On 7/10/2011 1:11 PM, JoLaine Jones-Pokorney wrote:
HI all - I'm a fairly new caller and so far have only called improper duple, beckett, and 4x4. Where does one learn to call these other options? I haven't even ventured into squares because I don't know how to call them and don't know where to learn. I bought Nils and Ralph's book, but just reading a book doesn't give me the confidence I need to venture into different formations. In fact, a local caller recently called two squares that were disasters and another beginning caller and myself looked at each other, laughed, and swore we would NEVER call a square!!
My first attempt at calling a square didn't work out too well either. I wouldn't have called it a disaster, but I knew I had a lot to learn. While there are many things in common when calling squares and contras, there are also some differences that make it a bit of a challenge to someone who has only called contras. I thought I had selected a fairly easy square, Texas Star, which many of the dancers had done before, but there were enough new things for me to deal with that I wasn't able to do a very good job. So I selected an even easier dance, Sheehan's Reel by Roger Whynot from Ted Sannella's book Balance and Swing, and called that one until I got the hang of calling squares.
As someone else has said I would suggest selecting an easy New England square with a 32 bar figure and use a 32 bar break. Then at least the timing will be similar to a contra and you can work on the other aspects of calling squares. Once you are comfortable with those you can branch out to trickier squares.
One thing that can be tricky is when you have multiple squares and they don't all finish a given figure at the same time. Then you have to tell those that are done to do something, such as swing at home, while the others catch up before going on to the next part of the dance. This means you will get out of synch with the music. Once you start doing anything other than the simplest square this is almost certain to happen. So now I use an intro figure at the very start which doesn't have 32 bars, such as circle left and right and then into the center and back twice, to throw me off the music from the very start. Then I don't have to worry about staying with the tune. I still try to make the figures go with the phrases, but I don't worry about keeping with the tune. Then if some of the squares take longer to promenade back home, or whatever, I don't have to be worrying about it. I just tell the others to swing at home and wait until the tardy square catches up, then when the next phrase comes around start the next figure.
Jonathan ----- Jonathan Sivier Caller of Contra, English and Early American Dances jsivier AT illinois DOT edu Dance Page: http://www.sivier.me/dance_leader.html ----- Q: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? A: It depends on what dance you call!
