Great topic, Maia -
I'm reminded of what a college environmental science professor once said: "The solution to pollution is dilution." In terms of your question, I find one solution is to call more gigs; that way, there is less time to brood over mistakes, and the errors become less noticeable!
That in addition to all of the other tips that others have already provided might provide some comfort...😊
________________________________
From: Callers <callers-bounces(a)lists.sharedweight.net> on behalf of Maia McCormick via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 4:10 PM
To: callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Subject: [Callers] Moving past self-flagellation
So after a gig, I find myself haunted by one or two missteps from an evening — the rolling start that was a little muddy, the thing I didn’t teach clearly enough so the dancers never quite got it — even though the dancers adjusted and all had a good time, and I still had the hall’s trust and goodwill at the end of the evening.
Is this a familiar experience for anyone? Assuming you’ve already learned the lesson to be learned there, how do you move past it and stop self-flagellating?Would love to hear some people’s thoughts!
Cheers,
Maia
Maia,
I agree with what others have said about attitude being the most important
tool, and to be gentle with yourself.
I will sometimes tell the beginners lesson that they shouldn't get caught
up on making mistakes, we all make mistakes, in fact tonight I will make a
mistake to increase their comfort level, if it helps. And although I don't
TRY to make a mistake, mistakes happen.
Most recently, I said "ladies chain" instead of "ladies allemande" in a
walkthru. "Oops," I said, "I meant allemande. I made that mistake
intentionally to show that it's still okay even if you do something you
didn't initially intend to do." We continued the walkthru, the dance worked
fine, and the light touch signaled not only that "it's okay" but also "be
gentle with each other."
On those rare nights when all the stars align in my performance, we don't
get those learning moments on the floor. There are good possible outcomes
in most every scenario, as long as there's good dancing.
Even when things beyond my control go wrong, I've learned to redirect. For
example, if the sound goes wonky, when the sound is restored it's a good
idea to acknowledge how much the sound tech works behind the scenes to make
most evenings so seamless. Let's thank him/her for all they do. (Okay, I
stole this from another caller, but it's come in handy more than once).
--Jerome
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power
and magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 10:10 AM, Maia McCormick via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> So after a gig, I find myself haunted by one or two missteps from an
> evening — the rolling start that was a little muddy, the thing I didn’t
> teach clearly enough so the dancers never quite got it — even though the
> dancers adjusted and all had a good time, and I still had the hall’s trust
> and goodwill at the end of the evening.
>
> Is this a familiar experience for anyone? Assuming you’ve already learned
> the lesson to be learned there, how do you move past it and stop
> self-flagellating?Would love to hear some people’s thoughts!
>
> Cheers,
> Maia
>
> _______________________________________________
> List Name: Callers mailing list
> List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
>
>
Maia,
I used to self-flagellate all the time when I had average gigs or made a lot of mistakes during the evening that I could have done better. I know that sometimes it seems that dancers give you the evil eye after you've made a mistake or two, and it can feel uncomfortable.Â
I got some advice from an organizer that really noticed how I was taking my own self flagellation - I should go easy on myself. Most dancers really appreciate what callers do (knowing that many of them just don't want to call because they'd rather be dancing), and probably understand that it's probably not easy to put yourself up there.Â
So now when I do make a mistake, notice the dancers aren't quite getting it or something occurs a little rough, I just take that as a learning experience and hope not to make that mistake the next time. It's a mental exercise to be sure, but I'd recommend trying the same thing at a future dance, except consciously be aware of what happened last time and make efforts to correct that. Once it works better a second time, you'll forget that you made a mistake at en earlier dance and chalk that up to a bad evening. We all have them from time to time.
Perry
From: Maia McCormick via Callers <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
To: "callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net" <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Monday, November 6, 2017 11:10 AM
Subject: [Callers] Moving past self-flagellation
So after a gig, I find myself haunted by one or two missteps from an evening — the rolling start that was a little muddy, the thing I didn’t teach clearly enough so the dancers never quite got it — even though the dancers adjusted and all had a good time, and I still had the hall’s trust and goodwill at the end of the evening.
Is this a familiar experience for anyone? Assuming you’ve already learned the lesson to be learned there, how do you move past it and stop self-flagellating?Would love to hear some people’s thoughts!
Cheers,Maia_______________________________________________
List Name:Â Callers mailing list
List Address:Â Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives:Â https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
Ah yes!
