I echo the congrats on your full evening! I still remember mine. Balancing the planned program with the crowd you end up having is almost always a challenge. Your idea of a backup program was absolutely correct but sometimes you have to "dumb it down" further than you first thought. As with Alan, I keep an emergency list of very easy dances as a fallback. I call this list my "wedding" dances because if you ever call a dance for a wedding or a private party of non-contra dancers, this list is a must have (usually alcohol is involved). Maybe I'll start a thread on that.
Harold -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Winston, Alan P. Sent: Sunday, February 9, 2014 5:30 PM To: Caller's discussion list Subject: Re: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly Congratulations, Danielle, on your first full evening. What I do: - I have a file of easy contra dances with me. - I know a bunch of one-night-stand (super easy, often whole-set rather than duple-minor) dances, including mixers, and will whip them out when necessary. - Even without a bunch of beginners, no battle plan survives initial contact with the energy. Always evaluate how your program is going, whether the next dance you had is what's best for the people on the floor, etc. (Sometimes they can handle more than you thought they could.) I echo Andrea's point that as you develop as a caller you'll be able to teach beginners more in less time. -- Alan ________________________________________ From: [email protected] [[email protected]] On Behalf Of Danielle Boudreau [[email protected]] Sent: Sunday, February 09, 2014 10:16 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [Callers] Programming on-the-fly Good morning, My name is Danielle, and I am a new caller in New Mexico. I just called my first full evening last night. We ended up having a rather large group of beginners, so much so that I could use neither my planned program nor even my backup program that I thought would be appropriate for a mixed crowd. I ended up programming on the fly, which didn't go as smoothly as I would have liked. I'd love to hear what other callers do in this situation, or how they are able to avoid it with prep work beforehand. Thanks! Danielle -- Danielle Boudreau <[email protected]> [email protected] cell: (505) 377-3071 _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
