Becky's comments about keeping records of what dances are called are interesting. My experiences that this is often done at longer events with multiple callers in the same day, but I've never heard of it done at a community dance series. I do agree that it would be easy to do and potentially beneficial to many.
Brian Hamshar Virginia Becky Nankivell <[email protected]> wrote: >Andy Shore (Tue, 29 May 2012 14:05:31) wrote: > >"How did the previous caller fair and were there any pitfalls or >problems in that session that I can learn from or avoid? What dances >have been called thus-far and should I avoid ones that are too similar >(e.g., there were LOTS of dances with "balance the ring, california >twirl" progressions called this weekend.)" > >Once upon a time when I was starting calling and also involved with >organizing the multiple-caller contra dance in Tucson, Arizona, we >maintained a notebook where each caller (or an organizer) recorded the >dances that had been called in an evening, and a few other notes on >the evening. The idea was that this would be a resource that a caller >could use in planning the next dance. > >I don't know that any of the callers except for me actually ever used >this (and I know I didn't use it frequently), and after a few years >the practice was dropped. > >This still seems like a good idea to me for venues where there are >multiple callers. I know that I keep a record myself so that I don't >call the same dances too frequently at one venue, (and in planning an >evening I check for the distribution of figures). If you're not a >regular dancer at a venue (whether you're visiting, or just dancing >less frequently), without some record it's hard to know what's been >called. > >Nowadays, an electronic record would be easy to share, via web posting >or a file. Our not using the TFTM notebook was probably because the >dance planning happened at each caller's home, and the notebook wasn't >handy. > >Are there communities that are keeping such records and making them >available? Comments on that from organizers and/or callers? > >The trick is, as with any record keeping, it requires someone or some >people to make sure it happens and to keep track of the file(s)... > >As an additional note, I believe the dance records are still in the >TFTM archives, and undoubtedly show some interesting changes in the >style of dances called. As someone with an interest in dance history, >I think it would be great if there were more records like this out >there. > >~ Becky >_______________________________________________ >Callers mailing list >[email protected] >http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
