Bob Furr asked for suggestions on calling a first dance:
Another topic... I will be calling my first full dance next month and want to do the best job I can. At the GSI school last year we talked a little about what order to put things in... starting easy, a workshop tip about 3 in, slowing it back down a bit, something interesting about tip 5 or 6 and ending on a high note with something danceable but not over the top. Any suggestions beyond that? Or any other ideas?
Mel Wilkerson wrote:
Bob, what you are describing is the general escalation level of a programmed night...(the climbing step graph..where the third tip is the workshop or OOOHHH choreo tip and the ladder climbs to teh second last tip, eases off with the singing call just a little and then climbs again not quite to the highest high of the second last tip but leaves rising...
This is good advice if you are programming your own club dance or filling in for a club caller on a regular basis and are part of the program.
This is your first full dance evening.. You want to make a great impression and the biggest mistake most newer callers make is "THE WORK SHOP TIP" on thier very first dance.
your program should build upon itself like one of those stock market graphs going up slightly down - up further slightly down - up further and so forth.
- pick yourself a theme for the evening
- Structure your patter and singing calls to fit within that theme
- Pick 2-3 movements that will be your focus for the evening.
- start with good solid choreography, nothing too fancy or formal but nothing too technical....the dancers need to hear you and succeed to you and most of all that first impression of having fun dancing to you....
- - incorporate "NON Destructive Testing" to guage your floor in your first tip. Read this first: http://summersweet.org/Squar.../Non-destructive_Testing.html
- try and build your choreo so it builds and expands upon itself but the dancers win.
if you look at the following sequences...note how the spin the top is done in teh following Choreo sequences. The actual choreography is relatively simple but it feels a little different with things like the addition of the Zoom, - then two standard spin the tops, then back to back spin the tops, but in each case the dancers will succeed, the last one is a standard spin the top (boys ending in the middle). They have done it already but this time, they just got to that wave differntly.
If I chose that for one of my evening focus movments I might expand on its use in my patter and singing calls as the evening progresses as follows:
- (early in the evening - tip one or two) Heads Star Thru, Zoom, Centres Trade, Swing Thru, SPIN THE TOP, Right & Left Thru, Slide Thru, Left Allemande
- (tip three) Heads Square Thru 4 Sides Half Sashay, SPIN THE TOP, SPIN THE TOP again, Swing Thru, All 8 Circulate, Cast Off 3/4, Boys Trade, Girls Circulate, Turn Thru, L.A
This is just an example of progression programming. Remember, this is your first GIG. YOU ARE A GUEST. YOU WANT TO COME BACK. -
PREPARE AND PRACTICE
MAKE IT FUN
MAKE THEM THINK THEY ARE WORKING WHEN THEY AREN'T
MAKE SURE THE CHOREO ALLOWS THEM TO SUCCEED
MATCH YOUR SINGING CALL FIGURES TO COMPLIMENT YOUR PATTER. MAX TWO PER SONG.