Don --
> Brand new to the list. I'm one of the organizers for the MondayContras > series at the Concord, MA Scout House and have been an avid dancer for just > over 4 years now. Hi to those I already know and to those of you I'll get > to know from here! Hi, Don! > I've been an occasional caller for dances on shared evening programs and > camper nights, etc. but have my first full evening coming up later this > month, which I'm excited about. This is for a smaller regional dance that > attracts a mixed crowd of mostly periodic dancers. I've done some basic > "how to call" workshops at festivals, etc. but have not taken a formal > caller's course. > I'm planning to tailor my dance selection to the expected crowd and build > in some flexibility to address variability. I'm pretty confident in my > dance selection skills but I'm definitely still counting my way through the > music to call. So one concern is with making sure I stay firmly anchored to > the music, without depending upon the crowd for cues. I craft my calls to > fit the phrasing and rehearse with music to get confident but dance > breakdowns are a fear. I've come close a couple of times early on but have > been able to set things right somehow on the fly... however, I was not very > confident doing so at the time. Hmm. Do you pay attention to the music when you're dancing? Do you know where you are in the tune when you're on the floor? You kinda need for that to be second nature - something you don't have to spend conscious brain cycles on. If it isn't, I can only suggest even more practice with recorded music than you're doing, plus trying to be conscious about it when you're dancing, so you always know what phrase you're in. (If you're a good dancer, you probably do actually know this, but you might not know you do.) > So with that concern, a couple of related questions: > - Do you have practiced recovery routines (more than just "get home and > swing your partner")? Is that common? Or do most callers just make it up on > the spot? I don't have practiced recovery routines. If the dance has been going on long enough to be done when it breaks down, something like "Listen up - find your partner, balance and swing" while signalling the band so they know they're going out is fine. If it's really not done, you can just stop the music and regroup if you have to, but you have to figure out where it's breaking down. If you're trying to repair it without stopping, then you need to get people into the progression in the right orientation, which is really challenging in some dances. If I were worried about it - and I'm not, particularly, and don't think you should be if you're confident in matching your dance choices to the floor - I would identify the moment in each dance when you're with your partner with the man on the right and the lady on the left and craft my recovery call around getting people to that point. > - In working with the musicians, are there any customary "I've lost track, > where are we in the music?" signals? No, and you really don't want to do that. It's much likelier that they're going to repeat something they shouldn't or not to repeat something they should than that you're going to get lost. You need to be ready to say to somebody "Play another B!" Find some couples who are doing the dance right and check in on where they are in the pattern. If there aren't any you can rely on, then you picked the wrong dance. -- Alan -- =============================================================================== Alan Winston --- [email protected] Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 650/926-3056 Paper mail to: SSRL -- SLAC BIN 99, 2575 Sand Hill Rd, Menlo Park CA 94025 ===============================================================================
