Hull's has so far been called three times at the Concord, MA Scout House in two weeks. It has been interesting to see how things have gone each time and the dancers' reactions/experiences. Understandably, there was a little pre-dance grumbling as things started up on the third occasion's walk-through, but once the music got going it was OK.
A couple of tips/observations gleaned from these repeats: - Accentuate teaching the same-gender R&Ls through, including a tip on taking up all the time available - many folks have no idea how to do it and most were finishing way too early (this was probably aggravated by all three callers suggesting a twice-around allemande, so folks got used to rushing) - Only one of three callers went for forming short sets (done across the hall) - it seemed to me that the unusualness of that formation made it take significantly longer to line up. I was in a short line at the bottom of the hall with my partner and folks kept trying to tack on sideways! It was a full hall, so there were only limited options... - If you're going to mention the history of the dance, know it (and how to pronounce key names in the story) [?] - If you want folks to *hear* the history info, I suggest you put it between the walk-through and the music/dance starting It's been fun dancing it (ind instructive to me), but even this chestnut-friendly venue has probably had enough for now. -Don On Mon, Aug 27, 2012 at 3:48 AM, Nick Cuccia <cuc...@mosswood-associates.com > wrote: > Hull's Victory was the first dance that I called after break at the Palo > Alto contra dance this past Saturday night, in homage to both the 200th > anniversary and to Charlie Fenton's tradition of starting the second > half of the evening at the San Francisco contra dance with a chestnut > back when I started dancing and calling. More than a little bit of > grumbling from one or two of the hot-shot types that didn't like > standing around, but that was more than made up for by the two young > ladies (I guessed college age, one of my compatriots thinks they may be > younger than that) who told me at the end of the evening, "You called a > chestnut! That was so awesome!" > > It was interesting to see the various ways that the inactives occupied > their time while the actives took their trip. It was even more > interesting to hear almost no clapping by the inactives in a crowd that > loves clapping on Petronella (and, increasingly, Rory O'More) figures. > > --Nick > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > call...@sharedweight.net > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers >
