PROGRAMMING AND AESTHETICSIn our conversations about programming, I listened to callers explaining the considerations involved in choosing and sequencing 'dances for a dance event. I was struck by the extent to which these considerations parallel the clusters of aesthetic criteria underlying the choreography of a single dance. The art of sequencing dances follows some of the same patterns utilized in the art of sequencing figures; but unlike the composition of a single dance, the programming of an evening of dances allows the caller to exploit aesthetic differences between dances in the service of variety.
Recall that in the discussion of "flow" in choreography, we saw that a dance can have too much flow, and that it is therefore important to put in some moves that are performed in straight lines to keep the dancers from getting dizzy. In the planning of an evening, these differences in the kinds and directions of motion also come into play, but the contrast is between dances rather than between figures. Callers try to program dances that are "flowy" and dances that are "balancy," to give variety to the evening:
Dances where there is a "down the center and back" are one kind. Dances where the motion is primarily across as opposed to down the center are a kind. And dances where things are mostly just sort of circular and flowing are different from dances where there's a lot of "forwards and backs." (Kaynor 1990b)
A mixture of dances in different formations is also used to give variety to a sequence of dances, just as figures are used for variety within a single dance. This study focuses on the contra dance formation, but an evening of dance will often include not only contra dances, but also a few square dances and possibly a circle mixer or a Sicilian circle, the whole being punctuated by occasional couple dances such as a waltz, a hambo, or a polka:
I use dances in a lot of different formations.... I like dances which force people to interact with each other in different kinds of ways, because I think that's a real important aspect of what we might call, quote unquote, "country dancing." (Dalsemer 1990)
The mix of formations varies considerably with the dance community's preferences as well as with those of the caller. In some communities contra dances are the rage, and square dances are merely tolerated:
I kind of feel forced into certain types of programs, because people want to do all contra dancing. It drives me crazy. And sometimes organizers will say on the phone, we want all contra dancing. And I'll say no. And they'll say, well, almost all contra dancing. (Krumm 1990)
In other communities the dancers enjoy and expect a wide variety of formations.
A number of callers suggested that it is helpful to both begin and end an evening with a dance in the contra dance formation (excluding the final waltz), because at the beginning of the evening a contra dance in progress can easily be joined by people as they arrive at the dance, and at the end of the evening the length of a contra dance is more flexible in trying to fill those last few minutes before the event comes to a close:
I want to begin the evening with a contra, so then people can join in late, and join at the bottom of the line, and it should be straight-forward enough so that they can do it and not feel shy about getting in.... And I'll want to end the evening with a contra, . . . and I'll choose the contra sometimes based on the amount of time I want to fill. If there's not a lot of time, I'll choose an equal dance. If there's a lot of time left, I'll choose an unequal dance, maybe a classic contra. (Pearl 1990)
The older traditional contras are used for variety by most callers, particularly in New England, where almost any evening of contra dance will include one or two traditional dances:
I'll think about including a couple of older dances in the evening. I want to make sure that I'm not doing just the latest and fastest. I want to have a nice sprinkling of older dances along with the newer ones. (T. Parkes 1990)Just as one does not want to repeat a figure within a dance, so one tries to avoid too much repetition of particular figures in the course of an evening. If one dance includes a "contra comers," then the next dance generally will not. Dan Pearl gives an example of the inclusion of the same figure too many times in a row:
[A caller] called a series of dances through the evening which all featured "hey for fours" on the diagonal.... It was like a joke after a while. We said, OK, when is that "hey for four" on the diagonal coming up? And here it is! Surprise! That kind of stuff is really bad for a program. (Pearl 1990)Larry Jennings expressed another viewpoint on the importance of variety, by pointing out the equal virtues of reinforcement-deliberately repeating a tricky figure in order to give dancers, especially beginners, another try at perfecting it:
I think the following is true. If you did one thing quite a bit in one portion of the evening, if you had a lot of "heys" right in a row, that's reinforcement. And if you didn't have a lot of "heys" in a row, that's variety. And since reinforcement and variety are both good, I didn't worry about it.... For all I know people went home and told their wives, there was too much reinforcement early in the evening and too much variety late in the evening. But I don't think they did. (Jennings 1990b)
The exception to the overuse of figures is, as before, the "swing":
When we're programming an evening ... one of the classifications that we make about the choreography is who swings whom.... When you're looking at how the whole evening fits together, who swings whom is almost more important than other things going on. (B. Parkes 1990)
Variety can be achieved in "swings" by having dances with "neighbor swings," dances with "partner swings," and occasionally a dance with no "swing." And of course these "swings" can be in the center or on the side, long or short. One must be careful, however, in using dances without "partner swings":
If you're at a dance weekend, there's people dancing there who have a partner lined up, and they may not see that person for six months.... and at those kinds of things I'm real reluctant to even do a dance that doesn't have a "partner swing" in it. (Hubert 1990b)In the composing of a dance, we have seen that it is desirable to incorporate a challenge into the choreography, but not desirable to make the dance too complex for the dancers to be able to enjoy. This is also true in programming. The program must be appropriate for the skill levels of the dancers present at the event. It may and should include some challenging dances, but not dances of such a level of difficulty that they interfere with the participants' enjoyment of the evening. If there are a lot of beginners, then the caller needs to choose dances that are not too complex and not too disorienting. Gene Hubert describes the problems beginners may face:
