Martha gave some good and creative tips for new callers.
She wrote:
Go back to square one and ask to call three dances in the first half
- maybe the first three. When those go well, branch out and do just
the second three so you get more experience doing harder dances. And
if you can teach clearly to beginners, you can teach clearly to
advanced dancers.
I know some callers who reserve the first dance after the break for
"guest callers" who are new. This makes sense to me for several reasons.
The first three dances are, perhaps, the most critical ones in the
entire evening. This is when the newcomers will either gain lots of
confidence or have their worst fears realized. Moreover this is the
time when the caller can set a tone and expectation for the entire
evening. It is during the first few dances that patterns such as
"center set syndrome" are established. If you want to generate a
generous and gracious atmosphere, the early dances are when you have
a chance to convince the dancers that you will make sure the dancing
is fun--no matter where they are or with whom they are dancing. I
would be very hesitant to let a new caller jump in at the very
beginning of the evening.
If you are invited to call the first three dances consider it a sign
of great confidence in your skills and do your best to insure success
for all of the dancers. In particular, insure that experienced
dancers, who have matched up with beginners, have a good time. This
will require all of your calling and teaching skills.
The later dance slots are much easier to call.
On a related note Dan gave the following link for an evaluation form
used the the Chattahoochie Country Dancers:
http://www.contradance.org/pdfs/caller_eval.pdf
(This is a 12-page form that is more imposing than many job
application forms I have seen. As a programmer I had complaints that
my "Caller Notes" document--just over four pages--was much too
detailed. This one seems designed to actually discourage new callers
from applying.)
The evaluation form part is not bad at all. (It's two pages
long.) One thing I noticed, however, is that there is a checkbox for
whether or not the caller ended the dance on time. There is also a
checkbox for whether they started and ended the break on time. Yet
there is no checkbox regarding whether they started the dancing on
time. This seems odd to me. I would regard a prompt start time to
be much more important to insure a vibrant and successful series.
I would love to hear other opinions on the importance of a prompt start time.
Just a thought,
Greg
