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

Or don’t have them do a buzzstep—swings work just fine with a walking step. (If you’ve got moderately experienced folks mixed in, though, you may need to teach the buzzstep, since few moderately experienced dancers will do a walking swing even if asked to.) If you do teach buzzstep, I’ve had the most success teaching it as a gallop https://youtu.be/5GmQ868ArAw?t=12 ; I’ll take a group of 8 or so, holding hands, and have everyone gallop (clockwise, right/inner foot in front), then break it into two circles without stopping, then into pairs; then stop and show ballroom position. Getting them into ballroom position for the swing and then teaching them to let go of the pointy hands works much better than “gents on the left, ladies on the right” for ending correctly. Read Weaver Jamaica Plain, MA http://lcfd.org