[Callers] Origin of Beginners' workshops

David raises an interesting question about when and how beginners' workshops/orientation came to be part of the evening. I have been dancing in Southern California for a little more than 20 years, and there have been beginners' workshops here for at least that long. I am wondering if one factor was geographic spread. