I called my first full contra dance last night. For some reason, a whole bunch of new people showed up, making it challenging and very exciting. Needless to say, the organizers (FolkMADS) were happy, the dancers seemed happy, and I got a lot of positive feedback, so I was happy.

As part of my preparation, I read a lot about programming contra dances. Henry Morgenstein says:

Great callers have many variables that they juggle as they call an evening’s worth of dances. I focus primarily on which are “new” or “difficult” moves within a dance. They focus on much else: promoting certain behavior between dancers, the band & its strengths, the size of the hall, the number of dancers, the time of the evening, the vigorousness of a dance & the vigorousness of the dance that preceded this dance.

Jenny Beers says:

The caller needs to pay attention to several different “curves” throughout the dance session.
1. Energy curve — where do you want excitement and aerobic action? Where do you want mellow or elegant dances? Usually callers try to peak before the break, with a secondary peak late in the second half. You can build up a buzz in the hall and then go out with a bang, or drift down to something quiet to send people gently out the door.
2. Brain cell curve — Beginners can usually concentrate for 4 or 5 dances. Experienced dancers will generally be most able to absorb new material or complex dances at about the 4th-6th dance of the session. A series of familiar or non-brain-taxing dances can create a satisfied feeling at the end of the dance.
3. Musicians’ performance curve(s)–these vary. Ask them when they are at their most fluid and warmed up, when they’d prefer to relax with something familiar or undemanding.
4. Warm-ups: remember that both dancers and musicians need warm-up times for mind, body, and fingers at the start and after breaks.

Cary Ravitz discusses programming by focusing on the moves in the dances. A sample:

Let’s start with swings – I would suggest that half of the dances in an evening have a sixteen count neighbor swing, balance and swing, or gypsy and swing, and all of these have an eight count partner swing. The other half of the dances should have a sixteen count partner swing, balance and swing, or gypsy and swing, and half of these have an eight count neighbor swing. The exact numbers are not critical, but it is easy to get far off of them if you are not careful.

I decided on a few things:

• If I was going to err, it was going to be on the side of “too easy”. I’m an inexperienced contra caller, and there was no point in trying to wow them with amazing dances if I couldn’t do a good job of presenting them. Also, it’s a common tendency for new square dance callers to present incredibly complicated choreography because they don’t yet know what’s easy and hard. I figured that I would probably have the same tendencies in contra, so I’d be better off trying to be easy. As it turned out, it was a good thing because we had such a large number of new dancers.
• I don’t know enough to judge the emotional quality of a dance. I don’t know which dances are exciting and which are sedate and why.
• I would provide variety by doing at least one square; even though the types of squares called at contra dances aren’t MWSD squares, I know I can improvise the breaks, and call with that “square dance caller” sound. I would also do a 4 facing 4 dance to provide some variety without too much complexity.

So here are the dances I chose and why I chose them:

1. Appetizer, by Scott Higgs: I found this dance in Jenny Beer’s caller notes. I liked that it had a neighbor swing; even if the new dancers partner up with each other, they’ll get a chance to swing a lot of different people and get a feel for swinging. In retrospect, the dosado 1-1/2 to progress was a little hard for the very new dancers.
2. Ramapo Romp, by Melanie Axel Lute: It seems fairly traditional at this dance to do a mixer as the second dance. Since it was my first time out, I didn’t want to mess with tradition (especially since I planned to do so big time during the break). This seemed very easy, and I liked the “wheelbarrel” move and the single file promenades for adding just a little interest. Also, the single file promenades provided a chance to interact with other people.
3. Al’s Safeway Produce, by Robert Cromartie (you can find the dance about halfway down this site: TRADITIONAL COMMUNITY DANCE, including a link to an mp3 of someone calling it): I planned to do a MWSD singing call during the break (yeah, recorded music and all), and I planned to do a figure involving going from a right hand star with some people into a left hand star with others. So I picked this dance because it had a star progression which has a similar feel.
4. Sweet Music, by Amy Kahn: I knew I needed to do heys, and I was nervous about teaching the figure. I looked for a dance that had a pretty vanilla hey leading into a partner swing, because I figured that even if the new dancers had a hard time, at least they could get re-oriented quickly with the partner swing. The music that the band picked for this dance turned out to be a little slow; I should have gotten them to pick it up a little. But the hey seemed to go successfully for most.
5. Dandelion Express, by Gene Hubert (I can’t find this online, but it’s in American Country Dances On Line, which, unfortunately, tends to be off line a lot). This is a square that features, in MWSD terms, a double swing thru. In contra dance terms, it’s (no balances!!!) allemande right 1/2, gents allemande left 1/2, all allemande right 1/2, ladies allemande left 1/2. It went pretty well, although I could see them trying to balance after every allemande.
6. Halliehurst, by Gene Hubert: I’ve called this before, and I knew it was a satisfyingly smooth dance. It seemed to be a good dance before the break. It was also the first becket-style dance of the evening, but it doesn’t have difficult end-effects.
7. BREAK: I asked the organizers if I could call a MWSD singing call during the break and they agreed. People seemed to like the novelty, but dancers had an incredibly hard time with Star Thru. I didn’t want to take a lot of time on the dance, so I walked it through to quickly. My mistake. I did this figure: Heads promenade 1/2, down the middle and star thru, pass thru, right hand star with the sides, heads left hand star in the middle, back to the corner and swing and promenade. I did the song “Shamey Shame”–there’s a RealAudio sample here: Rockin’ M Records
8. Ben’s Brilliance by Tony Parkes: I got this dance from Seth Tepfer’s PDF, Fun Contra Dances for a Mixed Crowd, which he describes as “accessible for novices, but still interesting for experienced dancers.” It seemed like a nice, easy dance to start with after the break. And it was.
9. 24th of October, by Don Lennartson. I’ve called this before and really like it. It’s probably the hardest dance I called, with the three (in MWSD terms) box circulates. But it seems to build energy.
10. Fast Living, by David Kirchner: This was the 4-facing-4 dance. Despite my telling the dancers to remember which way they were facing, so they’d know which way to face after the final partner swing, there was still some confusion. But it ironed out after a couple of sequences.
11. Another Nice Combination, by Tom Hinds: All of a sudden, it was time to call the last dance! Where did the time go? This was another dance from Seth’s list of fun contra dances for a mixed crowd. It had a neighbor swing and a partner swing (requisite for a final dance, from what I’ve heard).

Here’s a planning chart that I made (based on a chart Linda Leslie presented at the 2003 Ralph Page Memorial Weekend; it’s in this PDF):

This shows that there are several serious lacks: no gypsy, no balance the ring (a move I like), and no down-the-hall. Well, maybe there’ll be a next time…