26 Dec
2011
26 Dec
'11
1:21 p.m.
On 12/26/2011 10:03 AM, holt.e(a)comcast.net wrote:
I am about to call a dance the character of which has
changed from what I
expected and I need some easy dances. I had harder material planned and
while I do have some material that is probably easy enough, I am not sure
that it is. The dance is at a college. It is for college students only,
pssibly only students from that college, and we are now hoping for a large
contingent of beginers; perhaps mostly beginners. Have you any expereince
with a similar situation? I am thinking along the lines of ONS dances,
although if we made a few into regulars for the regular dance there that
would be great. So: "no-partner" dances, mixers (I have January Mixer - a
great one), Set dances ("Once and to the bottoms") .......
We intend to have a blast!
I did a freshman orientation day dance for a few years at a nearby
college and it usually worked well to use most of my usual ONS program.
I used several of the wholeset dances such as Galopede and Cumberland
Reel and some easy circle mixers (300 18 year olds in a giant circle).
Near the end of the dance I was able to introduce a couple of easy
contras with swings, but that would need to be decided based on how
things go the rest of the evening. As a rule I limit the dances for
these kinds of events to figures where the name of the figure pretty
much describes how to do it. For example circles, stars, hand turns
(left, right and two hand) and lines of various kinds. My impression is
that groups of college kids like these learn things pretty fast and are
plenty active, so you shouldn't have to simplify things very much.
Jonathan
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Jonathan Sivier
Caller of Contra, English and Early American Dances
jsivier AT illinois DOT edu
Dance Page: http://www.sivier.me/dance_leader.html
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Q: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?
A: It depends on what dance you call!