I’m with you, Martha!
All that “ravens pass left, neighbours pass right” stuff is just noise to me 
(and always was, even as a new dancer)—I always wondered who they were talking 
to up there—I couldn’t imagine how anyone could process all that information 
coming at them like a machine gun!). I just needed the floor pattern and I was 
fine. Personally I’ve settled on “everyone passes by right shoulders when in 
middle of the set and everyone passes by left shoulders on the sides” as a 
compromise between too much info vs. too little. But I like the drawing of the 
floor pattern idea as a quick adjunct for the visual learners out there like 
me. I toyed for a while with bringing a fan belt (rubber loop) and crossing it 
in the middle to show the weaving pattern, but magic marker on manilla folder 
is considerably more practical!  :-)

Yes, everyone learns differently, so it’s helpful to teach it in more than one 
way.
Thanks, everyone, for all the useful suggestions!

Becky (Toronto)

> On Mar 3, 2020, at 10:11 AM, Martha Wild via Contra Callers 
> <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> 
> When I first danced, I couldn’t get the hey for weeks and weeks until someone 
> drew a figure 8 with an extra loop on a blackboard for me. Then it all made 
> sense. 
> 
> For that reason, now, I keep a large hand-drawn with dark thick magic marker 
> figure 8 with extra loop on a piece of stiff light paper (like a manilla 
> folder thickness) that I can hold up and show briefly as I am teaching the 
> figure. It doesn’t get everyone, but it gets people like me. There are always 
> one or two - 
> “ahas” that I hear. I could never learn it from the pass this shoulder or 
> that instruction. I needed the floor pattern. Everyone learns differently.
> 
> Martha
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