well, uuhhh, darn,.. now I'm gonna think of tofu every time i call this one.. hee hee.. HAPPY NEW YEAR everybody! bill
> Date: Tue, 31 Dec 2013 15:18:38 -0800 > From: [email protected] > To: [email protected] > Subject: [Callers] Dances which work with a wide variety of tune types? > > Gang -- > > I was going to put "Tofu Dances" in the subject line, but I thought that > might dissuade some of you from reading it. > I was thinking that tofu is a nutritious substance without a really > strong flavor of its own, and that can harmonize with a lot of different > treatments; it'll end up tasting like the dish you put it in. > > Bill Olson's "Cranky Ingenuity" is a terrific dance - quick teach, > fairly low piece count, unusual enough figure (dosido as couples) that > it provides some variety in a program, useful as a first dance to let > you know the state of the crowd, useful as a last dance if you don't > have a lot of time, real teamwork with partner, adequate neighbor time. > And one of the things that's great about it is that it works with reels, > jigs, old-timey, rags, swing-dance tunes, French-Canadian tunes, Irish > polka - probably good for techno, too, although I haven't tried that. > While it has strong enough flow that dancers don't float in space > wondering what they're supposed to do yet, the transitions (other than > the closing balance-the-ring, California twirl) don't have hit precisely > to still be satisfying. > > The dancers react to the music and the dance takes on the flavor of the > music. If there's some tune set the band wants to play - like, it's the > last dance and it's their showstopper - Cranky Ingenuity will likely > work out well. (It might not be the single best match possible to some > particular tune, but it's likely to be a good match, and having it handy > and walking it through in 30 seconds makes up for deficiencies.) > > That's a great feature. But if I use it all the time - and worse, if > everybody uses it all the time - I'll wear it out. > > What other dances have this feature? > > (I think anything where the distinctive figure of the dance has short > phrases and tight timing - eg, Rory O More balances in long or short > waves; roll away across the set, catch partner and swing, Petronella > sequences, balance and square thru - is going to be disqualified. But if > you have experience that says otherwise, speak up!) > > In the meantime, Happy New Year! I'm calling for an hour tonight at an > English dance and dancing for three at a contra dance; I hope you all > have agreeable New Year's Eves and 2014s full of satisfying music and dance. > > -- Alan > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
