Coincidentally, this has been on my mind lately. I've been doing #2 mostly, and it's been working fine. This has gone both for dances recently where there's mostly experienced dancers, as well as a few one-night-stand gigs I've done where nearly all dancers were new. The advantage - as I think it's likely you're aware already but for the purposes of discussion - is to drill in the "which role is on which side" which is often where new dancers can get mixed up and then lost. (A neighbor swing before a progression, for example.)
I've done #3, and I also like this, though it needs a bit more time and hard to do in 15 or 20 minutes with the other things I'm teaching, people running late, etc. But, I can see why you haven't settled on one. Maybe where I'd leave it is: #3 works well if time, but I'd prefer to do #2 if I have 20 minutes or less so that I don't skimp on reinforcing Left Side / Right Side through repetition of moves. Maybe it's time to think about my beginner lesson in detail again, and refine it again. I'll do a think, and - Maia - feel free to ping me off this list if you want to workshop this a bit. Best regards, Julian Blechner On Mon, Nov 21, 2022 at 12:06 PM Becky Liddle via Contra Callers < contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Besides the things you list, I sometimes mention that there is a bit more > twirling involved in the robin’s role so if you’re prone to dizziness you > might prefer lark & if you like twirling you might prefer robin. > Becky > > > On Nov 21, 2022, at 11:55 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers < > contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > > Hey folks, > > Calling the occasional gig again after uh, everything, and I'm finally > inspired to iron out a bit of my beginners' lesson that I've always just > fudged in the past: *when calling gender-neutral, how do you have the > beginners pick roles?* > > My spiel is generally, "we have these two roles, they're almost entirely > the same with some small differences, pick one and stick with it for a few > dances just to start and then you can try the other if you want, the most > important thing is knowing which role you are for a given dance." > > In my lesson, I alternately: > > 1. say "whoever's standing on the right of this couple right now, > that's the robin" and then teach the swing in those roles > 2. tell folks "decide who's the lark and who's the robin" with no > particular context and they pick arbitrarily > 3. teach both sides of the swing and let them choose roles based on > which swing feels more comfortable > > But it feels clunky and awkward every time. > > I'm curious if others have similar experiences, or things they do in their > lessons that feel effective at getting people into one role (for now) with > a minimum of confusion. Hit me with your wisdom! > > *Note: this is NOT an invitation to debate whether contra roles should be > gendered, or which set of role terms we should use, or whether we should > use role terms or positional calling. If you must, please make a separate > thread so I can mute it. If such discussion crops up in this thread, I'd > ask people not to respond, or to take responses to a separate thread. > Thanks.* > -- > Maia McCormick (she/her) > 917.279.8194 > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net > > > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net >
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