[Callers] Folk Festival - Easy Contra dances to teach Beginners

[Jacob or Nancy Bloom]

WITH BEGINNERS, AVOID RIGHTS AND LEFTS!  Half of them will turn right when
they should have turned left, and the other half will turn all the way
around and look back at the person they just walked past.  To experienced
dancers they seem similar to a ladies chain, but people who have never done
either before find rights and lefts vastly more confusing.

Jacob

On Tue, Jul 24, 2018 at 11:17 AM, Jen Morgan via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> Not necessarily.  I called a contra dance in the ceilidh tent at a UK folk
> festival with few if any experienced contra dancers.  I made a list of very
> basic figures and chose only dances with those figures in.  I think I used
> either only right and left throughs, or only ladies chains, but not both
> (can't remember which sorry!)  No work outside minor set, I preferred eight
> bar figures to four bar figures (over and back etc).  Lots of line of four
> lead down sort of dances.  Lots of the easier chestnuts.
>
> And I delivered the explanation of how to line up, how to know if you're a
> one or two, how the progression works etc, before *every* *single*
> *dance*.  It worked and the dancers had a great time.
>
> Hope it goes well!
> Jen
>
>
> On 24 July 2018 at 15:53, Mac Mckeever via Callers <
> callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>> I stay away from contras unless you have a good number of experienced
>> dancers to hold things together.  There are lots of dances that are more
>> self correcting and don't have the complexity that progression creates.
>> Virginia Reel works good with beginners
>>
>> Mac McKeever
>>
>> On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 9:48:59 AM CDT, Lorraine Sutton via Callers <
>> callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>>
>>
>> Hello All,
>>
>> I am calling a 2 hour Intro to Contra dance ....at an Ontario Canada
>> Festival. ( more a music focus than a dance focus, at this festival)
>>
>> I would appreciate hearing from you as to contra dances ( lws proper
>> & Improper) that you have found successful with very novice dancers and why
>> you think those dances work for beginners.(I love Larry Jennings definition
>> of easy vs complicated )
>>
>> I do plan on doing some non progressive lws as well as a both a circle
>> and a Sicilian  circle in the program mix , to get the concept of
>> progression.
>>
>> Thanks so much.
>>
>> Lorraine Sutton  ( lorrainesutton7 at gmail.com )
>>
>>
>> ...
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> List Name:  Callers mailing list
>> List Address:  Callers at lists.sharedweight.net
>> Archives:  https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> List Name:  Callers mailing list
>> List Address:  Callers at lists.sharedweight.net
>> Archives:  https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
>>
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List Name:  Callers mailing list
> List Address:  Callers at lists.sharedweight.net
> Archives:  https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
>
>


-- 
jandnbloom at gmail.com
http://jacobbloom.net/
View my Arlington Food Pantry fundraiser at
https://www.youcaring.com/arlington-food-pantry-621657
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.sharedweight.net/pipermail/callers-sharedweight.net/attachments/20180724/18b6516a/attachment.html>