I called at mit last night as part of a multi-caller evening. The music was great, there were lots of dancers, and I had a great time. There were six of us calling, and we fit in eleven dances, so most of us got to call two dances. The dance started small and mostly experienced. I went second,and called the circle mixer la bastringue without a walkthrough. Right before the fourth dance, however, when one of the newest callers of the night was up, a large group of total beginners from BU arrived. He had to scrap the dance he was trying to walk and go for a simpler one. Even then, it was hairy. The next caller called a very simple dance, midwest folklore and people did better. By the start of the second half when I got my second time up, calling heartbeat contra to the perfect tune (chosen by the forks of nature), the dancers were doing well. I could drop out, they didn't need me, they were having fun.

Over the course of the night it was neat having so many callers there. We could talk about why and how a given dance worked or didn't work, get other's opinions on our selections before calling them, reassure each other when we screwed up. I'm not used to having people to be geeky about calling with, and it was fun.