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I just finished up calling at BIDA!
"But wait," you say, providing convenient exposition "Isn't BIDA the local contra dance? We know you're a fully certificated Scottish Country Dance teacher, but contra is a completely different beast!"
Well yes. BIDA was having, as a special treat, an evening of combo contra and Scottish ceilidh. Harris was in charge of the contra (and he did a marvelous job). I was calling the ceilidh, which I sneakily made into about half just straight up SCDs with the numbers filed off.
It was a lot of fun! I got hit really bad with anxiety about two hours before leaving the house, which meant my entire getting ready process was with the brainloop going "oh god I'm going to do a horrible job and everyone is going to hate me and I'm not going to be able to explain well and all these cool contra dancers will think Scottish is the worst ever forever" and that just...didn't happen?
Instead I had a floor where at least 75% of everyone seemed to have a good sense of what was going on, where people were moving enthusiastically and smiling and laughing and throwing in flourishes and skipping. People were helping each other, there were probably a dozen or so folk who I know from Pinewoods who could Steer Their Set, and I had heaps of fun jumping up and down off the stage to demonstrate.
I got to spend a bunch of valuable time practicing translating between languages --what do I call a set, a half robin's chain, a half rights and lefts, a reel? How do I adapt Scottish progression to a contra floor? Does it _really_ matter if the sets are proper or improper? Can we just walk the circles, or do we have to do slip step?
(respectively: Balance, robin's chain, right and left through, hay. Choose two-couple dances that are pretty balanced between 1s and 2s and just let 'em go, plus modify Wild Geese cleverly. Mostly no, but it does for Postie's. Slip step is imperative because I've managed to eliminate a lot of my SCD-snobbery but damnit, this hill is worth it, slipping circles are entirely superior to walking ones!1)
It's probably the biggest floor I've ever called to --definitely the biggest floor I've ever called my own program, or done any teaching. The only competition so far is Youth Weekend Away, last October, which was strictly _just_ calling for their Saturday ball, and I didn't write the program for that.
I'm very grateful to how _wonderfully_ adaptive the band Torrent is. I mean, it's also great that 2/3rds are fucking *awesome* Scottish dancers I know and love, but the three of them were so good at just judging for themselves how many times through the dance needed to go and playing it. Cueing the band is a feature of contra dancing that I _definitely_ do not have in my playbook, and maybe it's one I should learn more about some time.
I'm really really glad I had the opportunity, and I'm genuinely glad that, anxiety notwithstanding, this remains one of the things I can be arrogant about. This all happened because back many moons ago, Harris said in my Discord "hey does anyone know someone who can call Scottish ceilidh at BIDA" and I said "I can give you other names, but also me, I can do this."
I can do this. I am pretty good at doing this. People seem to have a fun time when I call and teach dances, and lords all know I have a fun time calling for them. I took the opportunity to make a little mini-flyer linking to the email collection for my eventual GenderFree SCD class, and I got at least two people to sign up. (Note to self, throw a link onto the BIDA facebook page sometime as well).
I will get to teach more and call more and bring more people into this thing that I love so much, and that feels very wonderful to me. It's been a hard year, for my relationship with SCD, and I really appreciate opportunities to remember how much I love the hobby.
Now, next thing to be anxious about? MCing at Scottish Pinewoods in July. And starting my GFSCD class and teaching locals. And basic Scottish at ESCape. And maybe eventually teaching at Cambridge Class again. And and and!
The work is never done, and that's just how I like it.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I mean, if you're circling left and then back right and ending in place. Walking makes plenty of sense if you need to count how many spaces around the set and progress, like the frequent contra "circle three places"
"But wait," you say, providing convenient exposition "Isn't BIDA the local contra dance? We know you're a fully certificated Scottish Country Dance teacher, but contra is a completely different beast!"
Well yes. BIDA was having, as a special treat, an evening of combo contra and Scottish ceilidh. Harris was in charge of the contra (and he did a marvelous job). I was calling the ceilidh, which I sneakily made into about half just straight up SCDs with the numbers filed off.
It was a lot of fun! I got hit really bad with anxiety about two hours before leaving the house, which meant my entire getting ready process was with the brainloop going "oh god I'm going to do a horrible job and everyone is going to hate me and I'm not going to be able to explain well and all these cool contra dancers will think Scottish is the worst ever forever" and that just...didn't happen?
Instead I had a floor where at least 75% of everyone seemed to have a good sense of what was going on, where people were moving enthusiastically and smiling and laughing and throwing in flourishes and skipping. People were helping each other, there were probably a dozen or so folk who I know from Pinewoods who could Steer Their Set, and I had heaps of fun jumping up and down off the stage to demonstrate.
I got to spend a bunch of valuable time practicing translating between languages --what do I call a set, a half robin's chain, a half rights and lefts, a reel? How do I adapt Scottish progression to a contra floor? Does it _really_ matter if the sets are proper or improper? Can we just walk the circles, or do we have to do slip step?
(respectively: Balance, robin's chain, right and left through, hay. Choose two-couple dances that are pretty balanced between 1s and 2s and just let 'em go, plus modify Wild Geese cleverly. Mostly no, but it does for Postie's. Slip step is imperative because I've managed to eliminate a lot of my SCD-snobbery but damnit, this hill is worth it, slipping circles are entirely superior to walking ones!1)
It's probably the biggest floor I've ever called to --definitely the biggest floor I've ever called my own program, or done any teaching. The only competition so far is Youth Weekend Away, last October, which was strictly _just_ calling for their Saturday ball, and I didn't write the program for that.
I'm very grateful to how _wonderfully_ adaptive the band Torrent is. I mean, it's also great that 2/3rds are fucking *awesome* Scottish dancers I know and love, but the three of them were so good at just judging for themselves how many times through the dance needed to go and playing it. Cueing the band is a feature of contra dancing that I _definitely_ do not have in my playbook, and maybe it's one I should learn more about some time.
I'm really really glad I had the opportunity, and I'm genuinely glad that, anxiety notwithstanding, this remains one of the things I can be arrogant about. This all happened because back many moons ago, Harris said in my Discord "hey does anyone know someone who can call Scottish ceilidh at BIDA" and I said "I can give you other names, but also me, I can do this."
I can do this. I am pretty good at doing this. People seem to have a fun time when I call and teach dances, and lords all know I have a fun time calling for them. I took the opportunity to make a little mini-flyer linking to the email collection for my eventual GenderFree SCD class, and I got at least two people to sign up. (Note to self, throw a link onto the BIDA facebook page sometime as well).
I will get to teach more and call more and bring more people into this thing that I love so much, and that feels very wonderful to me. It's been a hard year, for my relationship with SCD, and I really appreciate opportunities to remember how much I love the hobby.
Now, next thing to be anxious about? MCing at Scottish Pinewoods in July. And starting my GFSCD class and teaching locals. And basic Scottish at ESCape. And maybe eventually teaching at Cambridge Class again. And and and!
The work is never done, and that's just how I like it.
~Sor
MOOP!
1: I mean, if you're circling left and then back right and ending in place. Walking makes plenty of sense if you need to count how many spaces around the set and progress, like the frequent contra "circle three places"