Square dance adventures

[cjsmith]

Last night I got to call for a local Plus/Advanced club, the El Camino Reelers, and accompany them on my first ever banner raid.

Because the dancers "needed to prepare for Convention" the club was deliberately bringing in a variety of callers to let the newly graduated class hear and respond to different voices. Having me call last night was a part of that. My sight-calling at those levels is, to put it politely, atrophied to the point of uselessness, so I wrote some material. At the last minute rfrench dug my singing call records out of long-term storage, because my contact at the club wouldn't let me weasel out of singing. ;-)

Many of the dancers were brand-new Plus graduates, so there was the expected fumbling and uncertainty. But that didn't stop them from having a good time! Experience will make them stronger and more confident, and they'll get that if they're enjoying themselves. I had forgotten how much enthusiasm several squares of gay dancers can produce on a Weave the Ring! And hey, as a caller I'm always happy when the dancers have fun. That's (part of) my job.

At the end of the evening we went off to the Bows and Beaus to steal the local square dance association's banner from them. I'd never done this before. Technically we needed only a square of dancers (plus a caller) to go crash the other club's dance, but we had about four squares of people show up! To make matters sillier, we were all wearing brightly-colored hats shaped like aliens, echoing the space theme of the upcoming convention. We were a bit rowdier than the Bows and Beaus and showed off the extra frills and turns unique to gay square dance style. We definitely made a splash!

Now my feet are angry with me because during the raid I danced a tip with singing call (bad, bad idea) but I'm all fired up to make my Plus calling/singing better (item one: become a baritone). This enthusiasm will last a couple of weeks days I'm sure. :-)

A week and a half to Convention!

Comments

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Was! Too bad about the singing though. People actually feel they have to apologize for it. And they're right. I have in the past had quite a decent voice, but I sound like handmade crap when I'm a) outside my vocal range and b) way out of practice 'cause there's nothing to sing inside my range.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

I sound like handmade crap

I know what each of those words means, but I've never seen them used in quite that order before. What is handmade crap, anyway? :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

As with anything else handmade, of course. It's crap with spotty quality control, but lovingly and exquisitely detailed to be the the best crap it can possibly be.

[quasigeostrophy.livejournal.com]

Marry me.

;-)

[aelfie.livejournal.com]

Okay, that made me laugh!

[erisian-fields.livejournal.com]

I've been meaning to ask you something about square dancing.

Do you make videos to sell? I know someone who sells square dance videos and was wondering if you'd be on them or know about them. The company is Gold Star Videos.

It'd be really neat if there was a connection there.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I don't make them, although I remember meeting some people who did. I saw a video of theirs -- pretty well done. I'm not sure these people were the Gold Star folks, though. It's been quite a while!

[dr-scott.livejournal.com]

"become a baritone." Good luck with that. I hear there are support groups. Beware hormonal side effects. :-)

Yes, peer pressure can get you into trouble. Examples are legion in local jails. Hope your feet forgive you.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's truly odd to try to weasel out of every square-dance-related singing opportunity when I have won competitions in voice. There just aren't any singers for altos, and I wouldn't subject *anyone* to what those sound systems do with the soprano register!

Alternatively, I could smoke for a decade or two. What was that you were saying about peer pressure? ;-)

Or . . .

[curmudgn]

you might could get advice on what's out that would do. Get hold of Terry Wheeler in San Antonio (twheeler at stic dot net) and ask her what-all she's using. She's got a Plus club she calls for in SAT (oddly enough, it's also a gay club) and my wife assures me she does do singing calls with them. If you need a reference, tell her Lise Waring's husband sent you.

Re: Or . . .

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Thanks!

I think the approach I'm actually going to use is to load these puppies onto the laptop and do pitch-shifting in software. But it sure wouldn't hurt to contact this caller as well.

[jupiter29.livejournal.com]

I was in the third parahraph of this post before I realized it was about dancing, and I'm still guessing I don't understand about 20% of the words used. :)