Sunday, April 13, 2025 5:56 PMHello Taco et al!
Our group in Halifax sounds very similar to the one you describe, with about 50% newcomers each night. I'm passionate about the "system" I've set up for our group so I'm going to share lots of detail here! I certainly don't expect most of you to read it :D
Also, (and this may not be reflective of your group Taco), we don't have a very serious or committed group of regulars - we hold 8 dances per year and because everyone's lives are busy, our regulars may only make it to 50-75% of our annual dances, so many of our regulars are only dancing say, 4 x per year. So they are not progressing very quickly, and in fact sometimes forgetting what they learned due to sparse attendance :) So even our "upper echelon" dancers are not great contra dancers for the most part -- they just love the concept of our up-beat, gender-free, awesome-live-music, zesty dances.... and are pretty tolerant to reviewing things each time they come. More experienced dancers also tend to skip the first 30-45 minutes of the evening, unless they happen to love the beginner-friendly stuff (which some do!).
With this environment, I've come up with a few strategies to try to keep everything moving along, while also ensuring the newcomers feel confident, well integrated and don't "blow up" the dances.
I would say a lot of what we are doing is along the same lines of what you've been thinking, and works well for us.
Specifically:
- At the start of the evening I am almost always using 4 beats for my calls, to give folks lots of head's up.
- I also try to think about the importance of *order* of the words.
For example, I'll say, "left hands in for a left hand star" - the first few times I call it. They may not remember exactly what a star is or how to do it, but if they get their left hand in the middle first, they are set up for success.
I'll also say "With your neighbour left shoulder 'round"
So the first thing they hear is neighbour - ok - they are looking at the right person--
Then they hear "left" so they are figuring out which side of the body to use
And finally the figure itself. Again- my thinking is: if they first find the correct person, and then have a moment to process which side of the body to use, the rest should flow well!
To your question about different ways to call say, the Robins chain or DSD 1.5 to new neighbour...
For the chain, if I'm using it in a beginner-heavy dance I will have taught thoroughly as my "feature figure" (see more on that below) - so I'm not worried about how i call it during the dancing..... I feel confident they know it inside and out by that point. I agree that it is difficult to just "throw in there" in a dance where you have 50% newbies. I think it takes special attention and practice.
for DSD 1.5 to new neighbour, I think it's definitely more important to remind them they are going to a new neighbour than to quantify how much of a do si do it is. (Personally as a dancer, I find anything to do with math during the dance to be too much to handle - I LOVE it when a caller says, "circle left 3 places to meet your partner on the side" - because I simply cannot count 3 places while dancing - so finding my partner is the target that works for me).
And as Amy suggests, starting 4 beats ahead of the figure but finishing the call once they've started the figure can work well sometimes...
e.g. "1- 2-3-4- now with your neighbour do-si-do- all the way around and a little bit more to the NEW neighbour then swing with them!"
RE what you wrote here- I agree, hard to call these ones efficiently!
"There's just no way to say"New Neighbor Allemande Left Once and a Half" in four beats.
So, which do you prefer? Do you have other ideas?
Robins, Allemande, Left, Across
Robins, Left, to Trade, places
Robins, Left, Once, and a Half
Robins, Left, to Your, Partner
As I wrote above, I think identifying the final destination is most important - so yes, I would probably say, "Robins by the left, to trade places!" Or "Robins by the left, to find your partner!"
OUR DANCE OUTLINE
- We have a 10 minute "intro session" where we cover the basic concepts of how to stand relative to your partner (Larks on left, Robins on right); the concept of effective holds, effective movements (I don't use the term "giving weight" but we talk about various ways to be courteous and create elastic fun when joining hands with others, including the importance of feeling "sproing!" in your balances), and I also teach at least two figures.
Usually we cover a right/left allemande (which we call a right-hand or left-hand turn just to keep the terminology as directly linked to the action as possible to keep it simpler on the brain)... and either a rt-hand balance or a two-hand balance.
I choose two figures that will be featured in the first mixer dance of the evening.
