[Callers] Sandy Bradley

Hi Woody and all, I had the pleasure of dancing to Sandy's calling back in Philly in the mid 70's. She was guest caller a few times at the Wednesday night (or was it Thursday) square dance at the International House at the U of PA. I remember one time she showed up with the Arm and Hammer String

[Callers] Re: April Fools fun

Timothy, In 1997 I wrote a dance with an "up the hall in lines of 4, turn alone, go back down. I called it at a dance weekend in the Triangle (NC) area called December Delight, shortly thereafter. The late great caller/choreographer Gene Hubert was in attendance and he kept facing the wrong way

[Callers] Re: Favorite Dances by or for David Kaynor?

Don, "Shutesbury Reel", by David, Is a perfectly straightforward dance, but 48 bars which makes it interesting and fun How about "Stuart's Big Move"? "David on Fridays" by Paul Eric Smith is a nice dance I wrote 3 or 4 for David. Let me think which ones fit your criteria and I'll get back to y

[Callers] Re: Favorite One Night Stand Dances

Hi Erik and all. This is my "tunnel dance" The Loon Dance, Bill Olson,longways, "whole set" dance A1 LLF&B, DSD partner A2 Head couple sashay to bottom of set, NEW head couple make arch with 2 hands*, remaining couples face UP the set B1 couples (who are separated) walk up the set single fil

[Callers] Re: Most-Easiest Duple Minors in existence

Haste to the Wedding traditional A1 Circle L, Circle R A2 Star L, Star R (end back in place, across from Partner) B1 Partner DSD, Partner Sw (usually suggest elbow hook swing) (end back in place) B2 N DSD, clap twice, pass thru Called this Saturday at the Common Ground Fair. People constantly com

[Callers] Re: AABBCC contras?

Hi all, I call David Kaynor's Shutesbury Reel pretty often. One thing I've noticed about calling a 48 bar dance is the fact that the dancers seem to be "pre-programed' to "go back to the beginning" after 32 bars (or at least programmed not to have to remember any more than the AABB). This makes

[Callers] Re: Dances with balancing waves forward and backward?

s this with shadows * The Black Lake Inlet of Dr. Joe Rush (Seth Tepfer) - main hook of this dance is a "right-left by" which is fun, but it also has balance fwd/walk fwd to new waves * Solstice '17 (Donna Hunt) -- Maia McCormick (she/her) 917.279.8194 On Fri, Jun 30, 2

[Callers] Re: Dances with balancing waves forward and backward?

Ah Shadracks! Thanks for that one Tony! Anyway, I agree with Tony and I myself find balancing "sideways" (not really sideways, more on right diagonal then left diagonal) more natural than forward and back. Maybe this is just because of the way one's arms are pointing when in the wave. When I wr

[Callers] Re: Help with end effects for five dances

Along the same lines as "go where you're needed", I often tell dancers at some point during the evening, sometimes even at a "beginners' workshop", "If you don't know what you're doing and someone comes towards you and looks like they DO know what they're doing (pardon changing person with the p

[Callers] Re: Advanced dances gone awry

Hi all, I agree with Julian completely. Asking someone to leave an "advanced dance" (or any dance) because they aren't "advanced" enough is so totally wrong. First of all you are asking folks to "self-assign" their level in the first place, so, really, you're going to "get what you get" and kick

[Callers] Re: Starting to call squares at contra dances

Oooh, Sandy Bradley! The whole "Potluck and Dance Tonite" album is right here: Potluck and Dance Tonite (stickerville.org) This includes the liner notes with all the calls and mp3's of the recordings. I still have an old cassette tape that I wore out. There were

[Callers] Re: Starting to call squares at contra dances

Hard to know where to jump in here, but I am thrilled we are having this conversation. First of all, many years ago I always used to (incorrectly) quote Tony as having said "when in doubt, call Texas Star". I find that dance accessible for almost any experience level and it's pretty easy to stay

