First - I never attempt a contra with beginner groups - the closest I come is the Virginia Reel - progression is confusing and too many things have to happen right for the dance to work. There are lots of dances that are more forgiving and a lot more fun for beginners.
Teaching 'proper' swing - I don't - just let them swing any way they want. most will do an elbow swing and have more fun than trying to learn the 'proper' way. I consider the proper way do do any of the figures to be what every is the most fun with the least teaching or rules. I don't do dances with ladies chain, R&L thru, heys, etc. I try to avoid dances where ending the swing with the gent on the left is important I mostly use circles, squares and scatter mixers. Beginners expectations are less than experienced dancers - my goal is to exceed them so they have more fun than they expected. I find these events to be especially satisfying because the dancers are so excited and have such a great time doing very simple dances. Mac McKeever ________________________________ From: Maia McCormick <maia....@gmail.com> To: Caller's discussion list <call...@sharedweight.net> Sent: Tuesday, September 4, 2012 10:45 AM Subject: [Callers] Calling for Absolute Beginners? Hey folks, My name is Maia, and I'm new to this listserv, though I've been lurking around for a few weeks. I call college dances at my school in Western Mass, and every now and then I do an area dance. I've got two questions for your collective wisdom. The first: I'm curious how you all put together programs when calling for a group of complete beginners. What's generally the progression of moves that you teach? Do you think dances with the most basic of moves (say, a dance that's all circles, stars, and long lines, not even a partner swing) are helpful in getting people oriented to dancing, or are trivial and boring and will make people think contra is dumb? (People "thinking contra is dumb" is actually a bit more of a concern for me calling college dances, where most of the folks to turn out aren't necessarily of the 'contra mindset' and so it's important to hold their interest and make them think that what they're doing is exciting and worth their time--they're not necessarily going to stick with it for the evening, or even for more than one dance, if they're not immediately into it.) The second, which ties into the first: how do you teach good contra etiquette--*especially* how to swing properly--when you don't have experienced people in the crowd to show the way? At my dances at school, most of the swings are tensionless and/or an awkward sideways gallop; very few of us go to outside dances, so the overall experience level seems to be capped. Have you found an effective way to *teach* proper swinging, besides throwing a beginner into a crowd of experienced dances so that they eventually absorb it by osmosis? How can I get swings at my college dance up to snuff? Cheers, Maia _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list call...@sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
