Anonymous

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Contradance

758 bytes added, 20:22, March 9, 2006
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There is an interesting division between the callers and the bands. Often, they are booked seperately, and may not even meet each other until the night of. Typically, the band plays what it knows and wants to, and manages the energy level during a dance. The caller picks dances appropriate for the skill level of the group without knowing the tunes that will be played, and is repsonsible for the dancers' experience from start to end. He may change his dances if he sees a new group walk in, he may abort a dance midway, he chooses the tempo that the band plays at and when the dance will end. He is a charismatic, good speaker and teacher with an ability to sense what the dancers in his care need. The band members are sensitive too, but often in a quieter way, and mostly attuned to each other: they work as a perfectly communicating unit, able to make small changes to a tune to great effect, working always with each other and perhaps slight input from the caller.
 
== Links ==
 
* An excellent [http://arcserve.astro.washington.edu/Dances/ searchable source of contradances], when the server is up. Figures given.
* A fairly exhaustive searchable [http://tedcrane.com/DanceDB/ database] of all contradance venues and people in North America, including Williams' own band [http://tedcrane.com/DanceDB/DisplayBand.com?key=RUDE_CIDER Rude Cider] and caller [http://tedcrane.com/DanceDB/DisplayIdent.com?key=JONATHAN_LANDSMAN Jonathan Landsman] '05.
* A remarkably successful effort to publish the names and authors of [http://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/index/ every contradance in existence]. Figures not included.
* Another page for a [http://encyclopedia.laborlawtalk.com/contradance general description] of contradance.
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