Greg McKenzie wrote: > > There are calls, prompts, and cues. I use "calls" to refer to words > that can instruct everyone during the first walk-through. (Others > might call this "instructions.") Prompts are what you give out when > the music starts. Cues are what the dancers use to help them > remember what the figures are after the prompts stop. Cues can be > music, examples by other dancers around them, eye contact, or other > leads from surrounding dancers. They can also be lights. >
These sound like potentially useful words, but don't match my mental model. I think of the hall as a big mush of people with different abilities to turn external signals into dance and different abilities to turn danced actions into short term memory. It all works as long as the dance chosen and signals given fit the abilities of the crowd as an organism. So when a caller goes 'sss' right when the dancers are either about to do long lines or circle left, that can be just enough for the hall to consense onthe right next move. They don't need to give a full call, just a small signal. I see these lights as taking on a similar role to short calls (circle, star, chain, swing): they don't tell you all of what you need to do next, but they tell enough of the crowd enough that enough people remember which of several moves they have primed from the walkthrough goes next. > > To keep the dance form open to the general public we will need some > kind of instructive calls to start. > Yes. I don't want initial teaching to go away, and I have trouble imagining light-calls working the first time through the dance. Jeff
