Tying up loose ends: ECD calling.
Apr. 10th, 2004 10:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaA couple of people asked how my first venture in dance calling went.
I think I did well. We had a small group of dancers, probably because (a) it was the first night of Passover, and (b) schools were out on spring break. So for Ashford Anniversary (the first dance I called) there were only two sets of three couples each, and for Well Hall there were eight couples. The small number of dancers made it much, much easier to keep track of whether people were going astray.
I called the first two dances after we broke for refreshments, so I had plenty of time to get nervous. I went up on stage and told the musicians, "I've never called before, so I have absolutely no idea how to talk to musicians." They cackled, but then kindly told me that all I really needed to do was give them advance warning of the last two repetitions. Two of the three of them - the fiddle player and the pianist - were among our very best musicians, so I was able to leave things like the tempo to them. I think with less experienced players, the caller does need to do more than just warn them when to stop, so this was great for my first time.
We had a mix of skill levels among the dancers: one absolute and ungifted beginner, two people who have been coming for a while but have been kind of slow to progress, and then a bunch of old hands. I mostly kept my eyes on the three people I was worried about, and spoke directly to them during the teaching.
The first thing I learned is that, although you ought to have notes, you can't look at them and call at the same time. It was a good thing I had the dances memorized, because I never had the chance to look down at my paper. It was also good that I'd planned out how I wanted to describe various dance moves, because I was nervous enough to be standing on stage that I doubt I would've had much skill at improvising explanations.
Both dances went smoothly. I had to call all the way through Ashford Anniversary, because we just do two repetitions of the dance and because the absolute beginner froze every single time we came to the chorus figure. (On the second time through the dance, when we got to the chorus I just called her part - "first woman, skip around" - because everyone else had it.) When they danced Well Hall, after the first few repetitions I was able to just relax and watch them dance, throwing in occasional words of advice ("take your time, don't rush this"). It's a lovely dance, one of my favorites as a dancer, but of course I'd never seen it from the stage before. I loved being able to see the whole set at once, moving forward and back in the graceful, sweeping patterns of the dance. Watching them, I felt a surge of warm tender emotions, and almost lost my place. (I was supposed to be keeping track of when a good time to stop would be.)
As I was coming down off the stage afterward, the president said, "That was the calling debut of Rivka Wald," and everyone applauded. I was so grateful he hadn't said it in advance! Many people had kind things to say, but I was glad to melt back into ordinary dancerhood. At the end of the evening, I was surprisingly exhausted. Who knows how people manage to call for an entire dance.
I think I did well. We had a small group of dancers, probably because (a) it was the first night of Passover, and (b) schools were out on spring break. So for Ashford Anniversary (the first dance I called) there were only two sets of three couples each, and for Well Hall there were eight couples. The small number of dancers made it much, much easier to keep track of whether people were going astray.
I called the first two dances after we broke for refreshments, so I had plenty of time to get nervous. I went up on stage and told the musicians, "I've never called before, so I have absolutely no idea how to talk to musicians." They cackled, but then kindly told me that all I really needed to do was give them advance warning of the last two repetitions. Two of the three of them - the fiddle player and the pianist - were among our very best musicians, so I was able to leave things like the tempo to them. I think with less experienced players, the caller does need to do more than just warn them when to stop, so this was great for my first time.
We had a mix of skill levels among the dancers: one absolute and ungifted beginner, two people who have been coming for a while but have been kind of slow to progress, and then a bunch of old hands. I mostly kept my eyes on the three people I was worried about, and spoke directly to them during the teaching.
The first thing I learned is that, although you ought to have notes, you can't look at them and call at the same time. It was a good thing I had the dances memorized, because I never had the chance to look down at my paper. It was also good that I'd planned out how I wanted to describe various dance moves, because I was nervous enough to be standing on stage that I doubt I would've had much skill at improvising explanations.
Both dances went smoothly. I had to call all the way through Ashford Anniversary, because we just do two repetitions of the dance and because the absolute beginner froze every single time we came to the chorus figure. (On the second time through the dance, when we got to the chorus I just called her part - "first woman, skip around" - because everyone else had it.) When they danced Well Hall, after the first few repetitions I was able to just relax and watch them dance, throwing in occasional words of advice ("take your time, don't rush this"). It's a lovely dance, one of my favorites as a dancer, but of course I'd never seen it from the stage before. I loved being able to see the whole set at once, moving forward and back in the graceful, sweeping patterns of the dance. Watching them, I felt a surge of warm tender emotions, and almost lost my place. (I was supposed to be keeping track of when a good time to stop would be.)
As I was coming down off the stage afterward, the president said, "That was the calling debut of Rivka Wald," and everyone applauded. I was so grateful he hadn't said it in advance! Many people had kind things to say, but I was glad to melt back into ordinary dancerhood. At the end of the evening, I was surprisingly exhausted. Who knows how people manage to call for an entire dance.
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no subject
Date: 2004-04-10 07:47 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-04-10 08:29 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-04-10 11:34 am (UTC)Wish I could have been there, I love ECD. Ours is always on a Saturday so I get there about once a year.
As for calling a whole evening, once you aren't quite so nervous, and have a little more experience, you will do fine with a whole evening.
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Date: 2004-04-10 12:18 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2004-04-16 04:49 pm (UTC)