CD Workshop has developed an exciting direction in square dancing workshops-combining a more flexible and higher quality recording medium, the audio compact disk (CD), with a more concentrated and productive multi-level learning environment.
CD Workshop writes sequences that focus on special aspects, such as concepts and 2 couple dancing, and records them onto a CD, one sequence to a track. These CD's are digitally mastered to yield a very high-quality product. Many of these CD's will appeal to a broad range of square dance levels. For example, the first in our series covers the C2 concept of Parallelograms and Offset formations, with sequences having varying degrees of difficulty from relatively easy to quite challenging. These parallelogram sequences can be instructional and interesting to workshops at all levels from C2 to C4. The sequences in this CD and in our other concept CD's, will use calls from lists no higher than the level of the particular concept being covered.
CD Workshop produces a standard audio CD, not a computer CD-ROM. It looks just like an ordinary music CD, and works on the same simple players. The main difference is that instead of the 20 or so tracks you might expect on a music CD, CD Workshop has about 50 tracks, each one being an individual dance sequence. The only pieces of equipment you'll need are a CD player, an amplifier, and a speaker - not much different from the setup you use for tape dancing. If you wish, all of these components may be combined in the form of a small "boom box" available for less than $100.
We at CD Workshop have performed many special production steps and processes to provide you with the best possible workshop experience. Starting at the beginning, we have written much of the square dance choreography material ourselves. When other callers are involved in writing, we remain intimately involved to make sure the material is correct, focused and appropriate. We compose our dance music to provide interest without excessive distraction from the learning experience. All of our master recordings are made on state of the art digital equipment. Noise, buzz, hum and distortion are reduced to inaudible levels. During the process of transferring the master recording to our computer hard disk for editing, we utilize a professional ducking compressor to reduce the volume of the music whenever the caller is speaking. This is similar to the effect of the "thumb wheel" control some callers use but much more effective and reliable.
The final editing is done while the sound is in the form of computer files. This allows us to perform clean fades at each end of every sequence and remove any misleading instructions that may have crept in during live recording. Finally, we use special software to encode the sound files into an Audio CD image and burn a prototype CD to test everything in product form. This is a lot more production and engineering effort than go into the usual tape copy of a dance, but we believe you will find the results worthwhile.
If you've been using tapes for quite a while, you might ask, "Why use a CD at all?" Well, tapes are common and easy to reproduce, but have many disadvantages. A tape, by nature, has only one part actually accessible at any time. Finding a particular spot on the tape means you have to wind the tape forward or backward. While you're winding, it's very difficult to hear what's on the tape. Finding a particular sequence on a dance tape is very difficult. Tapes are also relatively easy to break and very hard to splice.
The CD overcomes almost all of these difficulties and is easy to play, but until recently, the CD has been a very difficult medium to produce. The advent of audio editing on computers has made small scale CD recording practical. Using CD Workshop, you are able to go directly to any particular sequence without any winding delay. Fast forward and rewind are plainly audible without screeching. With care, a CD Workshop disk will provide years of perfect service.
Most CD players have similar basic control buttons. In the next paragraphs we'll discuss how these may be used in the dance workshop situation. Relating these buttons on the CD player to the familiar ones on a tape player is a good way to start, so we've named each of these buttons with the function as it applies to the workshop situation.
The PLAY button starts playing the CD Workshop disk at any point, either at the start of a track (sequence) or at some intermediate point if play was suspended by the PAUSE button. The PAUSE button will stop play instantly and for as long as you wish. Generally, pressing PAUSE again, or pressing PLAY will cause the playing to resume. A helpful feature of some CD players is that the playing will resume a short time before the spot where the PAUSE button stopped the track, thus enabling dancers to hear that "lost" word without having to rewind or search backward for a good starting point.
The STOP button does just that, stops playing the current track. The STOP button will often return the CD player to track #1 and introduce significant delay. Thus, its usefulness is limited.
The FWD and BACK search buttons enable rapid scanning forward or backward along a track on CD Workshop. Most CD players will produce a choppy (but normal speed), audible sound while scanning forward or backward. This function is not often used when playing music, but most CD players do have it - please look in the manual that comes with the player and experiment! Unlike a tape player, use of this function does not wear out the mechanism or the CD at all, and no screeching sound results.
