Re: [Callers] Blues for contra dancing

Carol Ormand also has a blues dance. Here is a blues circle dance written to celebrate the new year. Easily alterable to fit your needs: http://dancerhapsody.com/Calling/Dances.html#NYE [http://www.dancerhapsody.com/Photos/FINAL_logo_pms.png] C

Re: [Callers] Dances For Short Line

On 2015-10-18 1652, Rich Dempsey via Callers wrote: snip I love the use of shorter sets to bring asymmetric dances out for a spin. Chestnuts and triplets and triple minors come to mind. In the circumstance that started this thread, a hearty Chorus Jig sounds like a win. Rich It's nice to ha

Re: [Callers] Blues for contra dancing

Blues for Contras: There are several contras made up for the blues. Fred Park made up one of them, and I've made up three-for various occasions. I don't know that I'd recommend them for a beginner dance, but they're posted below. Understanding the structure of the blues, and how it fits into

Re: [Callers] Dances For Short Line

As a dancer, I find that I've had enough of a duple minor dance after I've traversed one complete round trip of the line. Seeing the same neighbors a third time through is too long for me, even if the line is short. Just one man's opinion, FWIW. I love the use of shorter sets to bring asymmetric

[Callers] Blues for contra dancing

The structure of a classic blues song is 12 bars long (24 beats). Modern blues bands do play a lot of tunes that are not in this structure. In any case it might be interesting to think about contras that are or could be made to be 48 or 72 beats long, rather than 64. R Richard Hopkins 850-54

Re: [Callers] Musical styles for a Barn Dance question

On 2015-10-17 2002, Leslie Gotfrit via Callers wrote: snip In any case, I’d be grateful for advice Leslie Gotfrit Try it. Maybe. I worked a Contra series dance with my first (advertised as such) old time band tonight. The No Jigs thing initially felt a bit unsettling, however the musicians

Re: [Callers] Musical styles for a Barn Dance question

With the right cooperation from the band it could work out just fine. I've called contras to all sorts of music, including Romanian folksongs. But, you do need to talk with them about the fact that every tune needs to be 32 bars and of uniform tempo. (And the tempo should be an appropriate on