[Callers] A Walk In The Park

Has the dance name "A Walk In The Park" been taken? If not, dibs.

Re: [Callers] Caller backed out; need a new one (or a fiddler) for Saturday in East Putney.

Aaaand that was meant as a reply, not reply-all. *forehead slap* On Fri, Aug 30, 2013 at 10:03 AM, Ron T Blechner <contra...@gmail.com>wrote: > Hi Amy, > > Has someone been found yet to call this dance? I'm located in South > Deerfield, Massachusetts, and I hadn't yet made S

Re: [Callers] Caller backed out; need a new one (or a fiddler) for Saturday in East Putney.

Hi Amy, Has someone been found yet to call this dance? I'm located in South Deerfield, Massachusetts, and I hadn't yet made Saturday plans. I'd be happy to come call. I've been calling for 2 years, and completed Bob Isaacs' most recent caller's class in Spring 2012. I only moved to New England a

Re: [Callers] Tampering with a classis aagain 3-33-33

-hand-low that goes into a swing ... called a Loop Di Doo). It's been picked up by a few other callers, so, I know it's not totally awful. in dance, Ron T Blechner On Thu, Jun 20, 2013 at 5:35 PM, Bree Kalb <b...@mindspring.com> wrote: > I agree with Michael. Especially in the case of

Re: [Callers] Dances With Minimal Partner Time (Was: dances with ultimate partner time)

Asking seriously: Why? >> > >> I do enjoy dances with good partner interaction...but I have a lot of > >> those. What I am interested in now is contra dances with minimal > >> partner interaction. No. Not dances without a partner swing. (That > >> would likely engender too many complaints.)

Re: [Callers] favorite easy out of minor set dances.

Ah, excellent :) On Fri, Feb 22, 2013 at 3:37 PM, wrote: > These are both by Jim Hemphill. Nice dances, thanks!! > > - Original Message - > From: "Ron Blechner" > To: "Caller's discussion list" > Sent: Friday,

Re: [Callers] What to ask a band before the gig?

t; Also, how would the answers to either of the two questions you suggested > affect the dances you select? > > Michael Fuerst 802 N Broadway Urbana IL 61801 217-239-5844 > > > ________ > From: Ron T Blechner <contra...@gmail.com>

Re: [Callers] Booking Ahead - (was ideas for callers about sidelines)

Greg, You need to watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7b3yzjAv8c There are dances where you can take the greatest caller in the world, the best band in the world, and there will be stubborn dancers who just. Don't. Listen. "> But if the dancers perceive the process of partnering

Re: [Callers] Booking Ahead - (was ideas for callers about sidelines)

I really liked what George had to say. -Ron Blechner On Tue, Jan 22, 2013 at 12:15 PM, George Mercer wrote: > I'm now 69. If I ever was in it, I passed the hot dancer phase long ago, > At the most of dances I usually attend, I go out of my way to dance with > newcomers,

Re: [Callers] Booking Ahead - (was ideas for callers about sidelines)

Greg, For the dances where this is true, that's great. I have attended dances where that's the value of the community, and I love dance organizations and communities who foster that. I've also been to a lot of dances where a specific culture of "we're here to dance with a lot of people" is not

[Callers] Booking Ahead - (was ideas for callers about sidelines)

You know, I just realized, regarding the "sidelines" discussion ... no one's yet mentioned "booking ahead". In the context of getting-new-dancers-partners, I thought it might deserve its own thread. Simply put: Booking ahead is a big threat to including new and/or infrequent dancers. When I was

Re: [Callers] women's experiences

enjoy their twirls and dips - but that could be due to > the segregation of lines that has occurred, at least at Glen Echo. > > > > Perry > > > > > > > > > > > > From: Ron T Blechner <contra...@gmail.com> &

Re: [Callers] women's experiences

me communities) I'm not subject to this. It also doesn't > SEEM like women are resigned to pushy males - most ladies I see seem to > enjoy their twirls and dips - but that could be due to the segregation of > lines that has occurred, at least at Glen Echo. > > Perry > > > > > ___

Re: [Callers] women's experiences

I've been having conversations with a lot of my female friends in the dance community over the past 6 months over their experiences as women. I won't make a lengthy itemization of what I've found, because I think it's something every caller should do for themself, however, the one thought I'd

Re: [Callers] Eye Contact

: > I don't want to deny the possible creepiness of someone I don't know > (and I know it happens), but it could just be his style to keep an eye > on the destination in a transitional move. > > On Thu, Jan 3, 2013 at 3:20 PM, Ron T Blechner <contra...@gmail.com> > wrote: > &g

Re: [Callers] Eye Contact

I want to second Maia's practical reasons for eye contact. I'd like to add that I've known a couple of creepy men so obsessed with dancing with their partner or their neighbor that they mess up an Allemande / star promenade / Do-si-do / hey-for-4 because they're too busy trying to stare at the

Re: [Callers] Alternate Role Terms

Greg, I would agree with your idea that the leading/following comes from more experienced dancers leading the newcomers, but I think that's tangential to the discussion about what we call the roles. I don't believe anyone's uniformly suggesting there's no "leading / following" in general, though,

Re: [Callers] Walk the Plank

I have a Petro-spin-to-star in a dance of mine, a move I stole from another dance (Middle School Drama, or something like that?). People are going to clap, so I recommend mentioning in the walkthrough that the dance is smoother if the hands go right in sans-clap. -Ron On Wed, Oct 31, 2012 at

Re: [Callers] Integrating Newcomers ( was "Circle Mixers for newbies")

Hi Greg, Thanks for replying. Thoughts in-line. With the address of "contraron" I'm going to assume that you are talking > about a regularly scheduled contra dance series that is open to the > public. (I really appreciate when posters make the context of their post > clear. There are a lot of

[Callers] Circle Mixers for newbies

Hi callers, I've been finding circle mixers extremely valuable for dances with newer dancers. They provide a way both to expose them to many different experienced dancers as well as to make them comfortable with the idea of dancing with different people all night. (We've all seen The Couple That

Re: [Callers] Need help with "Mr Know It All"

Ben, Does your dance organization have a clearly stated written set of community values? Best, Ron On Thu, Oct 25, 2012 at 7:51 AM, Linda Leslie wrote: > Shared Weight also offers a discussion group specifically for organizers > and the issues they face running dances.

Re: [Callers] mentorship

Hi Lynn & SW: When I first was dabbling in the idea of calling, last summer, Marty Fager from CDNY was a person I bounced ideas off, and he was happy to share experiences. He's continued to assist me, but since I live near Princeton, and Bob Isaacs seems to always be sniffing around for new