The On-Call Caller

Dayle just telephoned. His throat is still scratchy from earlier this week so rather than spend DC's club night tonight squeaking into the microphone, he asked if Kent & I could cover for him tonight.

Alas, Kent is already booked for a singing rehearsal with his ensemble so I'm taking the entire calling session ce soir. Whee! Time to test out some new material... :-)

There is a snag --isn't there always?-- in that DC has a Mainstream class in progress currently and I don't know how many calls they've absorbed yet. With a little luck, I'll get the current list this afternoon so I'll have a little time to mull over the possibilities.

The On-Call Caller

Dayle just telephoned. His throat is still scratchy from earlier this week so rather than spend DC's club night tonight squeaking into the microphone, he asked if Kent & I could cover for him tonight.

Alas, Kent is already booked for a singing rehearsal with his ensemble so I'm taking the entire calling session ce soir. Whee! Time to test out some new material... :-)

There is a snag --isn't there always?-- in that DC has a Mainstream class in progress currently and I don't know how many calls they've absorbed yet. With a little luck, I'll get the current list this afternoon so I'll have a little time to mull over the possibilities.

DCLS Club Night

The MS & Plus calling went well tonight, I think.

I didn't get a list of what calls were not yet taught in the Mainstream course so I had to fumble for the first few minutes and accidentally called a few that I shouldn't have. I'm not overly concerned: there was only one class member present and the rest of the square dragged him through the occasional burp. The list of calls I could use was waiting for me in my mailbox at home, delivered 5 minutes after I left for the downtown. D'oh!

The Plus material was all pretty much the way I wanted it. The only snag was the final tip: I was going for a bucket stir three times but every time I got mid-way through, the formation kept coming up as unrecognizable. In each instance, I simply called through to a normal resolve at home as though I meant to do it that way. In the end, I resorted to a simple, previously memorized stir. The set went a little long but that's the worst.

One observation: At many club nights in both DC and Baltimore, the dancers don't square up until they hear the music. Several times tonight, the dancers squared up spontaneously with only a two minute break between tips. Yay! They really like me! (And I'm sticking to that particular interpretation until a more flattering one comes along! :-))

Unless there are other last minute calling gigs, I'm done for the next couple of weeks. Time to audition more music, write more A2 material and memorize more get-outs & singing figures.

DCLS Club Night

The MS & Plus calling went well tonight, I think.

I didn't get a list of what calls were not yet taught in the Mainstream course so I had to fumble for the first few minutes and accidentally called a few that I shouldn't have. I'm not overly concerned: there was only one class member present and the rest of the square dragged him through the occasional burp. The list of calls I could use was waiting for me in my mailbox at home, delivered 5 minutes after I left for the downtown. D'oh!

The Plus material was all pretty much the way I wanted it. The only snag was the final tip: I was going for a bucket stir three times but every time I got mid-way through, the formation kept coming up as unrecognizable. In each instance, I simply called through to a normal resolve at home as though I meant to do it that way. In the end, I resorted to a simple, previously memorized stir. The set went a little long but that's the worst.

One observation: At many club nights in both DC and Baltimore, the dancers don't square up until they hear the music. Several times tonight, the dancers squared up spontaneously with only a two minute break between tips. Yay! They really like me! (And I'm sticking to that particular interpretation until a more flattering one comes along! :-))

Unless there are other last minute calling gigs, I'm done for the next couple of weeks. Time to audition more music, write more A2 material and memorize more get-outs & singing figures.