- We start with the spiral dance (snake dance) which leads off with some circling right/left, walking into the centre and back - I don't do any walk-through for this dance - I get the band to start plying right away and I give sponteanous calls to the music-- people learn while listening to the music and feeling the phrasing in their body. It's a great warm up to the evening and the experienced dancers love it too.
- We next do a very simple circle mixer, which will feature at least one if not two of the figures taught in the intro, and nothing else new.
- Then, for each dance after this, we start in a big "teaching circle" -- and I introduce just one new figure prior to each dance.
The figure is demo'd, and then folks get to try it with their partner... in a collegial environment where everyone can see each other and (most importantly) everyone can clearly see me in the centre.
- The next dance of the evening is in a modified sicilian circle, with becket progression (Partners are either facing in to the circle or out of the circle and they slide left to progress). Currently (thanks to a great suggestion on this listserve which I shall be forever grateful for!!!) we are dancing only in Becket in my group, to keep things simpler and allow me to call the option of "two hand turn OR swing with your partner" from early on -- being able to swing early on keeps our experienced dancers engaged - but newbies do not have to remember to switch places after the turn... and the simple Becket ejection means they don't have to switch places on the end either.
- After the Sicilian circle becket, i set up the teaching circle again and teach one new figure.
Then I set up 3 duples in the centre and demonstrate dancing in contra lines, Becket formation, with a few simple progressions like "slide left", "long lines fwd and slide left on way back", "circle left and keep circling to slide left to the new couple" etc. We discuss and observe what happens when a couple reaches the end of the line. Then we add in one more couple (so we have 3.5 duples) to show folks how that changes the pattern.
- Then everyone forms contra lines and (without music) I call a random assortment of figures, while also progressing the lines frequently, so everyone has a chance to get ejected at least once. If we have a big crowd, I'll force them into an excess number of shorter lines so that this part goes faster- then we reform fewer, longer lines before the next walkthrough.
- Then we walk through our first "real" contra dance, and dance it.
- For this first "real" contra and also at least one more after that, nobody ever leaves home place-- that is, all the figures are simple ones like do si do, left/right allemande, circle left/right, LLFB, partner balance and two hand turn/(optional swing), that have people coming back to their home place after 8 or 16 counts.
-After each dance we have a break, ppl switch partners, and we are back to the teaching circle once again.
- The evening continues like this - walk through, dance, quick break + find new partner, form big teaching circle & introduce one new figure, form contra lines and walk through, dance.... throughout the evening. We are never in the teaching circle for very long, and to keep the experienced folks interested, I always try to think of a stylistic pointer I can give them, for even the simplest of figures, so everyone is learning something.
- We also rarely have to do more than one walkthrough with this method, because I have carefully built up their skills and confidence step-by-step through the evening, so they are never getting lost or overwhelmed.
- After 2-3 dances in contra lines, I announce that it's now time to learn our "feature figure" of the evening. The "feature figure" is one that I consider complex for our group.
This has included in the past
- Ravens chain (always starting with 2 consecutive ravens chains so ppl come back to home place)
- Larks chain (as above)
- Hey
- SWL w Rory O'Moore
- Mad robin
- Something that involves a modified Cali twirl (in our gender free dances I just say the Robins must pass in front... they don't necessarily have to go under someone's arm).
- We come to the good old teaching circle for this, and we spend as much time as is needed learning and practicing the figure (in couples and/or duples as is relevant), until everyone feels confident in it.
Again, for those who know it well already, I try to share stylistic pointers so they have something to focus on as they practice.
And I'm always looking for ways to ensure the teaching is thorough but doesn't suck up too much time, and I take note each time I teach a "feature figure" on what went well and what took too much time, so I can streamline for next time.
I've learned that for teaching the Hey for example, it's handy to have some big posters on the walls, where I draw the "shape" of the movement. A picture is, as they say, worth a thousand words in this case! :)
- I then call 2-3 more dances which are relatively simple.... except at least 2 of them contain that "feature figure". To be clear, other than that feature figure, nothing else complex is added, we continue to use the skills we've developed so far that evening....
Then (about 2 hours into the dance at this point), we announce that we are switching gears, to the "advanced" segment of our evening.
