On Mon, Apr 11, 2011 at 3:13 AM, Will Kruse <[email protected]> wrote:
> Hello from Seattle! I'd love to hear your thoughts on what separates > good callers from great callers? Is it their selections of dances? > That they call their own dances? Their ability to compose an evening > of dancing? Their personal charm? Their connection with the band? > Their intimate knowledge of how the dance, the music, and the dancers > all flow together? > What makes a great caller? A great band. Okay, that's the flippant answer, although there's a certain amount of truth to it. If the band is awesome, the caller can just get out of the way, and everything will work for an awesome evening. (That's even more true if there's a great crowd, as well. The special event that brings out all of the experienced dancers, and greatly increases the ratio of experienced to beginner dancers, is easy to call.) I'm a good caller, but not a great one. The great callers I know (Lisa Greenleaf, Chris Kelly, Linda Leslie, and Joseph Pimental, to name just four) can (seemingly) effortlessly fix a set that's just starting to fail with a few gentle words over the microphone. They can miscall a dance (even the great ones are human) and fix it on the fly. They're not only good teachers of the dances, style, and etiquette, but also in tune with the crowd to know both when and what to teach. And then there's usually something extra special about each one. Chris Kelly exudes calm, even in the midst of a train wreck, without reducing the energy level of the dance. Joseph has a program for the evening, a backup program, and a mental set of safety-net dances, but the dancers never know because he'll make the night awesome fun regardless. Etcetera. -Grant- -- Grant Goodyear web: http://www.grantgoodyear.org e-mail: [email protected]
