Thoughts about calling dances

Included below are various handouts I use at calling workshops. Feel free to download, read, comment back. If you reuse, please give credit. They are living documents, so don't be surprised if you see changes over the years. I welcome your suggestions, ideas, and smart remarks.

Basically, though, they can be summed up in a very brief format. The secret to being a good caller:

• Dance a whole bunch.
• Keep the dances accessible to the majority of your dancers
• Keep the teaching and non-dancing talk short
• Smile and emanate joy

Everything else is fine-tuning. Dance long, improper!

Seth Tepfer

These handouts are in PDF format. Email me if you have trouble opening them. Typos, inaccuracies, and outright fabrications are guaranteed. If you find something you think ought to be corrected, please tell me!

• The Beginners Workshop
• Programming an evening
• Programming an evening, part 2
• Checklist for a gig
• Effective walkthrus
• Calling for Non Dancers
• The Big Picture
• What kind of caller are you?
• Take the online quiz!
  
  Some dances for you to start calling with
• Fun contra dances for a mixed crowd
• Interesting contra dances for Novice Callers
• Groovin' contras to end an evening
• No brainers - surefire dances to have in your back pocket in case of a busload of new dancers walk in, or after muffing a walkthrough
• Dances for NonDancers

New Caller Resources:

Listservs:

• Callers/Shared Weight list. Contains primarily newer contra callers, with lots of common experiences learning to call.

• trad-dance-callers: contains dance leaders of all stripes, including contra, English, Modern Western Squares, and others. A great list for broadening your perspective.

Facebook group: Rising Contra dance callers of America

Contra Dance Calling: A Basic Text, by Tony Parkes

Websites for new callers:

• Dance Rhapsody (self-referential link to this page)
• William Watson's very fine list of resources for callers. Really, this one is all you need.
• Colin Hume callers' workshop notes - lots of rich material here to mine
David Kaynor writings
• Diane Silver
• Carol Ormand thoughts
• Thomas Green tips for callers
• Cary Ravitz calling notes
• Hatching Callers (St. Louis) blog

Link collections:

• Charlie Selig's wide ranging list of links
• NEFFA's link fest of callers, dances, camps, sequences, essays, more

Classes:

• John C Campbell Folk School (Brasstown, NC): Dance Caller's Workshop
• CDSS camps (in 2011: Singing Squares course) (Pinewoods, MA)
• Augusta Heritage Center: Dance Week (West Virginia)
• Cumberland Dance Week, July (Kentucky)

I'm certain to be missing useful resources - email me and I'll add!

Places to gather new dances

The best way:

• Go to your local dance, and write down every dance you do. Talk to callers, get the names and authors of dances. Record other callers (with their permission).

Websites with choreography:

• Cary Ravitz
• Bill Olsen
• Rick Mohr
• American Country Dances Online
• Lots of Others
• Ralph Page Dance Legacy Weekend Syllabi
• CDSS
• Thomas Green's very fine barn dance/ceilidh list

Michael Dyck's Contra dance index. Some links, but basically a listing of every dance and title and where to find the dance (book, link, or other). Invaluable!

.

Books (available via CDSS):

• Larry Jennings (Zesty Contras and/or Give and Take)
• Tom Hinds
• Becky Hill
• Ted Sanella (Balance and Swing and/or Swing the Next)