I could not disagree with you more, Greg. I've been calling dances for 30 years, and have never had dancers express concern, let alone dissatisfaction, that my announcing the name and author of a dance has been a distraction- and dancers know I am very open to comments about my calling. I have, on the other hand, had people come up to me after a dance to ask for a reminder of the name of the dance.
In addition, I believe that people deserve recognition for their work. Since we aren't in the business for the money, knowing that people (hopefully) took pleasure from our efforts is the reward that we get. If I don't know the author of a dance that I'm calling, I ask if else anyone does. As to the notion of offering too much, potentially distracting data: it's the caller's job to not just present the essential information, but also to make the event an enjoyable experience for all. Offering only essential information and nothing else- whether welcoming comments, jokes, or anything else- is as important to the event as the calls. If I have dancers listening to me only for essential information, I've lost the opportunity to make the dance anything other than a series of exercises rather than a social, community-building event, which is my goal. I think very carefully about how to teach dances and how to call them, as well as how to teach people how to dance well in general, but I believe it is important to not build a firewall between the "social intercourse" and the dance- they're parts of the same experience, not serially, but simultaneously. Names are powerful things. Providing all dancers with the name of a dance can relieve newcomers from the sense that others know things that they don't. There may be some dances whose names dancers remember in the contra dance arena (rather than English or Scottish), but I believe they are very few and far between. If you announce only "meaningful or entertaining" names, how would you determine which dances' names are meaningful or entertaining or not, and how would the dancers do so? I also believe that announcing only certain dances' names and authors would imply that those dances are somehow better, more important, or more valuable than the ones whose names you don't announce. Perhaps unlike other callers, I always prepare may more dances than I am likely to call, since I never know the skill levels of those who may show up. I adapt my programs to people who are there rather than expecting them to adapt to a program I've planned. This means that posting a written program with the names and authors won't work for me. I too look forward to other people's comments. Susan Elberger Arlington, Massachusetts
