the Dance Gypsy’s Performer Finder
You may search using any combination of performer name, type, instrument, location and/or dance styles.
General guidelines:
You need not specify any specific category — except performer type (person or band). However, you must provide at least one additional restriction. Otherwise you are could get a list of thousands of performers.
Any category you specify will restrict the search to persons or bands satisfying that part of the request. For example, if you specify states or regions, you will find performers only in the states, provinces, or towns you specify.
If you are a supporter, your preferences can be remembered for future searches.
For text specifications, you may specify as many words as you wish, but only those performers satisfying all words in your list will be found.
You may specify partial names, in which case the requested words are assumed to be the leading letters of the names or words you are seeking.
Thus, for example, all of the following will find Mary Cay Brass
- Mary Cay Brass
- Mary
- Cay
- Brass
- M C Brass
- M C B
- mary cay brass (it doesn't care about case)
but it may not find all misspelled names or near misses, thus
- "Mary Kay Brass" may not work,
- Nicknames can be problematic: “Dave Kaynor” will work, event though he is listed as “David”, but other nicknames will sometimes fail.
- For best results, avoid punctuation or diacritical marks: say C W Abbott, not C. W. Abbott; Hebert, not Hébert
Likewise over-specified names will not work. Avoid middle names unless the performer normally uses 3 names.
- David M Kaynor" will fail because the Dance Gypsy does not know his middle name
In general you will do better to under-specify rather than over-specify. For example, even a popular specification like:
- Dav Kay
is sufficient to narrow the search to a single person.
The Dance Gypsy currently lists over 5100 bands, musicians, callers, instructors and leaders throughout the United States and Canada, and even other countries (but it’s still heavy on the US, and especially New England). Available data includes descriptions, locations, contact information and even dance gigs. You may now search performers who meet your own individual needs: by name, distance from you, state they live in, style of dances they play for, instruments they play, etc. The finder will even remember your choices(for supporters).