Indeed it is a familiar feeling. So this pep talk is as much to myself as
it is to you.
- Live performance means that there will be mistakes.
- It is not possible to learn anything without making mistakes. If you are
not making any, you're not learning.
- Identify a few things that could be done differently (just a few as you
cannot fix everything at once).
- Ask for gentle, objective feedback or suggestions.
- Once you've done these last two, forgive yourself. You'll do better next
time.
- Hopefully, you can look forward the next gig and I wish you that it goes
well and make you feel good.
Cheers,
Claire
On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 10:10 AM, Maia McCormick via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> So after a gig, I find myself haunted by one or two missteps from an
> evening — the rolling start that was a little muddy, the thing I didn’t
> teach clearly enough so the dancers never quite got it — even though the
> dancers adjusted and all had a good time, and I still had the hall’s trust
> and goodwill at the end of the evening.
>
> Is this a familiar experience for anyone? Assuming you’ve already learned
> the lesson to be learned there, how do you move past it and stop
> self-flagellating?Would love to hear some people’s thoughts!
>
> Cheers,
> Maia
>
> _______________________________________________
> List Name: Callers mailing list
> List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
>
>
--
*Claire*
So after a gig, I find myself haunted by one or two missteps from an
evening — the rolling start that was a little muddy, the thing I didn’t
teach clearly enough so the dancers never quite got it — even though the
dancers adjusted and all had a good time, and I still had the hall’s trust
and goodwill at the end of the evening.
Is this a familiar experience for anyone? Assuming you’ve already learned
the lesson to be learned there, how do you move past it and stop
self-flagellating?Would love to hear some people’s thoughts!
Cheers,
Maia
Hi Luke,
Have you seen Chris Page’s website? I like that he states which he feels are tested, edited, and are tried and true.
I love seeing new choreography but only want to collect things I’ve danced and know feel good, or dance that the choreographer or another caller can say that it works and dancers liked it.
Maybe within those categories you listed, if you also assigned difficulty levels, that would be helpful.
It would be great to know what uses the dances have proven best for?
Looking forward to seeing what you create!
Claire Takemori
SF Bay Area
Date: Sat, 4 Nov 2017 23:26:15 -0400
From: Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com <mailto:luke.donev@gmail.com>>
To: "Callers(a)Lists.Sharedweight.net <mailto:Callers@Lists.Sharedweight.net>" <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net <mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net>>
Subject: [Callers] Publishing dances on the web
Message-ID:
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Hi Folks,
I currently have a terrible system for publishing dances I've written on
the web (blog-esque thing in wordpress; really hard to search through).
There's been talk on and off of a big database of dances, but that doesn't
seem to be happening so I thought I should do something for mine.
I'm contemplating better ways of making dances my compositions more
accessible; and since that would be for other people, I'm curious what's
useful for other people.
I'm envisioning four categories of dances; and then just lists of dances
(title & sequence) on those pages. The categories I had in mind:
Family dances
Glossary contras
Unique contras
Odd formations
Are there separate things you'd want to see in a list of dances when you're
going through? Beckets, Closing dances, bouncy/smooth, etc.
I've gotten really attached to Callers Companion (
http://callerscompanion.com/ <http://callerscompanion.com/>), and really like how it lets searches happen
on dances. Anyone have a good way to incorporate that, or the type of
element checklist/flag it provides, into a web-based interface for dances?
It might also be that most folks don't collect dances from websites; and
this is wasted time. But it does seem like I've obfuscated finding my
compositions, and I regret not making them more available.
Thoughts, opinions, experience, and advice appreciated.
Thanks!
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <mailto:Luke.Donforth@gmail.com> <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com <mailto:Luke.Donev@gmail.com>>
On 2017-11-04 11:26 PM, Luke Donforth via Callers wrote:
> There's been talk on and off of a big [web] database of dances,
> but that doesn't seem to be happening
There are some efforts to make it happen.
One of them is at:
http://contradb.com/
(note that searching requires JavaScript to be enabled).
The software (a Ruby app) is under active development at:
https://github.com/dcmorse/contra
-Michael
I am interested in having recorded music to take with me to a class or possibly even a dance where there are no musicians. If I were to load music and callers companion onto a device which one(s) would be good to consider? Maybe I would only be able to load one or the other. I have taken my laptop for music to play through a speaker. I have never used callers companion and would like to try that.
Suggestions?
ThanksPat Reeser
Ok my tablet just rewrote some of my post lol....ons became one and it did
something weird to my authorship statement...resist.