We explain that to keep things interesting for our returning dancers, we are now going to focus on them- there will be less explaining and things will move faster, and the dances will get a fair bit more complicated. We say that from this point onward, beginners are totally welcome and encouraged to keep dancing, but they should start in the designated "I'm not sure what I'm doing but I want to give it a try!" line.
Others who feel more confident are told to dance in the "yeah, I think I've got this!" line.
This was an experiment we started two years ago, and it has worked really well so it is now an established feature of our dances.
It means the last 45 minutes of our dance goes much more like what I *imagine* a "regular" contra dance in the USA goes like - It is assumed everyone knows all the figures, I do 1 walkthrough only, and then we just start dancing and people iron out the kinks on the fly.
the fun thing is, if anyone in the "experienced" line is having a real hard time and getting stressed, they can move themselves over to the "beginner" line during the dancing and chill themselves out. And if anyone in the beginner line feels like they have really aced it, they can graduate themselves to the "experienced" line during the dancing.
Sometimes the "beginner" line totally falls apart and descends into mayhem - but people are laughin gand having a great time because they chose to be there and the expectations are low for them. And sometimes the beginner line eventually nails it, and they all look so satisfied with themselves!
At this point in the evening we still use the "teaching circle" sometimes - but usually just to demo the dance if it's really complicated.
For the beginners, it's eye-opening to them to see how complex contra dancing can be, and they are truly amazed! (Then they are even more amazed when I tell them that even our "advanced" dances are considered simple in most contra circles, and the really complex contra dances are so complicated that I can't even understand or call them myself, hah!)
Hope this is helpful :)
Kat
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.netSunday, April 13, 2025 3:36 PMDoes your dance group offer lessons before the actual dancing begins? We offer a half hour lesson (though many folks arrive late and miss some stuff) at the beginning of the dance to teach basic moves.
For a lesson I've found that starting with very simple moves (walking to the beat, circle, allemande, do-si-do, etc.) and progressing to more involved moves (swing, courtesy turn, right/left through, chain, etc.) helps.
If I know I'll have lots of beginners I choose dances that are very simple to start, then add only one new move with each successive dance.
I encourage experienced dancers to partner with beginners so they may learn quicker.
As to using 4 beats per call: you don't have to get all the words out before the move begins. For example, with a circle left 3 places you can start on beat 7 and say, "Circle left," wait for a beat, then say, "3 places." They'll hear the "what to do" and start that, then they will have the head space to hear "how far."
I agree with Mac that you may be trying to teach dances that are just too hard for the crowd to have success.
Also, if you can practice calling with a small group of experienced dancers, say at a house party, you'll get the practice you need in a much less stressful environment.Best of luck to you.-Amy WimmerSeattle
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.netSunday, April 13, 2025 2:56 PMYou might be getting way to difficult for the crowd you describe. Having half experienced dancers is about the threshold for doing duple minor contras.
I like to stick to dances that are harder to mess up. Circles, some simple squares, scatter mixers, grand march, Virginia Reel, etc. Missing a progression in a contra can break down the whole set.
You mentioned chains - I find courtesy turns are one of the hardest things for beginners to figure out. I'd avoid them.
I have called many evenings without doing any contras. In groups with lots of beginners - I build up to them and then carefully introduce some with very easy progressions and where ending a swing on the correct side is not all that important
Mac McKeever
On Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 12:01:40 PM CDT, Taco van Ieperen via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi All,
I've been thinking a lot about calling for beginner dancers. I've seen big changes in the last few years where our dances now often have more than 50% newcomers.
As a relatively new caller. I have some observations and ideas, and I'd love perspective from people who are more experienced.
Walkthroughs:
With experienced dancers, you can do an efficient walkthrough and teach a figure in the context of the dance. With beginners, I've seen walkthroughs fall apart because by the time you've explained a move and dealt with the group that has gotten all scrambled, the dancers have completely forgotten where they are in the walkthrough and where they started the dance. This is leading me towards the idea of isolating new figures *before* the walkthrough: If it's the first time doing a move, teach the move first, and then do the walkthrough that includes this move. "This dance has a new figure called a Robin's Chain. It works like this.... <chain stuff>. That looks great. Now let's learn the dance...."
Also, with experienced dancers, people "get it" during the dance, so you can do two walkthroughs and even if some people are confused ii will straighten itself out. With new dancers it feels much more important that everyone succeed in the walkthroughs because confusion can get worse instead of better. But at some point you can't keep doing walkthroughs. My gut instinct is that if I teach the figures before and can't explain the dance in two walkthroughs then I need to get better at walkthroughs or teach easier dances.
Thoughts?
Caller Style:
I really like making each call four counts as it provides predictable rhythm to the calling:
1,2,3,4, WITH your | PARTner | BALance and | SWING
For some calls I can give the destination location, or the destination person:
"Robins, Chain, Across the, Set"
"Neighbor, Dosido, to NEW, Neighbor"
vs
"Robins, Chain, To your, Partner"
"Neighbor, DoSido, Once and a, half"
To your partner seems more clear, but I can also see that having two different people in the call could create confusion. Does one format work better in your experience?
Related, I find the most annoying figures to call are 1.5 figures. There's just no way to say
"New Neighbor Allemande Left Once and a Half" in four beats. Also, beginners struggle parsing 1.5x as trading places, especially across the set.
It seems like a lot of callers drop the Allemande and just shorten it to "Left" or "Right". Which probably is fine after two clear walkthroughs.
So, which do you prefer? Do you have other ideas?
Robins, Allemande, Left, Across
Robins, Left, to Trade, places
Robins, Left, Once, and a Half
Robins, Left, to Your, Partner
Robins, Do si, do, across
Anyway, just thinking aloud and curious what other peoples thoughts are.
Taco
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.netSunday, April 13, 2025 2:01 PMHi All,I've been thinking a lot about calling for beginner dancers. I've seen big changes in the last few years where our dances now often have more than 50% newcomers.As a relatively new caller. I have some observations and ideas, and I'd love perspective from people who are more experienced.Walkthroughs:With experienced dancers, you can do an efficient walkthrough and teach a figure in the context of the dance. With beginners, I've seen walkthroughs fall apart because by the time you've explained a move and dealt with the group that has gotten all scrambled, the dancers have completely forgotten where they are in the walkthrough and where they started the dance. This is leading me towards the idea of isolating new figures *before* the walkthrough: If it's the first time doing a move, teach the move first, and then do the walkthrough that includes this move. "This dance has a new figure called a Robin's Chain. It works like this.... <chain stuff>. That looks great. Now let's learn the dance...."Also, with experienced dancers, people "get it" during the dance, so you can do two walkthroughs and even if some people are confused ii will straighten itself out. With new dancers it feels much more important that everyone succeed in the walkthroughs because confusion can get worse instead of better. But at some point you can't keep doing walkthroughs. My gut instinct is that if I teach the figures before and can't explain the dance in two walkthroughs then I need to get better at walkthroughs or teach easier dances.Thoughts?Caller Style:I really like making each call four counts as it provides predictable rhythm to the calling:1,2,3,4, WITH your | PARTner | BALance and | SWINGFor some calls I can give the destination location, or the destination person:"Robins, Chain, Across the, Set""Neighbor, Dosido, to NEW, Neighbor"vs"Robins, Chain, To your, Partner""Neighbor, DoSido, Once and a, half"
To your partner seems more clear, but I can also see that having two different people in the call could create confusion. Does one format work better in your experience?Related, I find the most annoying figures to call are 1.5 figures. There's just no way to say"New Neighbor Allemande Left Once and a Half" in four beats. Also, beginners struggle parsing 1.5x as trading places, especially across the set.It seems like a lot of callers drop the Allemande and just shorten it to "Left" or "Right". Which probably is fine after two clear walkthroughs.So, which do you prefer? Do you have other ideas?Robins, Allemande, Left, AcrossRobins, Left, to Trade, placesRobins, Left, Once, and a HalfRobins, Left, to Your, PartnerRobins, Do si, do, acrossAnyway, just thinking aloud and curious what other peoples thoughts are.Taco_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net