[Callers] Dance length

Hi everyone, I have a question about dance length - not the length of time you run a particular dance, but the length of an evening of dancing. In Chicago, we recently went from a three-hour Monday night dance to a two-and-a-half hour Monday night dance. Some dancers like ending earlier, some

Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 98, Issue 12

Andrea brings up a great point, and one that I'd like to address in my own dance community. My husband and I are the only couple that attends dances with our young child (4) although I know of at least three other families in our age range, with kids, who have stopped dancing. I think the biggest

[Callers] Best contra dances ever written

The three I keep coming back to over and over are Butter, by Gene Hubert; First Hey by Paul Baillett; and Kitchen Stomp by Becky Hill.. The thing I can't figure out is that I like to call First Hey, and I use it often ... but it is almost the same as Delphiniums and Daisies (sorry; not with my

Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 100, Issue 18

Once, I dreamed that I looked down at my card, and it was a recipe card, a d so I said, "go down the hall, four in line, turn by yourself and return with a pound of hand-rolled pasta." Nothing gives me anxiety dreams like calling Meg Sent from my iPhone

Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 101, Issue 27

I find dances where '1s swing, 2s admire' very helpful for summer dances in hot halls, too. Meg On Tue, Jan 8, 2013 at 11:00 AM, wrote: > Send Callers mailing list submissions to > call...@sharedweight.net > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World

Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 102, Issue 14

Hi everyone, I'll put on my guitar-player hat here for a minute ... I'm in a band that likes to see the cards, or at least get a quick summary of the dance, especially where the balances are. Something like, "There are balances at the A1 and B1 and the rest of it is smooth," or "There are lots of

[Callers] Dancing in the heat

I had this same problem a couple years back in Chicago - un-airconditioned hall with bad circulation and an old-time band with one speed: too fast. Anyway, I ended up looking for dances where the 1s did something and then the 2s did something (Dog Branch Reel, Bob Dalsemer; The Three Hats, Tom

[Callers] Calling to the tune "Sheepskin and Beeswax."

Hi Delia, I'm a caller and I'm in a band, so here's my 2 cents ... Yes, I think there are some tunes that don't work as well for dancing as others. Sometimes highly syncopated tunes don't work as well. Sometimes noodly tunes don't work so well, because the tunes aren't very well punctuated. There

Re: [Callers] Jets / rubies genderfree terms redux: gems?

I happened to play on Saturday night for Queer Contra Chicago, a dance series that prefers to use bands/ bares. I've called for that series as well. Two things stood out: The first is that during the workshop someone asked the caller if he'd heard the larks/ ravens terminology, and said they

Re: [Callers] Calling to a square dance crowd

I just had a gig like this! A friend of mine is heavily into MWSD and is always looking for ways to cross-pollinate the scene. She asked me to come and share an evening with the regular caller because they couldn't get a round dance caller for that particular night. I did not have a live band; I

Re: [Callers] Good dances for beginners to safely leave/return to minor set.

I like this one a lot: *Becky's Brouhaha - Rhiannon (Giddens) Laffan *>>* A1N Bal and Box the Gnat, Pull by R, (Previous N) Allemande L *>* A2(Current) N B *>* B1Circle L 3/4, P Sw *>* B2Ladies Chain, Left Hand Star* On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 11:36 AM K Panton via Callers <

Re: [Callers] Wrist-Lock Stars

Checking in from Chicago, where wrist-grip stars are the norm and hands-across stars need to be specified When I started dancing, 14 or 15 years ago, in Michigan, many dancers reached for a hands-across star first, though I don't see that so much anymore. Meg On Mon, Oct 10, 2016 at 12:00 PM

Re: [Callers] Post election day dances?

That's a Liz Albert dance, and it goes like this: Swing States A1: long lines forward and back, swing neighbor AS: Long lines forward and back, swing next neighbor B1: Circle left three places, swing partner on side B2: Ladies chain across, circle right, open up into long lines Liz says she

Re: [Callers] Post election day dances?

Yes, it was, and Liz is one of ours. :) Meg On Mon, Nov 14, 2016 at 10:33 AM Luke Donforth <luke.do...@gmail.com> wrote: > Thanks Meg! > > Is Liz Albert from the Chicago area? Did I get that right that it was part > of your Chicago set at IndepenDance? > > On Mon, Nov 1

Re: [Callers] Another vote for "jets" and "rubies"

Champaign-Urbana may be switching over to gender-free, though not LGBTQ, as well - check with them to verify? Meg (Chicago) On Tue, Jan 31, 2017 at 11:16 AM, Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > There's also a gender free LGBTQ dance in Chicago. > > Sent

Re: [Callers] ACK! First time calling night of *squares* -- any last minute advice?

Tips I found that helped me, presented in random order: Pick one or two squares to watch, preferably with more experienced dancers, and call to them. It will help with the timing. When I started calling squares, a friend helpfully pointed out that I was waiting for the tops of the musical

Re: [Callers] ACK! First time calling night of *squares* -- any last minute advice?

Ha! I read that book, but I thought I came up with that trick on my own. Maybe I remembered it long after I read it and thought I'd invented it. :) Meg On Tue, Feb 7, 2017 at 3:58 AM John Sweeney via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Meg said, "I have better luck teaching that to

Re: [Callers] What to do with a really bad new dancer?

A friend of mine with autistic kids shared something with me that she learned from her kids' therapist: some people have a hard time taking verbal direction for physical activity and do better by seeing a demonstration. So sometimes when I have a dancer on the floor who seems really confused, I

Re: [Callers] What to do with a really bad new dancer?

I've run into dancers as a caller and on the floor who fit this description - men and women both. Most of the time the problem seems to be that they can't get where they need to be on time, or they end a figure facing the wrong direction. But here's something that I learned in retrospect from an

Re: [Callers] Trip to ... = ?

Backstory about where you were going when you wrote the dance? Meg in Chicago On Thu, Jun 1, 2017 at 7:46 PM, Bob Green via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Interesting question Don! > > Being one of those "trip to" choreographers, I think there are a number of > reasonable

Re: [Callers] Similar list for musicians?

There is, though it's low-traffic. But people are generally responsive when someone asks a question. I think this is the link that takes you to a page that tells you about it. http://www.sharedweight.net/index.php?pagestate=music_about meg On Sat, Jun 24, 2017 at 1:03 PM Bree Kalb via Callers <

Re: [Callers] pre-school dances?

Hi Luke, I would come with a program that doesn't require kids to have a solid grasp of left or right, or to participate fully in a setting where you're telling them what to do and they do it, to music. Maybe plan on a lot of singing games, and a lot of you being out there doing it with them - the

Re: [Callers] A Call for Caller Jokes

What's orange and sounds like a parrot? A carrot! On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 6:24 PM Polly Minstrel via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > My latest fave: what does the family of cows have for dinner? > Hay-for-four. > > *groan > > On Mon, Sep 24, 2018, 3:50 PM Isaac Banner via

Re: [Callers] Family Dances

I use Traffic Jam as a warm-up dance at most all-ages dances I call now, including the one I run, and it works great, especially to get people on the floor while the band is soundchecking or something. When you say "lots of young kids," you didn't mention how young, which makes a difference. If