[Callers] Teaching a Mad Robin

[Maia McCormick]

Oh man, I'm excited to hear others' response to this question, because I've
also struggled with this. For a while I used "dosido; now walk that same
path while looking at your partner" and found it to be... less effective
with the beginners than I wanted it to be.

Honestly, sometimes I demo it, especially if there's something interesting
that comes after--while it definitely CAN be taught from the mic, sometimes
a demo is just clearer.

When teaching it from the mic, I've taken to doing it like this:
1. "This is another of those fancy moves that gets you right back where you
started. *At the end of this move, you'll be right back here*."
2. "So it's important to *stay on the side of your set*. Lots of people
feel like they should cross. Don't."
3. "Lock eyes with your [partner]. You're going to walk a little circle
around your [neighbor], while looking at your partner.
4. "[Ravens] take a small step forward, [larks] take a small step back."
5. "Keep your eyes on your partner. Ravens, step to your left and larks
step to your right, sliding past your neighbor."
6. "Now larks step forward and ravens step back; larks step right and
ravens step left, sliding past your neighbor again."
7. "You're back where you started, hooray! Now let's try that up to
speed..." etc.

On Mon, Sep 24, 2018 at 12:39 PM Don Veino via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> As may be obvious, I love Mad Robins. I'm still working on what is the
> best way to teach them.
>
> I know about the "Dosido/now face your Partner/on the same path as the
> Dosido, do a Mad Robin" approach and have used it.
>
> I've heard other callers I admire admonish to not use the "wrong" move as
> a teaching tool for the "right" move - as it's that much harder to
> "unlearn" the original bit.
>
> What I've observed is that newer dancers may end up focused on the wrong
> person, facing the wrong direction, and possibly doing the "Dosido Twirl"
> when using the Dosido teach. But they *do* follow the correct path (so
> long as the caller remembers to say SeeSaw vs. Dosido as the correct
> analogue) on the floor. Some can make the facing adjustment and some
> persist in facing the wrong way. If the dance tolerates the facing
> differences, all is OK.
>
> As a practice, I actively solicit feedback on my calling at each gig. Out
> of a recent one I got into an extended discussion about the Mad Robin teach
> with a dancer whom had struggled with their beginner partner in a sequence
> that evening. I had read that crowd as highly experienced so did only a
> basic teaching of the move, which they reported having not got through to
> this beginner. They freely offered that all was well around them, it was
> just a frustration in their own experience. We touched on the merits and
> drawbacks of the Dosido teach (which I chose not to use in that situation
> as it appears to annoy experienced dancers, plus because of the above
> points).
>
> I'm trying to evolve to something that teaches both the correct motion and
> the facing direction at the same time - *without* taxing experienced
> folks' patience. I have my own ideas on this but welcome others'.
>
> So, how do *you* teach a Mad Robin most effectively and efficiently? Do
> you vary it by context, crowd composition, other factors?
>
> Thanks,
> Don
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