whickety-whack

T.Hand requested more Christmas-show posts. T.Hand has a newborn and thus no time to read blogs, but what the hey, I'll indulge her.

This week was the best. rehearsal. ever. It was a party masquerading as a rehearsal. It was all led by this guy:

The guy and his wife are our Appalachian specialists - they'll be in the show, and they're also teaching us how to do this stuff right. A prize to the person who can tell me what cartoon character the wife looks like. Isn't she adorable? Miss S and I were trying to figure it out the whole night. There's a Disney character. Like, a chipmunk or something.

In this picture we're singing shape-note music. It's called that because it uses a different notation system, but that's not the only thing that's different. The harmony is a little unusual, and the singing style is very...well...hard on the throat. Even the conducting is different. And you sit in a square - sopranos (including me) on one side, altos on another, basses on another, tenors on another. It feels much more engaged than the usual choir formation, because you totally get whapped with the sound of the other sections.

After we'd done that for a while, we cleared away the chairs, the band got ready, and the guy taught us dances. He also called them, using, to Z.Dog's great amusement, phrases like "promenade on back, whickety-whack." We decided if you can do a square dance with [slow-moving, slightly-clueless elderly gentleman] in your square, you can do anything.