2 Hey
Delphiniums and Dasies
A1 N All L 1.5
L Chain
A2 Hey
B1 P B&S
B2 CL 3/4
N Allemande R 1.5
Nice Combination
A1 N B&S
A2 Down the Hall
Turn as a couple, come back
B1 CL 3/4
P Sw
B2 L Chain
LHS 1x
This has gotten longer than planned, but I hope it helps!
Jack
At 03:52 PM 4/30/2008, you wrote:
2. I'm at the point where I want to try calling a dance medley. Any
thoughts on good combinations to start with? What coordination do
you do with the band ahead of time?
Thanks.
-Parker
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