A little more than a week ago, Chrissy Fowler called at the Scout House
on a Thursday night with some rocking musicians. I wrote her an e-mail
saying that there was a dance that I liked, wanted to get, but had a
minor change for it. This is the discussion that followed, forwarded
with her permission. Edited for clarity. Becky Hill's dance is in the
Rosen-Hill collection. Chrissy and I thought that it would be fun to get
other people's perspective on the stuff we were talking about. -Chris
Chris:
I wanted to get a dance from you that you called on Thursday. It was the
second dance of the evening. It had a couple of ring balances (without
twirls) and I think the B1 had a long lines, ladies allemande left
1+1/2. I thought that the allemande left was a little awkward, but I
liked the rest of the dance. Thanks!!
Chrissy:
I'm interested to know that the ladies all. L felt awkward, even though
the L hand is the near one to that other lady that one would allemande.
(I'm guessing you danced it as a lady?) Do you think All R would be
better? Other suggestions? I admit that I haven't danced it. The
dance is one I have down as Becky Hill's "Big Easy", which I got from
Diane Silver. Had to laugh when you named it as having "a couple of
ring balances" since when I reviewed what was left of my program in the
aftermath of the dance full of on-the-fly switches in the plan, I
realized that I ended up calling several dances with ring balances of
some sort or another. (holy repetition, batman!)
Chris:
Ladies allemande left from facing couples is a pet peeve of mine from
the gent's perspective. When I'm dancing, I'm constantly giving cues and
leads to my partner and neighbor, and even the neighbor gent, when
necessary. Especially when they're new. From a long lines, ladies
allemande left, it's almost impossible for the gent to lead it. If the
ladies allemande right, then I can use her left hand to guide her out
and across my body. Her right hand is free and she has the diagonal
momentum to meet the other lady at the right angle. I can't speak to how
it feels from the lady's perspective, but from mine ladies allemande
left removes the feeling of connectedness from that part of the dance.
Since it doesn't matter which hand they use in the dance, I would call
it with an allemande right. It works either way, so call it the way you
like. 8^)
We all have those repetitive nights. I seem to have less of them,
though, when I do my programming on the fly instead of having one worked
out beforehand. I have notes on every programmed I've called, so I
should analyze them someday and see just how repetitive I am.
Unfortunately, I had to leave at the half. But the first half of the
evening was great. Your dances worked, even for the beginners, and
nothing got in the way of enjoying the music. 8^)
Chrissy:
Great explanation. I hadn't thought about it that way, but it makes a
lot of sense. And yes, I was thinking to myself "Well, if he has some
compelling reason why the all L 1.5 isn't good, I'll just call it as all
R!" And I guess that's why the men's all L is so ubiquitous, because
the woman can assist him to the center in that same way you explained.
Interesting that you say you have less repetition when you program on
the fly. For me it's the other way. When I am programming as it comes,
or seriously reworking (on the fly) a program that I'd done ahead of
time, I tend not to notice those repetition points until it's too late.
(or even after the fact.) I'm glad the dances worked for the new
folks. Always such a balancing act, to work both sides of that VFW/TNDC
crowd - the throngs of new/young folks and the core of jaded/bored
dancers who want spicy choreography.
Also glad to hear your impression that nothing got in the way of the
music - phenomenal as it was. Wowzer. It's so great to work with such
talent. Mmmmm. I danced in Rehoboth the next night and had a blast,
even doing the very simple dances required by the crowd. Such
life-affirming stuff we get to do!
Chris:
When I create a program in advance, I nitpick it to death and put a lot
of effort into it. When I need to change something on the fly, I am
reluctant to change more than one or two dances. That makes it more
likely that the dance that I substitute will repeat something later in
the program. When I program on the fly, I'm more free to change the
dances later to match (and not repeat) the earlier ones.
To be honest, I haven't been doing my homework as a caller for a long
time due to the rest of my life being pretty busy. I haven't been
creating programs, so I've taught myself to program on the fly just by
doing it. I do record all of my programs, so I should really go back and
review to see how well I've been doing (or not!).
Chrissy:
Well, I don't do my homework every time either, especially if it's a
dance where I can sort of get away with it. But I always like to have
something planned for some dances, including Boston, and even if I
change it a lot (which I do more than half the time) it changes my
tension level to have some sort of program done in advance. (And I
think I'm more attentive to the band and dancers when I'm less tense.)
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