I went to a great workshop that Susan Michaels taught on this topic. Some of the highlights that I remember from that workshop:
* Pied piper or conga line-type way to round up the dancers * Use terms that are not gendered for the dance roles (e.g., suns and moons) since this avoids lots of problems. "Talls" and "Smalls" is also a good pairing, and gets you an adult in each pair. * Circle dances are good * A dosido is "drive into the garage/back out of the garage" * Don't use any figure in both the left and right direction-- star, circle, allemande, or two hand turn should only go one direction. * Feel free to use calls from English, contra or squares if their name is easy/self-explanatory (two hand turns are easier than swings if you have a group that doesn't do any sort of couple dancing, and doesn't require a gent-and-lady hand position) Les On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 7:48 AM, barb kirchner <[email protected]>wrote: > by far, the best thing i ever learned to do was to engage the couple (or > party organizers, or somebody who is known to the crowd) in the > programming. if the bride gets up and says "let's dance!", people will. > > if they want to do something else (and they might!), ask them to designate > some energetic types to help you round up people. > > best accidental thing i ever did - an afternoon reception with food and > drink outside. when the bride was ready, some of the musicians (those with > portable instruments) walked through the crowd, playing. people followed > them back into the hall, just like the pied piper! > > don't be afraid to make things up as you go - just stay calm and go ahead > and do your job :-) i know that a lot of stuff i call at family dances > and parties comes to me on the fly, and so i just do it. > > and i don't think of these gigs as "dances" - so i don't feel constrained > to do "dances", per se. esp at family dances, i'm likely to ask the kids > what they'd like to do - it's okay with me if they just wanna gallop around > in time to the music for awhile. > > good luck to you! > > barb > > > > From: [email protected] > > To: [email protected] > > Date: Mon, 10 Feb 2014 15:33:03 +0000 > > Subject: [Callers] Calling weddings and private parties > > > > Good morning everyone. > > > > I've been calling for 15 years and to this day, the hardest dances for > me to call are private parties, like weddings. Usually, a "soon to be wed" > couple comes to a regular dance for the first time, has a great time, and > that's what they want at their wedding reception. What they fail to > realize is the atmosphere of a wedding reception is completely different > than a normal contra dance. The focus of attendees to a contra dance is > the dance. The attendees of a wedding reception are there to socialize and > usually drink. > > > > I learned through trial and mostly errors that actual contra dances are > rarely a good idea at such an event. The stumbling block is the contra > progression and has caused more private dances to crash and burn than I can > count. You don't want to spend much time teaching as the dancers will lose > interest very quickly. So, I keep a stash of very simple proper dances, > circles, and squares which seems to work the best. The Virginia Reel is > always a favorite because it can become totally messed up, will still be > fun, and is easy to recover. Even little kids can join in. > > > > Would other callers share some of their experiences and solutions for > these types of events? What dances have you found to be the most > successful? I thought this might be relevant because if you call dances > long enough, at some point you will be asked to do one of these. > > > > Harold > > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers >
