[Callers] Re: Easy-going dances for newcomers

Coming back to this thread I earmarked a month ago ... While _most_ evenings, I absolutely want my first couple dances to have both partner and neighbor swing (to prevent newbies dancing together to lock in bad initial swing habits), there's that sweet spot of dances where I need to start with things like Gallopede and such, and work my way into Duple-Improper contra formation. For these, having no initial neighbor swing means or role-based move means I don't actually have to teach roles -- or, at the very least, I don't have to worry about it when newbies mix up left and right. You don't really even need to teach the partner swing, and can suggest symmetrical swings like barrel-hold or cross-arms-in-front. I wrote this one for Gotta Get Gone 2025 - a lovely camping / Albany area festival over the summer that I had the pleasure of being the caller this year. If You Can, Dance Julian Blechner Duple Imp: A1. N DSD 1x, form ring (6,2) Circle L 3/4 (8, forgiving) A2 P DSD 1x (6) PS (10) B1. LLFB (8) P Prom Across (8) (or: pass thru across, Cali Twirl to face in, if that suits your program better) (join hands in ring) B2. Circle L 3/4 (8, forgiving) Bal Ring, Pass Thru (4,4) The timing is very forgiving, so you can use a bit up-tempo music if the dancers are up for it. The timing isn't so loose that it feels bad - especially that Partner Do-si-do can just happen whenever. If people swap roles inadvertently, it doesn't matter. You're do-si-do-ing with the wrong-wrong neighbor on the wrong side, but the Partner dosido and swing corrects it. You promenade the wrong way, doesn't matter, you still progress easily and just wind up with the aforementioned wrong-neighbor do-si-do. I checked the dance archive sites, and it seems fairly unique enough. It's reasonable similar to Luke Donforth's "If you can talk, then you can sing", without the neighbor swing (and without the promenade-to-long-lines), so I named it in homage to that. In dance, Julian Blechner he/him Western Mass, USA On Tue, Jul 29, 2025 at 7:52 AM Sam Whited via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: