26 Jan
2009
26 Jan
'09
1:53 p.m.
In our small weekly dance hall, we sometimes end up with two lines, one
mostly experienced dancers, and in the other all the beginners. At that
dance, the callers dance, and the dancers (at least some of them) call.
The regulars are all good friends (most of the time). When a caller
notices this situation, he (or she) may come down onto the floor, and
select a group of 4 experienced dancers and drag them to the other set
to exchange with a similar group of beginners. The attention is then on
the experienced dancers and not the beginners. Not a lot of tact, but it
works, and the experienced dancers understand the problem and are
(usually) happy to move.
Another method used is to announce (during the walk-through of the
previous dance) that the next dance is a bit difficult, and to ask the
new dancers to find experienced partners. Although this is as much
directed at the experienced dancers, the new dancers then understand why
they are being asked to dance by someone they don't know.
Jerome Grisanti remarked on 1/26/2009 1:25 PM:
I recently had the following exchange on a different
list with Michael
Shapiro (guitarist with U4):
Michael wrote:
>> U4 just played the SwingShift weekend in
Lexington/Berea. The caller was
>>
Barbara Groh. She did something that I think most callers should
do, but I
haven't seen before. After the sets were formed and people had done the hand
four, she then broke up the beginners sets that had formed at the end of the
lines. She asked then to move forward and intersperse themselves with the
more advanced dancers (so that they were more toward the beggining of the
line and the foursomes were not all beginners).
She was also good at letting the music be heard ...
I wrote:
> Regarding the caller asking sets to reform in
order to spread the less
>
experienced dancers throughout the hall, much tact is required.
Generally,
callers strive to avoid calling attention to particular dancers other than
when asking people to watch a demonstration, but asking people to change
sets can have the effect of making them feel like there is attention on
them. In addition, newish dancers want to dance with people they know, even
if those friends may also be newish dancers.
> Speaking to the entire crowd, I do encourage
experienced dancers to share
>
their experience by asking someone they've never met to dance at
least once
in the evening, and praise the community for being so welcoming to newcomer
dancers. So while I might be thinking "let's break up this clump of
confusion," it would not be good to say something that draws attention to
"you people right here."
> I have asked, off mic, for a set of
experienced dancers to offer to
>
repartner with a set of inexperienced dancers down the line.
To this list, I ask:
I'd be interested in the wording that Barbara Groh used (which I'm assuming
was quite gentle). I'm also guessing other callers on this list have
developed tactful ways to address this issue.
Thanks,
Jerome