Hi Joe, The most important thing is to have a sorting system that allows you to find a dance fast when you need it. The key elements of this system would thus be based on how one programs and how frequently one calls. For example, a caller who programs in advance and calls one dance per quarter pretty much does not need to worry about a sorting system. Each dance program can be carefully hand crafted with main dances and alternates should the dances turn out to be particularly new or experienced in a given night. Sorting becomes more important for callers who call frequently and program more ad-hoc. I call about 30-40 dances per year, and lean toward the ad-hoc programming approach, tempered by a standard slotting framework I use that governs. So, being able to just look through a short subset of dances for a particular slot is important for me to do on the fly. So, "slot" is my first organizational criteria. After that, I generally use Diane's hook categorization, but also consider the opening figures and whether a dance works better for warm or cold weather (important consideration for my home hall, which is not climate controlled).
I can detail my programming framework process, but this is long enough, I think. Hope this provides some additional insight. Best, Greg On Wed, Jan 11, 2023 at 12:44 AM Joe Harrington via Contra Callers < contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > The short version of this post is, how should I organize my dances? But, > I'm sure if I ask that, the thread will have 100 replies and lots of > confusion. My search of the list archives and web were surprisingly spotty > on this question, with lots of anecdotes and no summary or comparison. And > I'm not just asking for myself. While I've got a whopping 15 evenings of > dance calling under my belt, I'm being called on to train some students to > call for our college club, and they're asking the same question. > > So, I'm looking for one or more summaries from those wiser than I (ok, low > bar!) of the kinds of systems for cards. This might better be asked as, > what are the different approaches to programming dances, and what > organizing systems make each of those easier? > > In a workshop of his last summer, Bob Isaacs related his system of colored > cards for easy, hard, bouncy, flowy, sweetheart, and divorce-reconcile > dances (I think those were the categories). Call easy dances first, call a > sweetheart right after the break when they're most likely to dance with the > person they came with. Save hard for festivals. Give them variety. > > But, I've wanted more categories, and what about finding the bouncy > sweethearts? I'm really busy, so the idea of re-copying a hundred or more > cards to make a new system doesn't thrill me, if I don't like my initial > system. Maybe I'll get a database system to select dances with, and then > have a set of alphabetized printed cards for the actual calling, though > what if I'm wrong and need to change my program, as has already happened a > few times when a ton of newbies shows up? I'm interested in hearing about > anything particularly clever or efficient, especially if it doesn't involve > a computer or tablet. > > A comparison of the different computer systems would also be welcome. I'm > aware of programs by Will Loving and Colin Hume. I asked on one Facebook > group for a comparison of these but got no response. Is the Caller's Box > up to real-time dance selection at an event? That presumes wi-fi, of > course, or at least cell signal. > > I'll toss in one amusing and possibly workable paper system, for a > dedicated and extremely nerdy caller, which might be me... > > I heard recently (I believe from Angela DeCarlis) of a mechanical sorting > system based on the Jacquard loom concept that became the Hollerith punched > card system. I've never seen it in use. Does anyone do this? > > Figure out the ten or so characteristics you might want to sort on. For > example, easy, medium, hard, bouncy, flowy, separates partners, sweetheart > (keeps partners together), etc. Take a stack of cards and drill holes near > the bottom edge, one per characteristic (you can drill a stack of cards if > you sandwich them between wood and clamp them). Now, on a given card, > punch out the rest of the paper between the hole and the edge of the card > for each hole the card DOESN'T match. So, for an easy dance, you'd punch > out the rest of the paper for the medium and hard holes (among others), but > leave the easy hole intact. If you make a mistake, just fold a piece of > tape over the gap above the hole to close the gap. > > Now, when you want to look at your easy, flowy, sweetheart dances, flip > the stack so the holes are up, push a pencil or knitting needle through the > "easy" hole and lift. Then, in the ones you pulled, push through the flowy > hole and lift, and finally for that set poke through the sweetheart hole > and lift. Those are the easy, flowy, sweetheart dances. If you want the > medium or hard dances that are bouncy and that separate partners, you pull > first the medium and then the hard dances, combine them, and then pull the > bouncies from that set and the separators from that third pull. And so on. > > Good hole alignment and clean punching would matter, I think. If you are > a real dance sorting fanatic, you could get like 30 holes around the card > edges, but that would limit the writing space. > > I predict this will be all the rage, post-apocalypse...at least until we > run out of cards. ;-) > > --jh-- > Joe Harrington > Organizer, Greater Orlando Contra Dance > Faculty Advisor, Contra Knights, the UCF contra dancing club > contraknights.org > FB, Ig: Contra Knights > contradancer...@gmail.com > > > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net >
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