On Nov 5, 2017 3:46 PM, "Mary Collins" <nativedae(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Luke and others - I'm guessing that Luke's query my stem from my recent
> question regarding the authorship not gone of his dances. So, this is how I
> have been collecting dances. I dance them, mostly, then ask for the calls.
> Or, I observe or dance one, get the name and Google it. Failing that I ask
> caller friends for the calls and author. Sometimes I may look for a theme
> (i.e. tax day). Being relatively new at calling I guess I lean toward what
> I like more than anything. Being older, I can resist succumbing to calling
> beyond my current comfort level, or writing impossible dances.
>
> Now having said that ...I resist technology and color code everything,
> easy, one, advanced, waves, hens etc. Old school but it is what works for
> me.
>
> Btw Luke, Valimont's dance worked well and all loved it, thanks.
> Mary
>
> On Nov 4, 2017 11:26 PM, "Luke Donforth via Callers" <
> callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi Folks,
>>
>> I currently have a terrible system for publishing dances I've written on
>> the web (blog-esque thing in wordpress; really hard to search through).
>> There's been talk on and off of a big database of dances, but that doesn't
>> seem to be happening so I thought I should do something for mine.
>>
>> I'm contemplating better ways of making dances my compositions more
>> accessible; and since that would be for other people, I'm curious what's
>> useful for other people.
>>
>> I'm envisioning four categories of dances; and then just lists of dances
>> (title & sequence) on those pages. The categories I had in mind:
>> Family dances
>> Glossary contras
>> Unique contras
>> Odd formations
>>
>> Are there separate things you'd want to see in a list of dances when
>> you're going through? Beckets, Closing dances, bouncy/smooth, etc.
>>
>> I've gotten really attached to Callers Companion (
>> http://callerscompanion.com/), and really like how it lets searches
>> happen on dances. Anyone have a good way to incorporate that, or the type
>> of element checklist/flag it provides, into a web-based interface for
>> dances?
>>
>> It might also be that most folks don't collect dances from websites; and
>> this is wasted time. But it does seem like I've obfuscated finding my
>> compositions, and I regret not making them more available.
>>
>> Thoughts, opinions, experience, and advice appreciated.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> --
>> Luke Donforth
>> Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> List Name: Callers mailing list
>> List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
>>
>>
Hi Luke and others - I'm guessing that Luke's query my stem from my recent
question regarding the authorship not gone of his dances. So, this is how I
have been collecting dances. I dance them, mostly, then ask for the calls.
Or, I observe or dance one, get the name and Google it. Failing that I ask
caller friends for the calls and author. Sometimes I may look for a theme
(i.e. tax day). Being relatively new at calling I guess I lean toward what
I like more than anything. Being older, I can resist succumbing to calling
beyond my current comfort level, or writing impossible dances.
Now having said that ...I resist technology and color code everything,
easy, one, advanced, waves, hens etc. Old school but it is what works for
me.
Btw Luke, Valimont's dance worked well and all loved it, thanks.
Mary
On Nov 4, 2017 11:26 PM, "Luke Donforth via Callers" <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> Hi Folks,
>
> I currently have a terrible system for publishing dances I've written on
> the web (blog-esque thing in wordpress; really hard to search through).
> There's been talk on and off of a big database of dances, but that doesn't
> seem to be happening so I thought I should do something for mine.
>
> I'm contemplating better ways of making dances my compositions more
> accessible; and since that would be for other people, I'm curious what's
> useful for other people.
>
> I'm envisioning four categories of dances; and then just lists of dances
> (title & sequence) on those pages. The categories I had in mind:
> Family dances
> Glossary contras
> Unique contras
> Odd formations
>
> Are there separate things you'd want to see in a list of dances when
> you're going through? Beckets, Closing dances, bouncy/smooth, etc.
>
> I've gotten really attached to Callers Companion (
> http://callerscompanion.com/), and really like how it lets searches
> happen on dances. Anyone have a good way to incorporate that, or the type
> of element checklist/flag it provides, into a web-based interface for
> dances?
>
> It might also be that most folks don't collect dances from websites; and
> this is wasted time. But it does seem like I've obfuscated finding my
> compositions, and I regret not making them more available.
>
> Thoughts, opinions, experience, and advice appreciated.
>
> Thanks!
>
> --
> Luke Donforth
> Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List Name: Callers mailing list
> List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
>
>
