I can't remember what level of complication / sophistication works for your dancers.
Listening to the tunes I heard bitty 4 count things in the As and longer phrases in the Bs. If you want to work with rather than against the music, your As should be something like balance-the-ring,petronella-twirl; repeat, neighbor balance and swing (which isn't quite as good a match, but nobody minds swinging through 3 two-bar bits.). Other options: Balance in waves (long or short depending, slide past, slide back, neighbor balance and swing; or balance the wave and walk to the next wave; interrupted square through (balance, pull by, pull by) is also a good match for that. In the Bs, longer figures -star, promenade, star promenade, hey, etc. If I had to match those tune sets with a reasonably sophisticated urban crowd, the first good-looking thing that turned up on Caller's Box was this: https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/dance.php?id=9904 (That's Nils Fredlands "Abolish Mop Snarl".) A1:Short lines, balance, walk forward to the next line, balance, neighbor allemande 3/4 back to first neighbor, A2: balance and swing. B. half richochet hey, partner swing. B2 long lines, hands across star into new wavy lines. I think something with that kind of structure would well for these tunes. -- Alan ________________________________________ From: Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers <[email protected]> Sent: Friday, May 12, 2023 5:46 PM To: Shared Weight Contra Callers Subject: [Callers] Another difficult tune Hi friends! You may remember I asked a while ago about what sort of dance I could call to a specific quebecois tune that one of our bands always played and I hate to call to. In the end that conversation shifted into one regarding how to communicate with bands generally, and what sort of expectations I could have of a band that doesn't get into the business of choosing tunes to match dances themselves. It was all very helpful and I am pleased to report that my relationship with the band I was previously having some friction with has improved! And- at our upcoming dance they're doing a wonderful thing - they've invited any interested and aspiring musicians to come and play along unmic'd behind them - and they've set up a google drive folder with the tunes, containing both recordings and sheet music,. This is great for me because finally I can preview all the tunes and be ready with the desired order they will be played in! But listening to the Aime-Gagnon-Telephone tune set, I realized this is the other set this band plays that really bums me out. I just can't get a dance of mine to feel good to it. Could you folks have a listen and let me know your thoughts? I can't really put my finger on it other than ... it kinda feels plodding to dance to at this speed, and yet it feels like the musicians are playing really fast already? and....it has a bit of a stressful and on edge feel- rather than a "sit back and enjoy" feel of other tunes? I will close by saying this band also plays LOTS of great tunes, which I love, and they are fabulous musicians :) here is the tune in the google drive.... https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qsoLthlIYvBNRqD2Kvd0JyYzSjwj4KS4/view?usp=drivesdk or if you prefer, on spotify! https://open.spotify.com/track/7fAJSwoKsQQC1cqlAmouLJ?si=nijl2dibR6Ktupc-w08IbA thank you for thoughts and/or dance suggestions :) Kat in Halifax _______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
