Internet resources for contra dance callers
General Resourses
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The Country Dance and Song Society (CDSS)
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International
membership
organization,
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publisher of books, recordings,
and a monthly newsletter,
(with an
archive
of articles)
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organizer of week-long dance
camps,
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and
source
for many recordings and publications.
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The Traditional Dance Callers'
mailing list
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A "medium traffic" mailing list, with many discussions of interest to callers.
Occasional dances posted, but more often discussions
of topics like contracts, bookings,
"one night stand" gigs,
techniques for getting folks out of chairs and dancing.
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The "Shared Weight"
mailing list
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Lower traffic, discussions with a closer focus on contra dance calling.
Initially started as a forum for newer callers,
in some ways this is an "electronic support group".
Some sources of dances
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Michael Dyck's
Conta Dance Index
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A very good attempt to document sources for EVERY contra dance ever published,
whether in physical print form or on the WWW.
Michael added a database query function,
which allows a user to search for a dance by name, author, or both,
without having to download the entire listing of roughly 7000 contra dance titles.
Note that this is NOT a database of the dance sequences,
but rather an index that provides references to the places you can find the sequences!
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American Country Dances On-Line
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This is a simple dump of the database of dances that Russell Owen edited and made available.
- "Back pocket" dances
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Some easy, reliable contra dances
"to keep in your back pocket"
in case you need a fall back,
or want some easy material when you start calling.
- My Dance Compositions
- A few contra dances, and a Four-Face-Four dance
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Rich Goss'
collection of dance cards
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A very large file (~800 kB)
in Microsoft Word format
containing a snapshot of
Rich Goss' collection of dance cards.
Rich formatted the dances for printing directly on 4x6 inch index cards.
Articles and web pages about contra dance calling written by a variety of people
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Peter Amidon
Callers Workshop(PDF)
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A succint two page overview of the job of a caller
for an evening dance.
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Colin Hume's
Callers Workshop Materials
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A total of FIFTY topics, covered at various depths.
Fifteen topics of "basics"
(such as "The Caller's Job", "Planning a Programme", "The Walkthrough")
and 35 "specialized subjects"
("The Caller's Atitude", "Making people want to dance to you",
"Changing the mood").
I think I need to read thourgh these,
they look to cover quite a lot of territory!
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Bill Olson
Contra
Callers' Workshop
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Washington DC Callers' Collective, March 30, 2002,
roughly 7 printed pages.
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Sidmouth
Callers Workshop
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Bob Archer
and Mike Courthold, 1998,
roughly 9 printed pages.
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Cary Ravitz's
Notes on Calling Contra Dances
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Thorough and opinionated view of many aspects of calling contras.
Roughly 13 printed pages.
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Cary Ravitz's
Notes on
Choreography for Duple Minor Improper Contra Dances
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The author says
"This information is based on my experiences dancing, calling, and
writing dances.
It is part fact and part opinion.
For choreographers, I expect that you will disagree with many parts of
it, but perhaps it will give you something to consider.
For callers, I hope that you will learn something that will help you
understand complex dances more easily and choose better dances to call."
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Jonathan Sivier's
Resources for Callers
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Roughly five printed pages, with a lists of links.
Sections include "Basics," "Some Philosophy," "Teaching Tips,"
the links and a request for feedback.
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David Kaynor's
Musings
- From his vantage point of calling contras over 30+ years,
David shares some thoughts and insights.
Topics include
- Assumptions
about new and old contras (the dance sequences)
- Thoughts
about long walk-throughs
- Teaching
experienced folks to dance
- The Montague Center
Unplugged
All-Comers' Band
- David's comments on his
booklet
on calling contra dances for beginners
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Seth Tepfer's calling workshop
handouts
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At his DanceRhapsody site,
Seth makes available
a collection of handouts that he uses at calling workshops.
They are living documents, in that Seth continues to make changes over time.
You can find his thoughts on,
"The Beginners Workshop,"
"Programming an evening,"
"Checklist for a gig,"
"The walkthrough,"
"Calling for Non Dancers," and
"The Big Picture,"
plus his though-provoking questionnaire
"What kind of caller are you?"
Seth also provides several PDF files of dances,
some for
"Mixed Crowds,"
"Novice Callers,"
"Groovin' contras to end an evening,"
"No Brainers,"
and "Dances for non-Dancers!"
