Aahz, Watch some MWSD calling on youtube with the volume off. You will find that in most of the videos, neither the dancers or the caller get the timing right. It is stop and go dancing. Contra dance is most often a steady flow. The MWSD have come to expect this as the norm. On another point you made previously, MWSD callers are generally easier for me to understand as well. This is by necessity. There is no walkthrough, and the list of basics, coming at you randomly, can number into the hundreds. The Hilton sound systems have also been engineered to emphasize the vocal range. Rich
________________________________ From: Aahz Maruch <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2014 1:54 AM Subject: Re: [Callers] Circle & pass through as the last move of a dance On Wed, Feb 12, 2014, Greg McKenzie wrote: > > Well-structured calling is not easy. It does however make a subtle but > significant difference in how confident the dancers feel--particularly at > open, public social events. That is why I structure my calls carefully and > write the calls out verbatim on my cards. That is also why I advocate for > callers at open public contra dances to use dance cards when calling. > Making up calls on the fly often puts the onus on the dancers to get the > timing right. While I don't particularly disagree with you, particularly for me at this stage in my calling career, I do find it interesting that your advice to avoid making up calls on the fly is almost universally ignored by MWSD callers -- and with the majority of square dance callers (which is to say, almost all the good ones), it's not the dancers who face the onus of getting the timing right. -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