[Callers] Re: Dances Crafted for a Tune

Don, Check out Rick Mohr's "Chuck the Budgie", written for Graham Townsend's "Pat the Budgie". Rick's dance is on his webpage and also has the clever title (Pat and Chuck can both be either verbs or proper names). Graham's tune is 32 bars AABC and the balances in B2 of the dance fit the C part o

[Callers] Re: The Spiral Dance

Hi Hannah! Lots of good input on this one. I, personally, think of the spiral as a "figure" rather than a dance by itself. Admittedly it takes a while to run the figure depending on the size of the crowd, but yeah, like someone brought up using the spiral as part of a Grand March and I use it th

[Callers] Re: medley suggestions

I also like to change to Becket formation at some point so to end up with a final partner B&S.. b From: Alexandra Deis-Lauby via Contra Callers Sent: Thursday, November 17, 2022 12:43 AM To: Dorcas Hand Cc: contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net Subject: [Caller

[Callers] Re: new dance?

left hands free who allemande left. -- Alan ________________ From: Bill Olson via Contra Callers Sent: Friday, October 28, 2022 1:37 PM To: contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] new dance? So I'm driving down the road, stick a CD by Kimberley Holmes in the radio thing. Kimberley is an ama

[Callers] Re: new dance?

I dig your version as a super forgiving way to teach the hey. I'd love to know if someone else has this choreo down, because I'd like to add it to my box. -Julian Blechner he/him On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 4:37 PM Bill Olson via Contra Callers mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>

[Callers] Re: new dance?

lossary dances, yeah? ... I dig your version as a super forgiving way to teach the hey. I'd love to know if someone else has this choreo down, because I'd like to add it to my box. -Julian Blechner he/him On Fri, Oct 28, 2022 at 4:37 PM Bill Olson via Contra Callers mailto:contracal

[Callers] new dance?

So I'm driving down the road, stick a CD by Kimberley Holmes in the radio thing. Kimberley is an amazing fiddler and pianist from Halifax. I met her at Maine Fiddle Camp this year. This tune in the queue just HITS me and my brain immediately starts "writing" a dance to go with it. I haven't com

[Callers] Re: "long lines forward+back" in 4-face-4

So I remember the 4 facing 4 configuration as being called a "Portland Fancy" or "as in Portland Fancy". The "Portland Fancy" dance itself dates back to the 1800's and has several versions. Here's a 32 bar one from David Millstone: https://youtu.be/J3o2m1aNq0M The B part has "lines forward and b

[Callers] Re: Does this dance exist?

That guy from 8 years ago will probably sue you for copyright infringement, Seth!! bill From: Michael Dyck via Contra Callers Sent: Thursday, October 13, 2022 8:15 PM To: contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Re: Does this dance exist? On 2022

[Callers] Re: Need help fitting to a tune

Laur, where are you? Not quite sure I understand here.. The BAND is suggesting the dance that you should call to a tune they want to play?? u... That ain't how it works. Make it easy on yourself.. You are in control here.. Just tell the band NOT to play the tune.. That all said, there are S

[Callers] Re: [External] Re: Paperless Calling

aeceb08d951f442c6%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435%7C1%7C0%7C637630931798001302%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=tZgfRghpfJgyhY3tIcToWzQjswr34fdpFBXHuhAMvJ0%3D&reserved=0> From: Bill Ols

[Callers] Re: Paperless Calling

Hi Susan, This addresses #2, a potential BACKUP PLAN. and also "paperless calling" in general, though not in the way you were thinking... Maybe 25-30 (sheesh maybe more!) years ago I had been calling for several years and also played in a couple dance bands and also did sound at the North W

[Callers] Re: Easy but super fun 4X4 contras

"Dance all Night" would be my suggestion as well! (hi Jack) bill in Maine From: jmitchell.nc--- via Contra Callers Sent: Saturday, January 11, 2020 4:13 AM To: contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net Subject: [Callers] Easy but super fun 4X4 contras I'm a big fan