23 Mar
2011
23 Mar
'11
2:32 p.m.
Keith - Why didn't we tell the guy to listen to the caller? Who knew that
was the problem? We didn't, until he said that, rather late, after we had
given up on doing contra dances.
What he said before that was "I don't know where to go." So, of course, we
told him where to go. We didn't pick up on the fact that it was the
_listening_ that was the problem, not the information we gave.
I think he was probably suffering from information overload from the moment
he walked in (or even before he got there), which suggests that he was
paying attention to too many things, and couldn't single out just the one
thing. The Calling Party atmosphere, which is great for a new dancer who
just needs some personal attention, was probably the very worst thing for
him - all those "helpful" people probably made it worse.
What did help was doing dead simple dances.
So we did that - five of St Louis' finest, dancing a couple of ONS dances -
we did the right thing (he was a nice guy, and we wanted him to feel
welcome), but the party broke up early.
M
E
On Wed, Mar 23, 2011 at 1:20 AM, Keith Tuxhorn <keithlmt(a)gmail.com> wrote:
surprising things. The guy at the calling party didn't understand until the
end that the caller is telling you what to do--why didn't he? He probably
observed everyone else moving along to what a caller said, and the same
words were said when he got individual instruction--but nothing sank in. No
offense, Martha, but did anyone simply tell him to listen to the caller?
Some part of his hearing, or learning process, was simply shut down until
the end of the dance. Who knows why? Fear? Embarrassment? Literally being
"out of his mind" and not allowing himself to focus on the real world?