David

Triple
Minor Contras

2010:
from a letter to a caller seeking advice on how to introduce her
dancers to triple minor contras

There
are several parts of Cracking
Chestnuts,
the book about older dances authored by David Smukler and me, that
will help you in introducing them to your dancers. David S. has an
excellent piece on “How To Call a Chestnut” and another on
“Triple Minor Mathematics,” both of which offer useful
tips. In addition to these general remarks, we talk about particular
difficult moments or special moments in each of the dances we
present, and you may find that those comments help you. The book is
available from the CDSS store.

The
biggest challenge is, of course, the progression, getting the 2s and
3s used to the notion of switching roles each time through the dance.

Ted Sannella

Callers Mary Devlin and Philippe
Callens encouraged dance communities to find a way of recognizing Ted
during a “Ted Sannella Memorial Week,” November 11 – 20, 2005, at
the time of the tenth anniversary of Ted’s death. This was my
response.

One way to celebrate his contributions
is simply by showcasing many of the different formations Ted utilized
in his choreography. In many ways, he was a staunch tradition­al­ist,
avoiding using the term “half figure eight,” for example, since
it wasn’t part of the traditional contra lexicon. (He’d say
“cross through the couple above, then go down the outside.”) At
the same time, he was a wonderful innovator, drawing from Southern
squares (lady round two and the gent cut through) and from English
(his triplets were inspired by dancing Fandango at Pinewoods).

Music:
Meat and Potatoes

adapted
from a post in 2007

I
think that good music for contras consists of well-phrased melodies
backed by solid rhythm. I want the music to tell me what to do. If
the melody disappears into an endless fog of non-stop improvisation
and the beat similarly wanders off the rails, I have to resort
to—aagh!—counting to keep track of where I am in the dance. Not
good.

Changing Contra Choreography

adapted from an e-mail to a fellow caller, 2005

Dancing with Dudley in the early to mid-1970s, I remember doing a lot of traditional material—that’s when I learned Rory O’More and Chorus Jig and Lady of the Lake and Sackett’s Harbor and Petronella and Lady Walpole’s Reel and Money Musk and other standards. Other material included some compositions by Ralph Page and then, toward the end of the 1970s, some new compositions started making the rounds, dances by Tony Parkes and by Ted Sannella. Sandy Bradley came through New England on several occasions with her lively personality and all these great western squares, which certainly got our attention.

Programs were much more relaxed through the 1970s… an individual dance would end and there might be five minutes of visiting and standing around before we lined up for the next dance, unlike today’s norm of dance dance dance.

Challenge
Dances and Inclusiveness

adapted
from a post to the trad-dance-callers group, November 2004

From
time to time on discussion groups, someone inevitably will argue that
the solution to declining attendance is for the organizers to arrange
for more challenging dances. The best way to keep dancers interested,
so goes this train of thought, is to offer ever-increasing levels of
challenge to provide fresh stimulation.

Square Dance Calling

2011, a response to a caller

> I haven’t even ventured into squares because I don’t know how to call them and don’t know where to learn.

For starters, Tony Parkes includes a helpful discussion of squares in his Contra Dance Calling text book.

Calling so-called “New England squares” is much the same as calling for a contra dance; figures fit the phrasing of a typical AABB tune. Ted Sannella’s two collections (Balance and Swing, Swing the Next) contain many examples of these style of dances, and the syllabi of the annual Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend, available online, are a valuable resource for more such dances.

Beginners’ workshops

adapted from several
posts over the years about how to bring newcomers into the dancing

Many dance communities
include a session beforehand explicitly aimed at newcomers. During this time
(half an hour or more in some locations), the usual pattern is to lead folks
through a series of figures to prepare them for the dances to come.

The argument is that
newbies need to know this information, and that a beginners session is the best
way for them to learn it. My own experience learning contras came in an era
when there were no beginners’ sessions, so that’s certainly influenced my
approach. I think the best way is for the caller to plan a program carefully,
introducing basic figures at the start of the evening and teaching more
complicated movements, such as a hey for four, when the beginners can be
assisted by more experienced dancers on the floor.

Formations

Adapted from
a post in which someone argued that a dance series should stick to contra
dances and not bother with other formations.

> The
concern here is to attract and retain beginner dancers.

We’re in
agreement on this. Well [I equivocate], maybe not total. My concern is to make
the dance one where beginners will have a great time, and where the regular
mixed-ability dancers and the hard-core hot-shot dancers and the elegant
excellent dancers all have fun as well. If the beginners and the other dancers
have a great time and don’t come back, I still feel I’ve done my job. (If they
don’t have fun, then I share a large part of the blame.)