Cleveland 2008 cont. Calling
Ok, I think last one of this series.
First the calling at convention. Awesome group of Staff Callers. All the names were known to me except for John Steckman. Of the rest, I've dance to all of them before with the exception of Ed Foote (and if you had the perserverence to read through the post before this, even that could be debated.) This time around, I managed to dance to all of them with the exception of 'Sparky' Sparks.
As mentioned below, everyone I danced to was great, and in most cases even exceeded what I might have expected of them.
Ed Foote deserves special mention, though. He was the one I was most looking forward to dancing to, if only because I had learned from his tapes. I did hear some complaints I didn't really understand from a lot of the other dancers, but I personally really enjoyed his Calling. Well, maybe his jokes... (considering the dance tapes I have are probably from the Eighties, and they have the *exact* same jokes!) but I had the sense he genuinely was having fun calling for us. Though I will say I did tremble at his promise to do 'three singing calls' to make up for mistakes, considering that not dancing singing calls was one of the big reasons I wanted to learn to dance Advanced and higher in the first place! :) I do hope I get a chance to dance to him in the future, should our locations coincide again.
Perhaps one other quick note: The Staff Callers as a whole went above the call of duty this Convention, or so it seems. There were lots of times when a particualr Caller was not scheduled to call, they would just move into a hall and join their colleague on stage. That's dedication -- when someone would rather 'work' through their break. Granted there might have been more going on behind the scenes that I wasn't aware of, but that's how it looks to me.
And really, everyone there worked quite well with just about everyone else.
I don't have much to say about the GCA callers. I did go out of my way to look into Brian J.'s Mainsteam showcase on my way to breakfast, and ended up staying to dance for a tip. I hadn't heard him call for over three years and wanted to see how he was doing -- and I was very pleased for him. He had us laughing, kept us moving, and we all had a good time. More than good enough to be worth delaying breakfast!
Next day after breakfast I was able to dance a tip to Michael M. at C2 for his showcase, and it was excellent. He used a Mozart Rondeau for that tip: I think this showed his skill more than anything, as the back-beat was more implied than fact in that piece. He made it work very well.
The general level of GCA calling was pretty good, and alot of old frineds who I hadn't heard call since last convention had all made great strides in their skill levels. Only once did I really wince when a friend of mine had a bad square as the only square for their slot, and the square in question did not succesfully complete one sequence for the whole tip. I had a similar experience once and my heart went out to that person, especially as they are a good caller. Another caller brought an old lesson back from my last caller school to mind. 'Try to get excited about the rosolve'. This one caller was so monotone, and actually sounded depressed when we successfully completed a sequence -- I almost wanted to slit my wrist right there, in spite of the fact that this person was calling great stuff. (Ok, I exaggerating - it was fun no matter what, this was more a comment on me than this person.) It's one of those lessons you have to experience, I guess, rather than be told about.
Ok this one went on alot longer than I anticipated, so I guess I'll have to defer posting about what I've been up to Calling-wise, and what my group has been up to (or rather not up to!) for another time. Especially since it doesn't really have much to do with convention. :)
First the calling at convention. Awesome group of Staff Callers. All the names were known to me except for John Steckman. Of the rest, I've dance to all of them before with the exception of Ed Foote (and if you had the perserverence to read through the post before this, even that could be debated.) This time around, I managed to dance to all of them with the exception of 'Sparky' Sparks.
As mentioned below, everyone I danced to was great, and in most cases even exceeded what I might have expected of them.
Ed Foote deserves special mention, though. He was the one I was most looking forward to dancing to, if only because I had learned from his tapes. I did hear some complaints I didn't really understand from a lot of the other dancers, but I personally really enjoyed his Calling. Well, maybe his jokes... (considering the dance tapes I have are probably from the Eighties, and they have the *exact* same jokes!) but I had the sense he genuinely was having fun calling for us. Though I will say I did tremble at his promise to do 'three singing calls' to make up for mistakes, considering that not dancing singing calls was one of the big reasons I wanted to learn to dance Advanced and higher in the first place! :) I do hope I get a chance to dance to him in the future, should our locations coincide again.
Perhaps one other quick note: The Staff Callers as a whole went above the call of duty this Convention, or so it seems. There were lots of times when a particualr Caller was not scheduled to call, they would just move into a hall and join their colleague on stage. That's dedication -- when someone would rather 'work' through their break. Granted there might have been more going on behind the scenes that I wasn't aware of, but that's how it looks to me.
And really, everyone there worked quite well with just about everyone else.
I don't have much to say about the GCA callers. I did go out of my way to look into Brian J.'s Mainsteam showcase on my way to breakfast, and ended up staying to dance for a tip. I hadn't heard him call for over three years and wanted to see how he was doing -- and I was very pleased for him. He had us laughing, kept us moving, and we all had a good time. More than good enough to be worth delaying breakfast!
Next day after breakfast I was able to dance a tip to Michael M. at C2 for his showcase, and it was excellent. He used a Mozart Rondeau for that tip: I think this showed his skill more than anything, as the back-beat was more implied than fact in that piece. He made it work very well.
The general level of GCA calling was pretty good, and alot of old frineds who I hadn't heard call since last convention had all made great strides in their skill levels. Only once did I really wince when a friend of mine had a bad square as the only square for their slot, and the square in question did not succesfully complete one sequence for the whole tip. I had a similar experience once and my heart went out to that person, especially as they are a good caller. Another caller brought an old lesson back from my last caller school to mind. 'Try to get excited about the rosolve'. This one caller was so monotone, and actually sounded depressed when we successfully completed a sequence -- I almost wanted to slit my wrist right there, in spite of the fact that this person was calling great stuff. (Ok, I exaggerating - it was fun no matter what, this was more a comment on me than this person.) It's one of those lessons you have to experience, I guess, rather than be told about.
Ok this one went on alot longer than I anticipated, so I guess I'll have to defer posting about what I've been up to Calling-wise, and what my group has been up to (or rather not up to!) for another time. Especially since it doesn't really have much to do with convention. :)