Give-and-Take

a sequel to ZESTY CONTRAS

featuring

649 dances in the New England style Provocative remarks Exhortative essays and Arcane analyses

presented by Larry Jennings

http://www.kempt.net/~entropy/zcs/zcs-complete.pdf prepared on 11/20/02 1 Text is copyright Larry Jennings, 2002 Copyright for each dance is retained by the listed composer. Permission to include each dance has been granted by the composer or his representative. Published by the New England Folk Festival Association

http://www.kempt.net/~entropy/zcs/zcs-complete.pdf prepared on 11/20/02 2 Proposed Contents of ZCS produced on 11/20/02 VII. TOPICS IN ADMINISTRATION

Possible foreword (not by Larry), Author's Preface, 1. The Contradance Contract, Boundaries, and the Should Acknowledgements, Permissions, Bibliography Syndrome 2. Pathways to Contra Nirvana I. INTRODUCTION 3. The Facilitator's Role in Reaching Contra Nirvana 4. Some Observations On The Future Of New England 1. Vision and Titles Style Dancing And What To Do About It 2. Content of GIVE-AND-TAKE 5. Excerpt From A Memo To TNDC. 3. Selection of Dances 6. Suggested Procedures For Booking Coordinators 4. Composer, Caller & Editor Relations 7. An Implementation Of Telling It Like It Is 8. Fake Problems In The Contra Dance World II. USE OF THIS BOOK VIII. EXCERPTS 5. General 6. Glossary: 1. A Collection Of Contra Anecdotes 7. Explanatory Notes: 2. Stimulating Opportunities In Contradance: An Example EN1. Balances • EN2. Current Foursome • EN3. 3. What To Do About Dancers Who Dawdle Diagonal Action • EN4. Formation • EN5. Heys 4. The "We Did It" And The "Something's Wrong" • EN6. Moving Up or Down • EN7. Neighbors • Syndromes EN8. Neutrals must participate • EM9. Out of the 5. What If We Consistently Checked Up? Minor Set • EN10. Progression • EN11. Shadows • EN12. Stations IX. UNFINISHED WORKS 8. Caller Alert 1. Two Essays On The Center Set And The Baseball III. MINILECTURES Analogy (Thinkit/Namegame) 2. Words That Might Be Used In A Discussion (Needs A 1. ML15. Trends in Choreography New Title) 2. ML16. Composer Opportunities 3. Are You Boxed In? (Formatting Issues!) 3. ML17. Dancer Opportunities 4. ML18. Caller Opportunities X. COMMENTS ON DANCES PUBLISHED IN ZESTY CONTRAS 5. ML19. Effective Lingo 6. ML20-26 Dancemistry XI. THE TRANSCRIPTIONS The Way Duple Minor Contras Work • Set Spacing • Diagrams • End Effects • A. Contras B. Triplets C. Other Formations Nomenclature for Duple Minor Contras • Foursome Classes • Algebraic Analysis XII. APPENDICES includes abbr: Prev & Rev; ZC,ZCS,G&T; Let ref "S", IV. ADVICE TO NEWCOMERS program planning matrix, template for diagrams

1. The Essence Of Contra Dancing: a 10 minute teaching XIII. MINUTES OF DISCUSSION SESSIONS session 2. A Brief Introduction to Teaching the Swing 1. New England Traditional Dancing - Where Are We Going? (RPLW 1990) 1. V SOME FUNDAMENTALS 2. Minutes Of Callers’ Roundtable (NEFF 1990) 3. Implementing Your Vision Of New England Style 1. The Proprieties Of The Partner Game Dancing (RPLW 1991) 2. One Series’ Posture: an example 4. Dancer's Forum: Influencing The Leaders (Flurry 1991) 5. Report On Callers’ Roundtable (NEFF 1991) VI. NOTES ON CALLING 6. What Do We Cherish? (NEFF 1992) 7. Cures For Pet Peeves (NEFF 1993) 1. Set Management 8. Caller Vs. Organizer (NEFF 1994) 2. Feedback To Contra Callers 9. The Name Game (RPLW 1995) 3. The "Get Through It Syndrome" or The Case For A 10. Steering Your Dance Series Down The Pathway To Second Walk-Thru Nirvana (NEFF 1995) 4. The Travails Of A Booking Coordinator or What I Look 11. Is The Center Set Syndrome All Bad? (Flurry 1996) For In A Caller 12. Nomenclature For Contra Dancing (NEFF 1996) 13. The Five Deadly Sins Of Contra Dancing (NEFF 1996) 14. Secrets Of A Successful Series (NEFF 1997) 15. Callers’ Problems "Identifying Opportunities" And "Ploys That Work" (NEFF 1998)

http://www.kempt.net/~entropy/zcs/zcs-complete.pdf prepared on 11/20/02 3 http://www.kempt.net/~entropy/zcs/zcs-complete.pdf prepared on 11/20/02 4 PREFACE we were finding it possible to transcribe some 1000 dances using ad hoc methods. My putative response is that I wanted In 1975 I undertook production of a dance series guided by a a consistent vocabulary not only for all the contras we had in vision of zesty urban contra dancing. One of the hurdles to be hand, but also all that might be invented in the future. overcome was that there was little tradition of dance Perhaps a more honest response is that I just didn't feel sequences that had the qualities of encouraging strong well- comfortable going ahead until I thought I knew what I was connected, well-phrased dancing. So I had to supply the doing. callers with suitable material. I searched for suitable dances in the few books available, finding mostly dances that belonged By the end of 1991, I was essentially satisfied with the state in the past or, at least, not in my spirited view of the of my understanding, and Al, with some justice, was present. I and others therefore set about collecting and/or completely exasperated with my failure to keep my nose to composing dances to fill the need. Our progress in this the grindstone. Furthermore, I became concerned and project was marked by the publication of my Zesty Contras convinced that the future strength of contra dancing depended (ZC) in 1983. more on able administration than on having ever more sequences. So, for the next five years I turned my efforts to By 1986, Al Olson and I, working as a team, could barely strengthening administration via example and discussion. For keep up with the onslaught of new dances. It appeared that example, how can a producer encourage callers to address the we had enough to produce a supplement (ZCS) to ZC that vision of the series rather than some other vision or, worse would be about as big as ZC itself. Rather than merely filing yet, no vision. Most of the essays and snippets contained in these dances, Al and I studied every nuance of each one trying this book were drafted in these five years or so, as were the to appreciate which actions contributed to zesty dancing and 25 articles in the Contra Connection series published in the how to notate these actions. So neither Al nor I was CDSS News, each containing a contribution by Dan Pearl, sufficiently motivated to rapidly go beyond this digestion Ted Sannella, and me. Reprints can be obtained from CDSS. process to actually tackle the logistics of preparing ZCS. Which brings us to the present, sometime in the 21st Some two years later, with the help of Dan Pearl, I had century, perhaps 20 years after Al and I started thinking about almost completed a plan for choosing dances, contacting a ZCS. A dozen years have slipped by since I was worried callers and composers, and handling other such logistics. that some wild contra might descend on me, a contra which However, I had by then become seriously bothered by a would not succumb to my notation scheme. And it has been vague feeling that I lacked some element of expertise needed at least three years since my advisors persuaded me that I had to treat several hundred dances consistently. This was to devote all available energy to finishing ZCS. Those years manifested in my belief that our longer and longer have also seen the burgeoning of composers posting their transcriptions had little relation to what happened on the dances on the Internet. Moreover, my health has forced me to dance floor, particularly with respect to end effects; that curtail the time I spend on ZCS. Therefore I must apologize hopelessly poor notation served to transmit dances; that that the transcriptions, particularly the piece counts and letter callers that I deemed to be unbelievably inept were references, have not had the care that I would have preferred to nonetheless succeeding in getting dancers to dance; that give them. callers would use different words for the same action and the same words for different actions and things still worked; etc. In view of these impediments and pre-emptions, why have I Simply put, I wanted to b