Howdy, Joe!

Part of the difficulty you're encountering is that there are two different levels of contra dancing involved--one for beginners and one for club members.

I call for both groups and for a mix. I call for contra dance clubs, I call private parties for absolute beginners, and before Covid I had a club that danced in a historical park where we had regulars who were club-level but also incorporated numerous random park visitors who were absolute beginners.

The dances written for these two groups are fundamentally different. Club-level dances are substantially more complex than those written for beginners. That's part of why you're having trouble finding dances simple enough for beginners. The dances you name are written in the style of those for clubs of experienced dancers.

For example, club dances tend to be exclusively duple minors, whereas there is a whole world of simpler, single minor dances that are suitable for beginners.

In a situation where the dancers are mostly club members with only a few beginners, it's easy to stick with club-level dances, as the experienced dancers will pull the beginners through. However, if your situation is regularly half beginners, you might consider incorporating dances written for them. For example, you might call a few single minors before moving up to double minors, after the beginners have become acclimated to the basic moves, timing, etc. The more complex duple minor progressions (we're dancing with new people now!) can be introduced after they've gotten the fundamentals down.

For examples of such dances, I typically start beginner parties with Cal Campbell's NDA Contra, then do the Virginia Unreel (a version of the Virginia Reel without the reel part), Barley & Oates, or Tunnel Contra. I'll also call ones that I've written that have lots of what I call "shock absorbers" (i.e., places where even if some of the dancers mess up, they can recover--so, recovery points). For my historical park group, I'd also call simple minors like the Virginia Reel (with the reel) or Sir Roger de Coverly.

Also, these dances tend to be written gender-free, since that's something you mentioned about your group.

I only ever do 2 walk thrus (no more) before we put on the music and dance, and the beginners have no problem.

Using energetic music with single minor dances will make them fun and non-threatening for beginners and experienced dancers will (or should) understand why you're starting with simple ones and will find them enjoyable also.

Since many resources (e.g., the Caller's Box, which is outstanding) are focused on club-level dances, the dances I've just named may not be listed there. Some of them are in Cal Campbell's Dancing For Busy People, and I'd be happy to share them (including with the group) as well.

Jimmy Akin

San Diego

On Mon, Mar 13, 2023 at 9:43 PM Joe Harrington via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

I've been calling less than a year, so I'm still learning. One problem I have is that, when looking at a written-out dance, I'm consistently underestimating the difficulty for newbies. My group is about 50% newbies every week, and it isn't large, usually about 20 dancers at peak. Last week, I thought Al's Safeway Produce would be accessible, as it has just allemande, swing, circle, long lines, and star. But, the star-to-star progression was more than they could do, because the stars were poorly synchronized and we're gender-neutral, so people didn't realize whether the people coming at them were the right ones to dance with or not, and stars quickly started having the wrong members and the wrong number of members. (I should have given up after six walkthroughs, I didn't, and that's another lesson learned.)

So, I'm looking for a better set of rules to identify an easy dance than the set I'm currently using, which is basically: glossary moves only, mostly connected moves, and enough recovery moves (long swings, etc.). A recent thread generated a list of such dances, which has been useful. But, I'm going through lists of dances people like (like the ones posted on this list, the CDNY list that Bob Isaacs compiled, and others posted online) and looking for ones I can call to my group, especially early in the night. What would you add to this list of rules that, if satisfied, indicate a dance is likely easy-peasy?

Easy-Peasy Dances Suitable for New Dancers Right Out of the Lesson...

Have only very basic moves found in most dances, or at most one more that is simple to teach.
Have mostly connected moves.
Have at least two moves where dancers can recover from recent mistakes (e.g., balance and swing).
Don't spin too much (at most one 16-count swing, better none).
Are improper or possibly Beckett (if the dance is quite simple).
Keep the dancers within their minor set until the progression.
Have a simple progression.
Have a progression where the neighbors are likely to be there.
Have a progression that recovers easily if messed up (e.g., followed by recovery move).
Progress at the end of the dance.

What else to add?

Thanks,

--jh--
Joe Harrington
Organizer, Greater Orlando Contra Dance
Faculty Advisor, Contra Knights, the UCF contra dancing club
contraknights.org
FB, Ig: Contra Knights
contradancerjoe@gmail.com

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