Hi there,
> Who wants to take bets that the answers to this poll shake out thusly:
>
> 1. one walk-through - East and West coast
> 2. two walk-throughs - all others
>
I must contradict this conclusion. Maine is definitely the East Coast.
Dancers here don't generally seem to care if there are two walkthroughs or one.
(At least most dancers, at most of the regular dance series.)
That said, whether the majority actively cares or not, I take Dan's points to
be a reminder to aim for calling excellence in general, and in this case, to
look at why one is doing two walkthroughs. If it mostly comes down to a
failure on my part, I'd hope to make improvements in my calling practice such
that I could do one walkthrough in the future (for a similar dance, with
similar dancers, at a similar event.) While there are some regular contra
series where I might do two walkthroughs every time anyhow (and start the dance
with Galopede) it would be nice to have that necessitated by the situation and
not weaknesses in my calling practice.
Of course, we callers are human (!) and for me, if I'm juggling too many things
during the night (a band with wildly inconsistent tempos, an inexperienced
sound person, a hall packed with hopping and loudly chatty dancers, sleep
deprivation, program plan that's completely inappropriate, etc.), it's a
blessed thing to be able to rely on two walkthroughs to get us all through to
11pm. And if everyone else (band, dancers, sound person) is smiling after a
night of two walkthroughs, well, it can't be all that important in the scheme
of things. Seems like they are all happier w an imperfect caller than w no
caller at all.
Chrissy Fowler
Belfast, ME
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