The display on the CD player will always show the track number and the time elapsed in that track. Most CD players also have PREV and NEXT buttons which enable you to skip forward or backward one or more tracks (sequences) at a time. A single press will skip one track, and holding a button will make the tracks whiz by. If you're in the middle of playing a particular track (sequence), pressing the PREV button briefly will return you to the beginning of that sequence and start playing it again. No more needing to remember to "zero" the counter! This is a great way to "start the sequence over" without delay.
Other neat features abound. Many CD players have 10 number buttons labeled 0 - 9 which enable you to enter a one or two digit track number and start playing that track immediately without any searching. You might use this feature to study a particular aspect of a concept or pick up where you left off last week. Most CD players have a random play feature. Selecting random play will play one track after another in a different sequence each time, effectively creating a "surprise" dance to review your progress. Many CD players have a remote control which is useful if you don't have an extra person to work the player. Just clip it to your belt or hold it in your hand. The remote will save a lot of dashing when fewer than 9 people attend a workshop. Most remotes duplicate every function of the player itself. Some CD players have a magazine which allows you to load several CD's at once. If you load several different CD Workshop disks and put the CD player in random play mode, you'll hear sequences randomly selected from those on all of the disks-quite a dance indeed!
All of the music (and much of the choreography) on the CD Workshop was written by the authors and performed and recorded under studio conditions.
Our suggestion is that if you already have a CD player, use it. If you're acquiring a new one, try many of the ideas listed above on various models in the showroom before making your decision. The players vary in capability, and the sales people won't have a clue about why any of these features might be important.
The CD itself is organized with a separate sequence on each of approximately 50 tracks. (All CD's are physically limited to 74 minutes of sound, or 99 tracks. Since all dancing sequences aren't the same length, it's impossible to guarantee an exact number of sequences on any one CD. However, we make every effort to include as many as possible.)
In some cases, the sequences are intended to have an increasing degree of difficulty beginning with the first sequence on a particular concept and continuing through its last one. For illustrative purposes, listed below are the groupings for the CD on Parallelograms and Offsets:
None of the tracks on our CD's contain a traditional "teach" in a narrative form. It's assumed that the initial "teach" can and will be done by a workshop leader or by a caller. Each CD, however, will be accompanied by a booklet giving hints and ideas about dancing the material on that particular CD, but this booklet is not intended to provide a detailed "teach". The CD's are intended solely as practice material to provide the repetition so often needed to become fully proficient. We expect dancers will eventually go over the material a number of times - first, on a lesson by lesson basis, and subsequently as a random play dance. Later on it can be used as a refresher. Keeping track of how many of the sequences your group can dance without breaking down will give you a reasonably objective measure of how well that material has been mastered.
Dancers often encounter difficulty in organizing practice sessions with at least 8 willing participants. Two couple dancing reduces the number required to 4. The 4 dancers start as if squared up in the head positions. At the outset, the calls performed will require just those four dancers. Each dance sequence will end with the dancers in their original starting positions called "home".
As the level of difficulty progresses, dancers will execute their parts of 8 person calls using "phantom dancers" to fill out the formation and keeping track of the phantom's spots. The caller will state when these phantoms are required and where they are at the start of a given call. This will be done either explicitly by statement, or implicitly by naming the formation. For example, the caller might say "With the phantoms you are facing, star thru". Or "You are all centers of right hand waves, fan the top." If the resulting formation has the phantoms inside it, they will be considered in the next call. If the phantoms are on the outside of the resulting formation, they will be likely discarded for the next call.
Clearly, this makes the dancing more challenging, but please bear in mind, this is practice and nothing prevents you from repeating the sequences until the material is well understood. One benefit is that you can experience a new dance level with only yourselves and one other couple, making practice, otherwise very difficult, both practical and enjoyable. Another benefit is that if you are only one couple, it is much easier to practice using 2 couple material than with standard 4 couple dancing. For these reasons CD Workshop has placed considerable emphasis on 2 couple dancing and offers this type of material at various levels.
A further discussion on 2 couple dancing is available.
We strongly encourage feedback. Tell us what you think of this idea, how it's affected your group, and how it can be changed or expanded to provide an even more useful tool for learning and mastering challenge dancing. Please contact us with any of your thoughts. It's only through this feedback that we can continue to evolve into even more productive directions. Contact CD Workshop at:
G2 Ideas, Inc.
1133 Bal Harbor Blvd. 1139-180
Punta Gorda, FL 33950 USA
Telephone: 941 639 7172
Fax: 941 639 7494
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