I have thought a lot about this lately as well, though maybe I have  
the opposite problem from the one Tina first described, though  
similarly coming from being at this stage of calling.  I know that I  
do my best practicing and pulling together of new dances and new sets  
when I have the looming deadline of a dance -- I just find it hard to  
be motivated to keep at it regularly without something to work  
toward.  I consider myself to be an advanced-beginner inching toward  
intermediate level caller despite the fact that I've been at it over  
five years because my gigs have been so irregular.  In addition, I  
originally trained with the intention of focusing on family dances  
and ONS kinds of dances for communities, family gatherings and  
conferences, so my growth trajectory in true contras has been slower  
as well.

BUT, this has all changed over the past half year since we started a  
regular monthly dance in my town.  Our dance organizing committee is  
all about the community-building and youth involvement aspects of it  
so we keep our prices as low as possible (free to kids and teens) and  
include a nice local foods dinner and an hour of family dance, and we  
feature young local performers at the half hour break between the  
family dance and the evening contra dance.  We have chosen to keep  
the same band and caller (me) to maintain consistency, to allow us  
all (band, caller, dancers) to grow together, and to allow a focus on  
food, decorations and other things than booking.  We have some  
wonderful local sponsors to cover the cost of the hall, advertising  
and food and I donate my calling, so that we can pay the band  
members, most of whom travel from several towns away.  When I have a  
conflict I find a substitute caller and that has been a nice change,  
and I donate the cost of paying the sub so it doesn't ding the dance  
committees' budget.  We began in January and averaged about 50-60  
dancers for the evening portion last year, with a strong turn-out for  
the family part.

The challenge that I am feeling is that as our dance-free summer  
period comes to a close and I look at Sept-May of monthly dances I am  
both daunted / intimidated and extremely motivated to live up the  
faith that the dance committee is placing in me.  As I read all of  
your postings, I sense a mastery in most of you that I am still  
falling short of.  I am hoping that this year will leap me up to the  
next level, while still providing a good evening for all of our  
wonderful local following but I am stressed about how to pull that  
off to my own satisfaction.

So, I guess I'm suggesting that maybe one answer to the glass ceiling  
problem is to start a local dance (labor of love, takes a lot of  
comrades) or to find an existing dance with a regular caller who  
might want to alternate months on the mic (as I have heard happens in  
the mid-west).  But then, shoot, you have quickly to be good  
enough!!  Kind of a chicken and egg conundrum!

Delia Clark


On Aug 19, 2008, at 12:56 PM, Chip Hedler wrote:

> Wouldn't it be great to have an online directory of dance  
> organizers who want to recruit callers--and callers looking for  
> gigs? The dance organizers could give their specifications,  
> preferences (possibly including insights into the local style), how  
> payment would be handled, etc. The callers could say what they're  
> looking for and have to offer, how far they're willing to travel,  
> etc. as well. Oh, yeah, the system could include musicians  
> too...the whole thing could be modeled after the "personals"  
> classifieds or the NY Times employment section. Oops, maybe not  
> such a good idea--maybe the postings would soon be crowded with  
> offers of pseudo-pharmaceutical substances to add/subtract inches  
> to various body parts or windfall opportunities to share in large  
> amounts of offshore currency.
>
> The tension for dance organizers between wanting to lean toward the  
> security of proven big names who will insure consistently large and  
> enthusiastic turnouts, and the uncertainties of trying relatively  
> unknown callers and musicians isn't going to go away. Fortunately,  
> there are still folks trying to keep smaller local dance series  
> alive, even occasionally starting new ones. Without these people,  
> who often have even fewer training resources to draw on than  
> beginning callers, the future of contra dance "in the wild" would  
> be bleak indeed...
>
> Chip  
> Hedler<winmail.dat>_______________________________________________
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