Denver, Day 5, Part I
May. 24th, 2007 01:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bjarvisAll of us had the best of intentions in getting up early this morning and possibly joining the other GCA caller school attendees for breakfast, but things didn't work out.
I think I got perhaps five hours of sleep last night. The problem with attending a working function like the caller school is that my head is loaded with lots of interesting ideas which keep my brain running well past bedtime (and long after I had written most of it to LJ). I'm still not sleeping overly well in this new bed anyway.
Though we didn't join the others for breakfast, we did get a large meal at "The Delectable Egg," a nice family restaurant between our hotel and the convention hotel.
This morning's caller school session was on showmanship, by Deborah Carroll-Jones. I took fewer notes in this session, not that there wasn't a lot of material but because there was a lot of overlap with prior discussions on career advancement, professionalism, music usage/selection and such.
One good piece of advice: select a favoured non-square dancer entertainer and study their techniques for connecting with an audience. In particular, note their timing, delivery, register, vocal technique, movement and the like, including any particular idiosyncratic flairs.
Deborah also outlined three broad methods for a caller to connect with the dance floor:
Deborah also spent a few minutes describing three different caller voice modes:
After demonstrating different voice modes and particular sample of music to illustrate her points, we took a break. The latter portion of the session was to be spent on practice and calling but exhaustion was catching up with me so I opted to quietly slip back to our hotel.
I also planned to blow off the last session of the day: advancing one's calling career. I've attended similar sessions at the three prior GCA caller schools so I'm anticipating 95% of the material will be a repeat, and most of it relatively obvious: promoting oneself with a web presence, business cards and advertising, making contacts with established callers and local caller association, taking guest spots when they are available, attending caller networking events, engaging club leaders at festivals & dances, etc..
At this point in my particular career path, I have a large number of personal calling improvements which must be made before venturing too far from home base. One must crawl before one walks, walk before one runs, run before one sprints, and sprint before one flies. I'm still painfully aware of my current transition from crawl to walk: when I get closer to the running stage, I'll work more aggressively on blatant self-promotion. :-)
Alas, housekeeping had not been to our room yet so I powered up the laptop to catch up on LJ and e-mail, did some laundry in the facilities in the hotel's basement and have generally shopped around for square dance music using the information collected over the past few days.
Have I mentioned lately how glad I am the hotel has free wireless internet?
I think I got perhaps five hours of sleep last night. The problem with attending a working function like the caller school is that my head is loaded with lots of interesting ideas which keep my brain running well past bedtime (and long after I had written most of it to LJ). I'm still not sleeping overly well in this new bed anyway.
Though we didn't join the others for breakfast, we did get a large meal at "The Delectable Egg," a nice family restaurant between our hotel and the convention hotel.
This morning's caller school session was on showmanship, by Deborah Carroll-Jones. I took fewer notes in this session, not that there wasn't a lot of material but because there was a lot of overlap with prior discussions on career advancement, professionalism, music usage/selection and such.
One good piece of advice: select a favoured non-square dancer entertainer and study their techniques for connecting with an audience. In particular, note their timing, delivery, register, vocal technique, movement and the like, including any particular idiosyncratic flairs.
Deborah also outlined three broad methods for a caller to connect with the dance floor:
- theatrical: props, costuming, particular actions or turns of phrase. While these can be memorable and draw an audience, one must be careful not to become typecast, becoming captive of one's own gimmicks.
- choreography. Never hide behind clever choreo. Stay in control of the choreography, not the other way around.
- music. The majority of our calling time is in patter, especially for the A2 and higher levels: it's critical to select good music. Know the music intimately and use its quirks --rests, drum solos, odd intros-- to your advantage. Always stay dominant over the music, but let the music take center stage for a phrase or two if there's a catchy bridge.
Deborah also spent a few minutes describing three different caller voice modes:
- talking mode: giving calls in a regular speaking voice, timed to the dominant beat of the music.
- singing mode: singing the calls, following the music's melody and harmony as is comfortable.
- chant mode: adjusting the talking mode to deliver calls in a music-matching rhythm, somewhat staccato, modifying the pitch for emphasis and variety.
After demonstrating different voice modes and particular sample of music to illustrate her points, we took a break. The latter portion of the session was to be spent on practice and calling but exhaustion was catching up with me so I opted to quietly slip back to our hotel.
I also planned to blow off the last session of the day: advancing one's calling career. I've attended similar sessions at the three prior GCA caller schools so I'm anticipating 95% of the material will be a repeat, and most of it relatively obvious: promoting oneself with a web presence, business cards and advertising, making contacts with established callers and local caller association, taking guest spots when they are available, attending caller networking events, engaging club leaders at festivals & dances, etc..
At this point in my particular career path, I have a large number of personal calling improvements which must be made before venturing too far from home base. One must crawl before one walks, walk before one runs, run before one sprints, and sprint before one flies. I'm still painfully aware of my current transition from crawl to walk: when I get closer to the running stage, I'll work more aggressively on blatant self-promotion. :-)
Alas, housekeeping had not been to our room yet so I powered up the laptop to catch up on LJ and e-mail, did some laundry in the facilities in the hotel's basement and have generally shopped around for square dance music using the information collected over the past few days.
Have I mentioned lately how glad I am the hotel has free wireless internet?
