Category Archives:

20 Oct

Class Notes

I started doing written handouts for classes the first time I taught a C1 class. I didn’t want to force dancers to buy anything (although I think Vic Ceder’s Ceder Chest Square Dance Definition Books are excellent and well worth the money) and although the CALLERLAB definitions are available on line, I think they’re a little terse and sometimes confusing. So I took the CALLERLAB definitions, added my own diagrams, and added some side notes that I hoped would be helpful and occasionally amusing.

I’ve now put them on line as PDF files.

C2 will follow when I get them converted to PDF.

20 Oct

Nostalgia

Can we tap into nostalgia? community?

Here’s an essay on why people attend state fairs. Makes interesting reading.

I use google a lot (obviously). Did you ever wonder why you might get different results for the same query sometimes? It’s the Google dance:

(to the tune Hokey Pokey)
(start the music please)

They put some pages in,
They take some pages out,
They calculate the PageRank,
Then they shake it all about,

They wait until the full moon
Then they mix the servers up,

Thats what its all about.

(dum, dum, dum)

Ooooh, do the Google Dance,
Ooooh, do the Google Dance,
Ooooh, do the Google Dance,
Thats what its all about.

From “The Update”

19 Oct

Digital Music Resources

Here are links to my CALLERLAB presentations on digital music:

Bill Harrison’s handouts from the CALLERLAB 2007 Digital Music sessions:

If you’d like to help me compile more information on digital music, please check out the wiki. It’s currently pretty empty, but, working together, we can change that.

Here’s a list of links for on-line articles discussing the use of MiniDiscs, CDs, and MP3s for square dance calling.

Other info:

19 Oct

Odds and Ends

Never know what you’ll find:

  • How about Aerobic Square Dancing for Kids?
  • Pictures from a charitable dance marathon. Along with other dance types, they did some square dancing.
  • Here’s a list of square and round dance fundamentals for some kind of college dance class.
  • An article about old time patter calling, with info about a CD of dances recorded in the 1920’s. If that recording is anything like this one of Walter Harp calling for square dancing, March 10, 1939, the calling is hard to understand, and one understands how big a difference voice amplification has made to calling and square dancing.
18 Oct

Dance Marathon Day

The first dance marathon in the United States was held in New York City in 1923. Alma Cummings set the first record by dancing 27 hours.

You could try a marathon tip…obviously not 27 hours, but maybe keep it going for 30 minutes or so.

See this page for info about a teen dancer square dance marathon that lasted for 18 hours.

18 Oct

Disco Day

In 1963, the first real American discotheque, Whiskey-A-Go-Go, opened on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles, California.

Disco makes good square dance music, and there are several disco-based singing calls, including I’m So Excited, Newtron Dance, and New Attitude.

Relevant Records

  • You Keep Me Hangin’ On (Disco Mix) (LP 2)
  • I’m So Excited (Chaparral 214)
  • Copa Ca Patter (Blue Star 2391B)
  • Newtron Dance (Chaparral 321)
  • Macho Man (Lou-Mac 212)
  • Y.M.C.A. (Lou Mac 206)
  • Rhythm Is Gonna Get You (ESP 710)
  • She Works Hard for the Money (Hi Hat 5209)
  • Walking on Sunshine (Ocean Wave )
  • New Attitude (Rhythm 198)
18 Oct

National Polka Month

There are lots of polka tunes out there. I like to use polka music for patter…”heads polka up to the middle and back!”

Relevant Records

  • Pennsylvania Polka (Silver Sounds 175)
  • Just Another Polka (HiHat 5115)
  • Hoop de Doo (TNT 233)
  • Beer Barrel Polka (Blue Star 2298)
18 Oct

Music Data

Did you know you can download a database with over 9000 record entries for square dance records? Thomas Bernhed has created a PC-based (not useful for me, since I use a Mac) database of 9732 records, 1275 callers & 252 companies.

Palomino Records sells a music database with over 25,000 titles. It’s DOS-based, so, of course, it doesn’t run on a Mac either.

Vic Ceder has an online record database, which contains 2563 records, with 2027 of them having cue sheets, which can be downloaded and used by Vic’s CSDS program. What a massive amount of work!

I’m working on a database here also, but I haven’t decided yet how to present it. I’m more interested in information about the music: sort of a Casey Kasem approach. I’m also interested in real critiques of the arrangements, especially for new music; obviously American Square Dance can’t be critical; they need the advertising from the record companies. Chris Pinkham used to do reviews where one could sort of figure out his opinion by lack of praise, but the current reviewer tries to be purely descriptive.

BTW, wouldn’t it be nice if American Square Dance would put some info that would be useful in the long run (like its record reviews) on line? Also BTW, wouldn’t it be nice if American Square Dance would do something with Burlesons Encyclopedia? A couple of years ago, Ed Juaire said they were working on a digital version, but I’ve heard nothing since. I’d sure like to be able to (a) get a current version and (b) be able to look things up quickly (like on a computer).