Notes on Tony Parkes' "Contra Dance Calling"

In 1992 Tony
Parkes , one of the best-known New England contra dance callers,
wrote a book: Contra
Dance Calling: a Basic Text . In 2010 he published an updated
second edition. I found used copies of each and read through them,
interested in both what he thought, and what he thought to change. I read the whole 1992 first edition, then skimmed the 2010 second
edition with the older one open at the same time, looking for
changes. My notes: I'm mostly interested in it for what it tells us about the
community and practice over time, but as what it intends to
be—a thorough introduction to the practice of contra dance
calling—it succeeds very well. I'm sad I didn't read it a few years earlier so I could ask
him questions about it! Parkes' tempos are high: "[120bpm] is the tempo adopted by the
army for comfortable long-term marching, and it has been standard in
contra dancing for several generations. The tempo can be varied during
an evening, to provide contrasts in energy or excitement level, but
should probably not be altered by more than about eight beats per
minute either way (down to 112 or up to 128)." Parkes was a piano
player in addition to a caller, very into musical theater, and knew
what he was talking about, so I would take his numbers literally. I usually tell people ( ex )
108-122, and I expect if I played even 126 today I'd have some people
pretty grumpy with me. I know several bands that like to hang out at
110, and I've had folks tell me never to play over 120bpm. I don't
know if this represents a change over the years (though he keeps the
same numbers in the 2010 edition) or was somewhat idiosyncratic all
along? Parkes preferred dances on the longer end: "My feeling is that
ten minutes is about right for experienced dancers. For beginners or
people beyond retirement age, you may want to reduce your sets to five
or six minutes. Most square and contra dance records run between three
and four minutes; if you're calling contras to recorded music, you can
play a record twice or use two different records for each
dance. Traditionally, contras were danced "all the way down and all
the way back"; that is, until the original head couple had worked
their way to the foot of the line and then up to the head again. This
was necessary to ensure everyone received an equal amount of dancing,
because prior to the 1950s, most contra routines resulted in at least
half the couples standing still for significant portions of the time"
I think of 8-9 minutes as typical .
This does feed into a theory of mine that part of what contra dance
kept live music might have been that recordings (and 45s) were too
short for everyone to get a turn to be actives. Parkes doesn't describe a "four potato" start: "Most bands
prefer to start each number with a four-beat introduction. This
typically takes one of two forms: a shuffle on the fiddle
('dah-didi-dah-didi-dah-didi-dah') or a piano vamp consisting of four
'oom-pahs'." I think of this as something that had mostly ended by
1992 in favor of four potatoes, though he did keep this in the 2010
revision. He has a bit on recordings vs live music: Someone once said "Good records are better than a bad band." This is a
half-truth at best. The finest records available, chosen with care to
fit each dance and played through a top-quality sound system, are
better in some ways than an unsteady or indifferent band. Some, but
not all. With even the worst live band there is still that sense of
immediacy that no record can match. Even so, recorded music can be a lifesaver in certain situations. A
dance group newly formed, in an area where no one seems to know any
dance musicians, will rejoice in the availability of good square and
contra dance music on records and tapes. Some groups, such as small
churches and parent-teacher organizations, that would love to try
square dancing but whose budgets genuinely will not allow for live
music, may have to hire a caller with records or forgo the activity
altogether. Often such groups enjoy their initial taste of dancing so
much that they hire the same caller again, this time with a live band! The key to using records successfully is to take advantage of their
strong points. I hesitate to term them "advantages," but recorded
music does have certain strengths:... I'd describe this as overall in favor of live music, but in a way
that's more "pragmatic" than "principled". Here's another bit that's pragmatic, and with building up beginner
musicians to play for dancing as a clear goal: The talent of the musicians you find will range from outstanding to
minimal. If everyone you find seems to be at one extreme or the other,
don't panic. Expert instrumentalists may welcome a steady local
job. If you hold your series on a weeknight, you may be able to hire
top-drawer talent for less money than they'd ask for a Saturday
concert. Beginning or casual musicians, on the other hand, may be
happy to play for the experience and exposure (and a little gas
money). Even total beginners may be an asset to your dance: they can
play for one or two numbers in an evening while you use recorded music
for the rest, and work their way up to a full evening. Comparing the two editions, the most common changes are
technological: "recordings" instead of "records" or "tapes", updated
listings of recommended sound equipment manufacturers. The 2010
edition predates the gypsy
discourse and the mainstream shift to
gender-free calling , but it does add discussion of the early days
of this shift and calling gender-free for LGBT groups: This leads to the third approach, inventing new names for the sex
roles. In the past twenty years or so, this has become the prevailing
method of dealing with the issue. Many different names have been
tried: A few leaders have used "ones" and "twos" (in squares and
contras, of course, those terms have other meanings). More common are
names like "reds" and "blues," "lions" and "tigers," and "moons" and
"stars." With such neutral names, it can be a challenge to remember
which name refers to which role. To the dancers, it doesn't matter,
but the caller must keep track of who is on the right side in each
couple, and of who must do what in an adapted traditional routine. My
wife Beth often uses "birdie" for "lady" and "crow" for "gent," from
the traditional square dance Birdie in the Cage. This has two
advantages: it's easy for the caller to remember which role is which,
and the new names have the same number of syllables as the old ones
and can be readily substituted when calling in rhythm. In addition to new names, dancers can be distinguished by articles of
clothing such as armbands, vests, or loose cloth yokes. Typically,
only one member of each couple is so equipped. In a single-sex group,
it will be the person playing the "opposite" role, and in a
gender-free group, it is likely to be the person playing the "lead" or
"gent". Chris Ricciotti, a pioneer in the LGBT contra dance field,
refers to the roles as "armbands" and "bare-arms," or "bands" and
"bares" for short—although his dancers now wear short clip-on ribbons
rather than full armbands. Hats are less practical than armbands or
yokes because they come off easily, can muss the hair, and are
sometimes suspected of carrying head lice. The 1992 book is printed on significantly higher quality paper,
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