I guess the most obvious example of a disorienting dance is something that goes out of the minor set.... And that creates end effects at the end of the line.... Beginners don't really know what to do.... Occasionally somebody of the wrong sex comes up, and they freak out and run the other way or think something's wrong, you know. (Hubert 1990b)
In addition to gearing the program to the skill level of the participants, a caller must be aware of the level of difficulty of the dances adjacent to one another in the program. It is not a good idea to have too many complex dances in a row, because it wears out the dancers:
Dwelling on fractions, like "circle left" three-quarters and "swing" your partner, or something like that, too many dances that feature that, you know it suddenly becomes a math evening. (Pearl 1990)When a very challenging dance has been taught, it is generally a good idea to follow it with a dance during which the dancers can relax, one which does not take much mental effort. In a way this pattern in programming resembles the buffer figures in a single dance, which keep a complex or unforgiving figure from giving the dancers problems. In a single dance, and in an evening of dance, the dancers need time to recoup:
There's ... some dances that are really very nice, but they take a while to teach. They've got something disorienting or unusual about them.... [Dancers] don't mind waiting through one of those teaching sessions if the dance is worth it.... But if you start spending a great portion of an evening teaching stuff like that, it'll make the dancers grumble.... It's nice to sometimes follow up a dance like that with ... dances that almost do themselves. (Diggle 1990)And of course, as was pointed out earlier, dances that require a great deal of mental effort are not appropriate at the beginning of the evening when many dancers are learning the basics, or at the end of the evening when most dancers are tired. They work best in the middle of the evening when everyone is still fresh:
How hard is it? How mentally taxing is it? If it's mentally taxing, don't pull it out at quarter of twelve. You know? (Zakon 1990)Social interaction is a major consideration in planning an evening of dance, just as it is a consideration in composing a single dance. Recall that many callers program dances early in the evening in which the dancers relate to the whole hall of people, and then program dances later in which the primary interaction is between partners. There are a number of reasons for starting with dances in which the choreography encourages group interaction. This kind of dance forces the beginning dancers to dance with the more experienced dancers, which helps them to learn more quickly. A dance with a group focus also gives all the dancers an idea of who is there. Caller Carol Kopp discusses her choice of dances:
I always start out with a dance that has a "neighbor swing," because I think it's important to get new people involved with experienced people immediately.... And then the second dance is usually a circle mixer, because by then most everybody is there, and I want to once again make sure that the new people are swinging ... with the experienced people. And also this gives an opportunity to everybody to see who's there. (Kopp 1990)Different kinds of social interactions are, as we have seen, built into the choreography of the dances, and a dance can be chosen with this in mind:
To what degree is the dance a vehicle for two people to just fall in love together, and be in love the whole way down to the end of the line? ... Or is it ... just coincidental that this person's your partner, you know, because you're just dancing with the four other people at a given time? (Edelman 1990)By choosing dances with different kinds of social interaction, a caller achieves variety in the program. Using dances with a lot of group interaction early in the evening can be balanced with dances containing more partner interaction toward the end of the evening:
Toward the end of the evening I'm going to get lynched if I do a lot of mixers, especially with a crowd that's largely singles.... Once they've settled on who they want to dance with, they want to dance with that person. So that the last few dances I'll make sure that they spend a lot of time with their partner. (T. Parkes 1990)Another aspect of social interaction within an evening of dance is contact between persons of the same gender. Same-gender contact is nice for variety, and dances that are rich in this kind of contact can be placed judiciously throughout the program. In the scope of an evening it is possible to bring in dances that give dominant roles to one gender or the other:
There are dances [in which the] women interact ... with each other more than they do with their partner or their neighbor, and men interact [more] . . . , and I often will put those dances in specifically . . . as a relief to having always interacted with just the opposite sex.... It's like, well is it time now for the men to realize there's another man on the other side of that woman? Or you know, for the women too. (Marshall 1990)I actually have some dances that are much more fun for women. And I also have dances that are more active for the men. So I have been known to do that intentionally, to say, well this one is a little more fun for the men, so here's one for the ladies. (Zakon 1990)
In the composing of single dances we saw that it can be disruptive to put in moves that are contrary to the dancers' expectations, although doing this with a light touch can also be interesting and exciting. This too has its counterpart at the level of programming. On the one hand, a caller should try to program the kind of evening that the dancers want and expect. On the other hand, it can be exciting to introduce a few dances that are not as familiar to the dancers, to stretch their ideas about dance and to give variety to the program. As long as an appropriate balance is maintained between the familiar and the novel, a program can successfully contain both.
Consideration of the music is essential in programming, just as it is necessary in the single dance. The caller usually gets together with the band before the dance, in order to let them know what kind of a program is being planned, and to communicate any special musical needs the program might require. The wise caller will also find out what the strong points of a band are and take these into consideration in the process of programming the evening:
How I program an evening depends on the musicians, and what their strengths are. And I'll call based on what the strengths of the music are. And most of the callers whose programs I'm critical of don't do that. They get their idea of what a good time is, and then get the music to conform to that. They're way off base....Find out what these musicians are good at, and then Program based on that (Edelman 1990)If a caller has a chance to hear the tunes that the band is most eager to play, he or she can try to come up with dances that will go particularly well with those tunes:
I'll say, let me hear it. And while I'm listening I just, with free association, I just dream on the music, and let those figures that come into my mind be the guiding light, as I search for one particular dance to go with this tune. (Park 1990)The choice of particular tunes tends to be more the responsibility of the band than of the caller, since the band knows its own repertoire the best. Choosing tunes, however, is at best a collaboration between the caller and the band, since the caller can and does ask for particular kinds of tunes to accompany particular dances and to help establish a degree of musical variety in the evening's program:
The music really helps you change the feel of an evening. You could have dances that are very similar, but different types of music. A very bouncy jig for one and a real smooth marchlike reel for another one, and they feel totally different.... It's not all with the program, but it's also with the band. (Theyken 1990)If it is not possible for a caller to meet with the band before the dance, then this negotiation occurs spontaneously in the course of the event.
Another important consideration that applies as much to programming as it does to the single dance is that of the level of physical activity. In programming an evening of dance, my informants agree that it is important to have periods of relatively less physical activity that serve to balance the very energetic dances:
You don't want to have a whole lot of vigorous dances in a row. You want to include a slow dance, or something that is a little less tiring every now and then, so the dancers won't be exhausted. (Sannella 1990a)This is particularly true if the temperature is warm. The dancers need to be able to cool off once in a while, and dancing a slower dance is often more effective than sitting out the dance.
Another aspect of programming for activity level is that one should not program two dances in a row that have a particularly tiring figure in common. "Contra corners," for example, can be hard on the arms because of the continuous allemandes involved:
One of my dancers brought up ... that having two dances with "contra comers" in a row can be tiring on the arms. And it's probably better to separate them so as to give people time to regain their strength. (Bixby 1990)The balance of activity between the active couples and the inactive couples may be varied within the program. Symmetrical dances are used to give equal activity to all the dancers, while asymmetrical dances serve to give some dancers a rest. The size and the shape of the room become relevant in considering this balance of activity. If the lines are very long, then dancers who begin as inactives near the foot of the set will not become active for a long time:
In Greenfield on a crowded night the sets are incredibly long. And it takes ten to fifteen minutes for a couple to work their way from the bottom of the set up to the top. And then you want to give them a few chances at being active. And yet how long do you have a dance go? ... If you're in a long get you may never get to be active. Or if you're at the top of the set, you may be active the whole way and be totally beat by the time you get to the bottom. (Kaynor 1990b)Callers sometimes deal with this problem by sticking to dances that give equal activity to all the dancers. Or they may call some double progression dances, which move the dancers along the set twice as fast as a single progression dance:
Ah gee, the hall is real long, the sets are real long, have I got something that'll work in a double progression? Because otherwise I'll never get everybody active. (Zakon 1990)Another solution is to rearrange the long lines into more lines that are shorter. This can be done by arbitrarily splitting the sets in half lengthwise, but this is hard to enforce, since the dancers will tend to continue on down the line instead of reversing direction at the halfway point. Sometimes callers rearrange the lines to go across the room instead of up and down the room, achieving shorter lines in this fashion:
For a while I was shying away from the older contras because we have a long narrow hall, and long lines make it awkward to do a dance where only the ones really get any action. We tried splitting the lines halfway down, and that was akward. And finally we started running the lines cross-wise and have a lot of short lines, rather than a few long ones, only once or twice a night. (T. Parkes 1990)Space considerations influence programming in other ways too. Some figures take more space to dance than others, not only up and down the set, but from one side of the set to the other. If the floor is crowded, this must be taken into consideration in choosing dances for the program:
If you know you're going to have a big crowd and you're going to have three lines across, . . . you don't do a lot of "down the center and back four in line." You find dances with other progressions. You might do one or two of those early, before the crowd gets real big. But you don't do dances that are going to take up a lot of room across. So that affects your programming as much as anything. (Theyken 1990)Another criterion I use is large dances versus compact dances. A large dance is one that uses a bigger space than you'd expect . . . from seeing the starting formation--a square that has a "promenade" outside the set, or a contra that has a "hey for four," where for comfort you want more space side to side for the "hey" than people take up by taking hands four at the beginning. And I've learned the hard way to avoid large dances in the middle of the evening when attendance is at its peak.... In the middle of the evening I have to plan dances that use absolutely no more space than the starting formation allows.... dances that have a lot of things like "circles" and "stars" that take up very little room. (T. Parkes 1990)
A final consideration in the choosing of dances has to do with that more intangible quality of a dance that gives it its uniqueness-its "flavor," "mood," or memorable gimmick. Providing dances with a variety of moods and a variety of gimmicks adds interest to the program:
What I do is I think about, well this dance has this kind of a hook, or this dance has this figure ... that excites me. Or this dance creates this kind of moodFor example, that Roger Diggle dance Roll in the Hey," . . . my favorite part of that dance is the progression from the "hey for four" into the "circle left" with the next. That, to me, is the moment that is great.... You're leaving this "hey for four," and you're going on to the next couple. And it's like . . . sun bursting out of the clouds, or it's like confusion, utter confusion ... into actually holding on to another group of four and then swinging.... That is a very exciting moment. (Marshall 1990)
The preceding discussion demonstrates that the sequencing of dances for an evening's program has many of the same aesthetic elements as the putting together of figures into a single dance. Programmers, like dance composers, must be concerned with different kinds of motion, with the balance of challenge and familiarity at both the mental and the physical levels, with providing spaces for the dancers to recoup and rest, with the interaction of the dances and the music, and with the social elements that are built into the choreography.
A sequence of dances, however, can contain much more variety than a single dance can, and a caller can get away with using dances that are farther along the various aesthetic continua, because they can be balanced by other dances at other points in the evening. A dance with no "swings," for example, can be included if the program provides many other dances with "swings." Or a very difficult dance suitable for only the most experienced dancers can be included, as long as the program provides many less difficult ones. Dances that are more fun for the women can be used and balanced with dances that are better for the men.
Unlike the single dance, a sequence of dances can include many different kinds of movement, assorted levels of difficulty, a variety of activity levels, and the use of different kinds of music-jigs and reels, major and minor tunes, and tunes at a variety of tempos. A sequence of dances, unlike the single dance, may also have a developmental aspect. In an evening of dance the caller can, by careful sequencing, help the dancers increase their skills. A dance program therefore operates aesthetically at a different level from the choreography of a single dance, playing the individual dances off against one another.
The aesthetic value of a single dance can be increased or decreased according to its placement in the program. Its special qualities can be set off through contrast with the other dances surrounding it. For example, if a dance with strong partner interaction is placed in the program to follow a number of dances with strong group interaction but not much partner interaction, then the pleasure of that partner dance is heightened. After a sequence of half a dozen dances with no "heys," the flowing motion of that figure is better appreciated. When the last four tunes have all been reels, doing a dance to a jig is a special pleasure. If the dancers are hot and tired from a series of active dances, a very elegant dance may be particularly appreciated. An old style contra will stand out after a series of modem symmetrical dances.
Copyright ©
1995 Mary McNab Dart
reproduced here by permission