Although I'm no longer a new caller (although a lot of the time I feel like I
am), I'll throw my 2 cents in. I absolutely, totally, completely love squares.
Is that clear enough? The highlight of Pinewoods each year is the squares
sessions - dancing to a great caller with a hall full of people who also love
squares. Add some hot old-time music and it just doesn't get much better.
I started calling squares one year after I called my first contra. What a
terrifying and exhilirating experience. And it still is. Unfortunately, hardly
anyone in Northern California calls squares at the regular dances. The last
time I danced one at a regular evening was when a visiting caller from
Pennsylvania came through. There are just a very few of us who like to call
squares, and therefore, when we call them, people have such a time because they
just can't get oriented properly. It's such a foreign experience. I'm not
calling complicated squares at all. I stick with ones that contra dancers like
such as Geezy Peezy, or some of the Gene Hubert squares. I've also taken to
calling them in the second half of the evening when even the new dancers have
gotten more comfortable with the basic figures. I keep urging some of the other
callers in the area to learn to call them, but they refuse, claiming that the
dancers don't like them. I always counter that the dancers would like them
more if they did them more often and therefore felt more comfortable with
them. To no avail.
Another thing that keeps me from calling squares more often is the bands I work
with. We just don't have any old-time bands in my area any more. I couple of
bands have learned what they call an old-time set just for when I call squares.
Even then, they often turn out to be a nicely phrased, sweet tune, instead of
that driving energy that makes squares really happen. Those sweet tunes just
zap the energy out of a square for me and I really struggle to fill in with
more enthusiasm in my voice. One band even played a bluesy tune when I told
them I wanted a driving reel for a square.
One dance in particular in our area has written instructions stating that
squares are not to be called there (I have quit calling there), and our local
gender-free dance just put together guidelines which included a preference for
having no squares. Calling them so infrequently, I feel like I have a hard time
improving my skills.
For those who like to stick with just contras, I went to a dance weekend
several years ago where the caller only called contras - no squares, triplets,
mixers, 4x4s. I was so sick and tired of contras I couldn't stand it. They all
started blending in to each other after a while.
Now there are a few places in the foothills that actually like squares and even
ask me to call them. And there's a dance weekend in Southern California that
has had me call an hour of squares the past two years on the Saturday evening
of camp 6:30-7:30. This is when most people are getting all gussied up for the
evening dance, so the ones who come to the session really want to do squares.
(We wouldn't want to take up prime time for an hour of squares would we?) There
are usually around 5 squares. The band is fabulous, and both years each band
member has come up to me afterwards thanking me for providing them the
opportunity to play for squares. They love it.
In summary, I love them, I do everything I can to improve my skills for calling
them, I just wish I could get more people in my area interested in calling and
dancing them.
Lynn
Tom Hinds <twhi...@earthlink.net> wrote:
I wanted to know what people think of squares. Have any of you collected any
good ones? Do
any of the new callers plan to include one in their programs in the future?
Tom Hinds
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> 1. Re: Gorham, New Hampshire new venue (Chris Weiler)
>
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Fri, 10 Jun 2005 16:54:12 -0400
> From: Chris Weiler
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Gorham, New Hampshire new venue
> To: Marlena Schilke
> Cc: call...@sharedweight.net
> Message-ID:
>
>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"
>
> Marlena,
> Unfortunately, it's just too little notice, so I can't help you out.
> I am copying the SharedWeight list just in case one of the callers on
> there SharedWeight people: If you're looking to gain experience, and you're
> ready for it, jumping on an opportunity like this is a great way to do
> it.
> Chris
>
> -----Marlena Schilke > To: Chris Weiler
> Date: 06/10/2005 04:31P Subject: Re: [Callers] Gorham, New Hampshire new venue
> Hello Chris,
> Harry Brauser, our schedule health
> problems, and cannot make it tomorrow for our small develo at
> 7:30pm?
> -- On 4/29/05, Chris Weiler Hi Marlena,
> >
> > Sorry, I c dances this
> > summer >
> > Thanks!
> > Chris
> >
>
>
> ------------------------------
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> End of Callers Digest, Vol 10, Issue 1
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