On Mon, Sep 09, 2013, Grant Goodyear wrote: > > Erik Hoffman used to call traveling squares that I always thought worked > very well.(*) He picked dances with main figures that were easy to teach, > high energy, and that quickly built up to include the entire set. He'd > offset the predictable main figure with hash-style breaks. As with pretty > much everything else, a good caller makes all the difference....
One reason I don't like squares at contra dances (and I'm responding here because of the "hash-style breaks" comment) is that my hearing makes it *horrible*. Hard enough at regular square dances where good callers make sure the music is sufficiently under their voice for better hearing -- at contras the music is considered (and is!) important enough that it's usually mic'd higher. In addition, my experience is that the average level of enunciated clarity is significantly lower for contra callers, partly because it just doesn't matter as much, leading to a feedback loop. (To the point that even during the walkthrough, without music, for most contra callers, I'm not really paying much attention to what they say.) This also applies to live-called and no-walkthrough contras, but at least with those I can usually catch up quickly enough after two or three rounds (I'm *very* good with visual and kinesthetic learning). Another factor that makes squares more difficult is that you're dancing with eight people. Even a minimally experienced contra dancer knows how to fix a breakdown in the foursome, just progress and dance with the next couple. Not possible in a square except for experienced square dancers (and that goes double with the typical mixer-style square where you progress partners). The final factor that kills square dances for me at contras is that contra calling is almost exclusively pure calls (like MWSD patter). Squares at contra dances are usually trad singing calls, so picking the calls out is exponentially more difficult. As a reminder, my hearing is significantly worse than most people (deaf with cochlear implant), but balance that against the fact that I'm a competent and experienced dancer: people with any significant hearing impairment with less competence/experience are going to have similar problems. Although the contra community has done way better than the square and IFD communities at bringing in new blood, it definitely has aged, and there are probably more people now with hearing impairments. -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html
