Thanks, Mark. Obviously, I agree with your approach to this thread.
Another interesting anecdote, related to your story about how to start
a hey: I did an Intro to Contra at NEFFA a few weekends ago. We did a
hey that started with facing one's partner (from the men doing an
allemande left in the center). A dancer asked me if this was a
mistake. I clarified that heys can start in many different ways. She
seemed relieved, and shared with the group that someone at NEFFA had
told her that a hey "always, always" starts with the women passing
right in the center, and that this is the only correct way.
For me, the take home message is that we each will have ideas and
techniques about program planning, formation use, and teaching that
will vary. Having an open approach to accepting this in callers leads
to variety and a healthy acceptance of differences. As long as the
dancing is safe and inclusive, we should celebrate these differences.
Cheers! Linda Leslie
On May 5, 2012, at 3:28 PM, Mark Hillegonds wrote:
So many ways this conversation could go:
- allowing the folk process to evolve (or not)
- our collective caller's responsibility (or not) to broaden (or
not) the
knowledge of dancers
- teaching moves in beginners workshops that we may (or may not) use
in the
evening
- the value (or not) of tossing in the occasional chestnut or
otherwise
non-duple improper formation
- etc.
So as not to deviate too far from direction of this thread, I'll
stay on
topic.
I called a dance recently where I called a very simple proper dance
"Cheat
the Lady." One of the moves in the dance is a R & L thru across and
back. I
had already called a R & L thru in an improper dance earlier in the
evening
and it went just fine. I was quite surprised, therefore, when the
dance
pretty much broke down and needed some pretty extensive teaching to
get
folks to understand how to do the move in proper formation.
Such a simple move was rendered difficult to many long-time dancers
in that
community simply by changing the formation to Proper. Some people
never
really did get it. They remained flustered as to how to handle the
same
gender courtesy turn.
It is well understood that if one doesn't exercise one's muscles,
they will
atrophy. It seems that some contra communities are not exercising
their
contra brains and bodies in that they are limiting the formations
and moves
they do on a regular basis. Another example is that in another
community, I
was chastised for having the audacity to have the men start a left
shoulder
hey. "We just don't do that here," said the dance organizer to me
after the
dance.
It is partly for this reason (and partly because I enjoy variety)
that I
frequently call a proper dance or some other formation in an
evening. I try
to keep it simple and accessible. I've received many compliments by
more
experienced dancers that they enjoyed doing something different.
Mark Hillegonds
cell: 734-756-8441
email: [email protected]
blog: www.defriction.com
-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Kaufman
Sent: Friday, May 04, 2012 2:32 PM
To: Caller's discussion list
Subject: [Callers] Don't teach proper formation unless you need it
Contra dancing has almost entirely lost the 'proper' formation, with
gents
in one line and ladies in another. For most of contra dancing's
history,
however, that was the standard formation and many people, especially
callers, still think of it that way.
I was at a dance recently where the caller noticed that there were
many new
dancers and that it probably wouldn't work to just wait for people
to get
into position. They told all the couples to stand with the ladies in
one
line and the gents in another, to take hands for from the top, and
that this
was proper formation. Then they introduced 1s and 2s and had all the
ones
cross over. But they didn't call any proper or assymetric dances all
night!
Which is fine; I think they chose good dances for the crowd. But why
introduce the terminology?
Especially when there's so many other terms we want them to be
absorbing?
Jeff
PS: I also posted this on my blog, and there are some comments there:
http://www.jefftk.com/news/2012-05-04.html
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