Just reviewing some old files on the internet and I found this (edited even more now) transcript of Ed Gilmore in June 1952. He makes a great case for passing forward forums and discussion like this one. Here is a small segment about teaching the teachers. My experience, the mistakes I have made and the good fortunes that I have had, are some of the things we will talk about this evening. Any opinions, anything that I say, you will please remember must be necessarily opinionated. We all have our opinions, you have yours and I have mine, and we are going to disagree on some things I am sure, but I respect your right to you opinion and I’m sure that you’ll respect my right to mine. So, if I say something you don’t agree with, that you feel I’m wrong about – please don’t dislike me for it – remember that it might me a controversial point but it won’t be argumentative. I’m not arguing with you – I’m stating my opinion. I recently conducted a caller’s institute in the Middle West, and in writing to me beforehand they said, “We’re not interested in theory. We want new dances, new tricks with old dances. We are not interested in theory.” So I wrote back to them and told them, I’m sorry, I cannot conduct a callers institute without discussing theory because theory is half of calling and giving you a few dances, new tricks with old dances, mixers etc., would be nothing short of robbery. I would be taking your money under false pretences, because you could buy that in a book. There are dozens of them published. You could buy a book for a dollar, mimeograph it and give it to your members for another couple of three bucks. So why should you pay me, pay my expenses to come to your city and conduct a caller’s institute, just to give you a few new calls?” I’d like to put it this way, - I could come to San Francisco as a potter. I’d set up my potter’s wheel, and I could make some pots for you and I would sell them to you. Then six months from now, I could come back and make some more and sell you some more and I would stay in business. Or, I could come in and set up my potter’s wheel and show you how to make pots. Maybe you could make them better than I can, but I’s show you how I make pots, and if you like my pots you could go ahead and make them yourselves… You see – I’s be cutting off my own nose to spite my face but that’s the way I prefer to conduct a caller’s class. I want to discuss methods of doing things – not things. Discuss how you design dances, not give you dances; to discuss how you select good dances from bad dances, not to give you the ones that I think are good. If I gave you the ones I think are good, I’d give you mine and you might disagree. When you get thru and analyse them by my own methods you will probably find out that my dances are not even danceable and shouldn’t use them at all. In fact, I’ll guarantee it, because I don’t use dome of them at all – they are not danceable.
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 02:31:21 +0000
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