[Callers] First time contra dancers

Some clarification for those that didn't read the Blog post, but just read my text in the email: When I say that the experienced dancers teach - I mean that they teach by connection, extending hands, physical cues etc. Our dance angels have agreed to keep verbal cues to a minimum. It may be a regional thing, but in general, the Florida communities are pretty good at this. If I see someone heavily involved in a verbal teaching, I may walk over and see what I can do to help, As far as telling the newbies to find experienced partners vs telling the experienced dancers to find newbies - I still stand by my original premise that we put the responsibility on the experienced dancers. If I have to weigh the very subtle message "these dancers have to be told to dance with me" against the overt message "you're on your own here new dancer and its up to you to figure out who is an experienced dancer and who isn't, and even though you've already stretched your comfort zone by making an effort to do something new in a room full of strangers, I'm going to make you stretch it even more by telling you to walk up to these strangers and ask them to dance with you." I do acknowledge that different communities would present different challenges depending on the cultural willingness to embrace newbies. I know of communities where experienced dancers would only dance with newbies under duress, and a different approach might be needed there, but I haven't called in those communities yet. -- JoLaine Jones-Pokorney "We are as gods and might as well get good at it!" - Stewart Brand