Mo,

Howard has alerted me to this thread.

Regretfully I shall ignore the temptation to claim an international repertoire of dances featuring amongst others: Ponte Atloni, Die Bricke von Achtlon and Le Pont d'Atlone.

I've been calling for even longer than Rhodri and share the same interests:
traditional English dances, US contras and squares.
However I also call material from the Jackson manuscript (N.Yorkshire , c. 1790), write quite a few dances myself like Rhod, and have recently adapted 3 couple minor set figures from 18th dances for use by less specialist dancers (and to accompany music from the Watts m/s from Peak Forest, Derbyshire played by The Risng Sun Band)

Hopefully we'll get a chance to try some of all of these different dance types in February. I don't use many of the standard repertoire dances.

I called at Poynton with Albireo about a year ago and the most common comment from dancers at the end of the night was that the bulk of the dances we had tried were new to them. I'd be delighted if you are able to come in February and we can have a chat during the evening.

I have shared the caller's platform with Rhodri at an IVDVF festival in Sheffield years ago. We called alternately for three dances without stopping the band or the dancers even though we managed to change the formation in the process.

I also play and lead bands and have a 23-piece ceilidh band (yes that is 23 musicians!) based in Derbyshire/Sheffield called The Well-Dressed Band .

Dave