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Erik Hoffman's
books
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- "Old-Time
Dance Calling for Weddings, Parties, and One-Night Stands"
- "The
Contrarian"
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"no articles, just a bunch of dances and a few tunes"
- "Contradictions"
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Four articles (linked below) and more than 30 dances
- "Contra
Comments"
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Some articles and 20-some dances.
Two sample chapters are on-line.
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Richard
Powers'
Teaching Tips
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Intended for teaching couples dance, but with
pointers that contra dance callers may find useful.
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A
list of resources
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from ContraDanceLinks.com
A very long list of links, amounting to 16 printed pages.
It lists materials on contra dancing,
calling,
music,
and quite a bit more.
I selected a number of articles from this long list
and included them below.
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The Contra Sound Forum
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A low traffic mailing list,
discussing all aspects of sound reinforcement at contra dances.
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Rich Goss'
Program Matrix Spreadsheet
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A Microsoft Excel spreadsheet
version of the Program Planning Matrix
found in the back of Larry Jennings' book Give and Take.
You can also find an example of a
completed program matrix
My articles and web pages about contra dance calling.
- Should you call dances?
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Some thoughts about calling,
to help you decide IF, WHERE, WHAT, HOW, and WHY you should call dances.
- Outline for a new callers' session
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A first-draft outline for a new callers' session at a dance weekend,
intended for dancers first thinking about calling,
or folks VERY early in their calling career.
- Thoughts for calling your first dance
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So you're going to do it.
How do you go about it?
- Contra Dance Calling Card Examples
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Examples of a dance written out using different formats
I've seen callers use for calling cards.
- Contra dances at weddings
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Some musings on the challenges of contra dances at weddings
- A list of useful recordings
- A list of recordings with tracks of lengths useful to contra dance callers.
Note that this list so far only covers bands with names starting with the letters
A through L.
I also have not double-checked the recordings to ensure
that the tracks are all appropriate.
Some selected books on contra dance calling
I believe that all of these are available through the
CDSS store.
They also stock any number of recordings of fine contra dance bands,
videos,
and books of dance compositions
by dozens of composers.
- Contra Dance Calling: A Basic Text
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by
Tony Parkes,
copyright 2010, ISBN 0-9632880-3-2.
A comprehensive guide to calling contra dances
in 324 "perfect-bound" pages.
(Original edition was
copyright 1992, ISBN 0-9632880-1-6, 300 pages)
The new edition was released in November, 2010.
and is available
directly from Tony,
from
The CDSS store,
or from
Amazon.com.
Tony has the complete table of contents on his site,
along with the complete first chapter.
- Balance and Swing
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by Ted Sannella, copyright 1982, ISBN 0-917-02405-2.
"A collection of fifty-five squares, contras, and triplets
in the New England Tradition
with music for each dance."
Each dance gets its own page,
with the moves followed by paragraphs of
"Dancing Tips," "Comments," and "Background."
On a facing page, you'll find a music for a tune
that Ted thought fit the dance particularly well.
156 pages.
Published by
CDSS
- Swing the Next
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copyright 1996 by the estate of Ted Sannella, ISBN 0-917024-08-7.
"A second collection of squares, contras, triplets, and circles
in the New England Tradition,
with music for each dance."
"A collection of eighty squares, contras, triplets, & circle dances."
Format very similar to Balance and Swing, with tips and comments.
Another caller pointed out to me that
in addition to the tips,
which may be of particular value to the newer caller.
many of the dances contained in these volumes
avoid the complications that can trip up newer callers.
206 pages.
Published by
CDSS
- Give-and-Take
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copyright 2004,
published by NEFFA.
"a sequel to ZESTY CONTRAS featuring
628 dances in the New England Style,
Provocative remarks,
Exhortive essays,
and Arcane analyses
presented by Larry Jennings".
Larry told me that in his first volume, Zesty Contras,
he tried to scour the entire contra dance world for dances,
but that many no longer fit his vision of "zesty" dancing.
This collection includes a selection of many more dances
that fit his vision.
- Zesty Contras
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Copyright 1983,
published by NEFFA.
"A Selection of 500 New England Style Dances
with a
Provocative Explanatory Text
by Larry Jennings".
Over 30 pages of text and over 50 pages of dances.
(Note that that implies nearly ten dances per page!
"If you can't figure out the dance from
the notes in Zesty, you have no business trying to call it!")
90 pages, saddle-stapled.
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contra calling page