{"items": [{"author": "Audrey", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628560946702", "anchor": "fb-628560946702", "service": "fb", "text": "I was just thinking about this. In order for us to know if it's a good set and works for dances, we have to take the risk of playing it, even if it's not 100% perfect. That's a hard one for me to accept.", "timestamp": "1379514107"}, {"author": "Danner", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628570287982", "anchor": "fb-628570287982", "service": "fb", "text": "You'll have to change it up if you get dance weekend gigs, or get junkies that follow you around. Good problems to have.", "timestamp": "1379520498"}, {"author": "Perry", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628592348772", "anchor": "fb-628592348772", "service": "fb", "text": "My repertoire is smaller than most callers, though it is growing. I think most callers have tons of dances in their boxes but of them I think that they might have maybe 100 in regular rotation. I couldn't tell you how many are in my box - maybe 300, but maybe I call 50 or them regularly and maybe 50 others once in awhile. When I tour, I try hard to do a different program at each dance, in case there are a lot of repeat dancers.", "timestamp": "1379535643"}, {"author": "Theresa", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628594669122", "anchor": "fb-628594669122", "service": "fb", "text": "Just keep doing what you're doing!", "timestamp": "1379537225"}, {"author": "Danner", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628598506432", "anchor": "fb-628598506432", "service": "fb", "text": "Theresa: saying 'keep doing what you're doing' to Jeff means that he'll keep continually evaluating and changing and experimenting. That's what works for him. It's not a static mentality. You could be saying that, but I'd like to acknowledge that it is a lot more work than doing something over and over again. It's an active process.", "timestamp": "1379539501"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628640152972", "anchor": "fb-628640152972", "service": "fb", "text": "Jeff, do you find that those 29 (or, 15) are enough to give you all the programming flexibility you need?", "timestamp": "1379563367"}, {"author": "Ron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628647408432", "anchor": "fb-628647408432", "service": "fb", "text": "When I called at BIDA - which was the first time I'd called there - a dancer came up to me and asked if I had studied with Bob Isaacs, because they recognized a lot of my dance choices.
I'm not so certain dancers have the short-term memory that you assume. That's not necessarily a contradiction for having a small repertoire, just indicating that one of your supporting reasons might be re-examined.", "timestamp": "1379567234"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628684269562", "anchor": "fb-628684269562", "service": "fb", "text": "I believe that most callers have a much larger collection of dances than they are willing to put in the time to master, and it shows in their walkthroughs. In general, I think a hundred or so well-chosen dances will get most callers through their gigs without much trouble.
(Adding new dances is fine if you take the time to truly prepare and polish their walkthroughs and practice their prompts to music, but that's a lot of work, especially for the clever and tricky dances callers seem most anxious to present.)", "timestamp": "1379583979"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628684304492", "anchor": "fb-628684304492", "service": "fb", "text": "Ron, do you remember which dancer, and what their background was? Certainly some dancers do know the repertoire well, but what percentage?", "timestamp": "1379584082"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628687962162", "anchor": "fb-628687962162", "service": "fb", "text": "Ron: \"a dancer came up to me and asked if I had studied with Bob Isaacs\"
That would have been me. Hi!
I don't worry too much about callers recognizing dances; there aren't that many of us.", "timestamp": "1379590738"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628687997092", "anchor": "fb-628687997092", "service": "fb", "text": "Hah, good one.
But, I'm reading _The Invisible Gorilla_ and it makes me wonder: Does Ron actually remember that it was you who asked? I recommend that book highly; it sheds much light on many things, including why so many callers perform the way they do.", "timestamp": "1379590807"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628688071942", "anchor": "fb-628688071942", "service": "fb", "text": "@Andrew: \"enough to give you all the programming flexibility you need?\"
Yup. The 15 I usually call are good for a crowd like Northboro, Worcester, or MIT. The other ~15 are split between harder and easier ones, and I'd say I have too many of the former and not enough of the latter in my alternates. Some of this is that I've had trouble finding dead easy dances that still feel like satisfying contras to experienced dancers.", "timestamp": "1379590935"}, {"author": "Kiran", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628688486112", "anchor": "fb-628688486112", "service": "fb", "text": "Larry Jennings used to say that the difference between a dance and an advanced dance was the quality of teaching. Finding dead easy dances that everyone can enjoy is not that difficult if you spend enough time learning how to teach dances that everyone can enjoy well enough that they become dead easy.
I find learning how to teach dances to be an iterative process, but you can (or at least I can) short-circuit it by dancing with beginners and paying attention to exactly how and where they fail, and then incorporating that knowledge into your teaching. (Presumably if you're too busy calling to dance, you could study videotapes to learn this, but I haven't actually tested that claim.)", "timestamp": "1379591505"}, {"author": "Ron", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/628557977652?comment_id=628690432212", "anchor": "fb-628690432212", "service": "fb", "text": "Jeff, that's funny.
Ultimately, the question that is most important to getting the gigs is whether organizers like your calling, and whether bands like playing with you. If so far none of them have brought up repertoire size to you, that's good sign #1.", "timestamp": "1379593953"}]}