Hi Joe,
Apologies for the late response – too busy dancing! :-)
Some more thoughts:
I call a lot of barn dances for parties/weddings/etc. No matter how careful I am and how much I warn them, at least once a year someone falls over! Check the surface and warn the dancers if it is slippery or sticky or uneven. Point out danger areas where two types of floors meet, or there are ridges. Tell them to be careful. As has been mentioned, avoid small bevelled-edge dance floors – brides have been known to break their ankles on them! Make sure that you are insured. I have never needed to use mine, but it is comforting to know that I have it!
Find out as much as you can about the venue in advance – especially if it is in a marquee. I have had to cart my PA uphill and across muddy fields, and had to call dances on sloping uneven grass!
If it is an old building or a barn or a marquee, then allow extra time to get set up. I have had two gigs where it took up to half an hour to find a reliable electricity supply!
I never use the building’s sound system. There is too much chance of it being incompatible and the controls being too far away.
I run a lot of one night stands/barn dances – I would estimate that only one or two people out a thousand will come to one of my regular dances.
Swings are an integral part of dancing and I would never dream of not teaching the dancers how to swing. If they just cross their hands and hold each other’s hands then they are too far apart; they have no connection or control; and they are likely to crash into each other, especially if they lean back or one dancer tries to swing the other around themself. Ballroom holds are way too complex. I always teach a forearm hold with the fingers hooked around the other person’s elbow. You can see this swing being taught at 1:26 in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUiXStkCHGs – lots more information at http://contrafusion.co.uk/SwingWorkshop.html. I usually teach it in the Virginia Reel variation shown below, with a Promenade after it. It works really well as they just have to slide the right hands down until they are holding right hands and they have learnt how to take a Promenade Hold.
I do feel sometimes, reading entries on various forums, that some callers underestimate the capabilities of the dancers and make things too simple. With just a little bit of teaching you can give the dancers a much richer and more varied experience.
I average about six dances for a wedding. The pattern is usually: dance, play a tune, dance, play a tune, dance, interval, dance, play a tune, dance, Grand March. Once I did the third dance of the evening and the bride rushed over and said that that was fantastic, but they were going back to the disco now; afterwards she sent me effusive thanks and told me how much everyone had enjoyed it!
I use a wireless head-mike so I can be on the dance-floor, help make sets up, demonstrate, join in if I need to make up numbers, etc.
I always start with my version of Welcome to the Dance – very similar to the one Tony described. You can see it at https://youtu.be/OKrqit3qyYQ
I always start the walk-through by teaching B2 twice so that they understand the progression and their direction of travel.
The next dance is usually Witch’s Reel or Virginia Reel Circle Mixer #24: http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/VirginiaReelCircleMixer24.html
(the 24 is a random variant number as I have no idea how many other variants there are already!)
I have also used this as a Snowball: Teach the bride and groom; they dance it; they separate and take Karen and myself as new partners; we two couples dance it; we all separate and get new partners from the side of the dance-floor; etc.
Another great and easy Circle Mixer is The Redwing Mixer: https://youtu.be/3mtgnsxnkPM
The last three dances are usually these:
The Russian Ballet: http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/EFDS8206-TheRussianBallet.html
(The Hey is usually replaced by: middle person Dosido each way.)
Newington Applause: http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/NewingtonApplause.html
(They already know everything apart from the clapping.)
Grand March: https://youtu.be/V3RFVVmG8Sc
There were a lot of dancers at that gig! I would have changed a couple of things with more experience of a group that big.
There are lots of great moves in the Grand March/Appalachian Big Set. Birdie in the Cage is a really easy one to get them to do with no teaching.
If I have a live band I always promenade everyone up to clap them at the end.
I hope some of that helps.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent