Second the Grand March, super simple square-ish dance, and some kind of
Virginia Reel—especially for more thematic weddings. Also a scatter
promenade (WITH partner), Big Circle with no partners needed, and La
Bastringue.
I would not bother with ballroom swings, and building to a contra is only
I always start with a grand march - no teaching and eases some of the fear of
doing other dances
You can put the bride and groom in the second slot and announce they request
participation from all guests
Mac
On Tuesday, July 4, 2023 at 04:10:09 PM CDT, Rich Sbardella via Contra
Callers
I am enjoying this thread.
I have called weddings with a full dance floor with long periods of
dancing, and others which have a few dancers who only dance for a short
period. I had always felt like I failed when I did not get the
participation I imagined, but I too have learned that our dances
I, too, have called for a lot of parties and weddings. Keeping it simple—whole
set dances such as The Virginia Reel (without the reel).
And, I actually wrote a book about it: Old-Time Dance Calling for Weddings,
Parties, and One-Night Stands.
I do differentiate weddings from other parties that
It looks as if we’re all agreed that *really* easy dances are the way to go at
weddings (and similar events where no one is there to learn), but disagree on
what constitutes “really easy.”
The sequence that John Rogers describes is similar to the Scatter Sanita that I
use at nearly every
I’ve had very good luck at weddings calling a Virginia Reel early on when
there’s a lot of enthusiasm for participating (that tends to wane as the
evening progresses). Virginia Reels seem to be in the American bloodstream. I
have collected quite a few variants over the years but it doesn’t much
Heck, even that sounds too complex. Forming circles of 4, finding another
group, that took too long, what am I doing now, which one's my partner
again, and which is my opposite? Nah, Stick with longways lines, circles
and couple mixers until and unless people seem like they're actually into
it and
