Re: [Callers] Advice teaching teens

Congratulations, Bill! What a boost for your series! I'll let others suggest their favorite vieos with teen dancers. They might enjoy watching the series of instructional videos produced by dancers in Atlanta. This one, for example, covers two-person moves, and the section on swinging begins at about 3:00. Granted, they're not teen dancers, but the step-by-step review of basics might be helpful. You can find an index of all the dances in the series, as well as videos of a live session for beginners: http://www.contradance.org/html/new_dancer_info.php#video in this one, the swing is taught starting at about 3:40. In both videos, the instructors stress how to end a swing, with the lady on the right. And given the high energy level and the lack of experience, don't feel you need to call a contras only program. Your regular dancers might also enjoy a barn dance, high energy and lots of fun, perhaps one that you haven't used often, or a lively and simple square that's suitable for everyone. The key, I think, to keeping the younger dancers coming back is not a lot of instruction but keeping a light tone and making the dance a fun place for them to be with their friends. If they're having fun, they'll keep coming back, and in time most of them will pick up somewhat smoother style than the grasshopper up and down bouncing that probably characterizes their movement at the moment. Dances with a sashay are fun for high-energy dancers, and your older folks who don't want to sashay could just walk down and back. Similarly, newcomers like to clap, so give them a dance where there's clapping at a specified part of the dance. (In a barn dance type of longways dance, this can happen spontaneously as the top coupls gallops down to the bottom of the set at the end of a time through the dance.) But in a contra or Sicilian circle, this encourages them to listen to the tune to find those places, and the clapping at that right spot is positive reinforcement. So, with the numbers you're talking about, a simple dance such as Haste to the Wedding can be done as a Sicilian circle, can give them practice in ending a swing properly and in the progression AND it has clapping at a specified place. Furthermore, if you end up with 32 teens, your sicilian circle will have eight sets of four couples, enough to run the dance for everyone to go all the way around the circle and to meet up once again with their original neighbors, which inevitably produces a whoop of astonishment and satisfaction. David Millstone Lebanon, NH