On Sun, Jan 6, 2013 at 3:00 PM, tavi merrill <[email protected]> wrote: > ...I'm specifically looking for low to medium piece-count dances WITHOUT > down the hall. > > I'm wondering if anyone could point me towards dances that really hit a > homer - things like: Jubilation (Gene Hubert), Thanks to the Gene (Tom > HInds) Another Nice Combination (Tome Hinds), Star Struck (Nick Boulet), > Simplicity Swing (Becky Hill), The Carousel (GH), The Baby Rose (David > Kaynor), All You Can Eat (Ted Crane), 20 Below (Bill Olson)... dances that > can be the bread and butter of a less advanced evening, or just a handy > fall-back for more capable crowds. Dances without down-the-hall, and > without awkward transitions (right&left through -> circle L?! agh!).
By the way, The Carousel is by Tom Hinds. > What are the best places to go looking for other bread-and-butter > repertoire like those? Anybody have a favorite fall-back or > last-of-the-night dance they'd like to share? As a new caller, I often think about this question of discovery. The problem with collecting dances from published collections is that they don't reflect the statistical reality of what dances actually get called (which is a close enough approximation to what you're looking for). Better, then, is to find sources that sample from a distribution that's more similar to what dances actually get called. I like two kinds of sources best: (1) going to contra dances, and (2) YouTube videos (thanks to Chris Page for annotating many of them). Incidentally, yesterday I prepared a lengthy list of relatively simple dances (I wasn't sure how many I was going to need). These are the ones without down the hall figures. In no particular order: Simplicity Swing (Becky Hill) The Second Time Around (Jim Kitch) Easy Street (Bob Isaacs) I Wish They All Could Be California Twirls (Jim Kitch) Trip to Cleveland (Becky Hill) Small Potatoes (Jim Kitch) Hocus Pocus (Lisa Greenleaf) Winter Storm (Linda Leslie) Cranky Ingenuity (Bill Olson) Judah Jig (Charlie Fenton) A Last Hurrah (Erik Hoffman) Summer of '94 (Mike Richardson / Lisa Greenleaf's variation) Fairport Harbor (Paul Balliet) You Can't Get There from Here (Carol Ormand) Spring Fever (Tony Parkes) Travels with Rick and Kim (Shari Miller-Johnson) A Dance for Dan (Bill Olson) More than one other caller, I think, has also chosen Tica Tica Timing (Dean Snipes) as a last dance. Hope this helps, Yoyo Zhou
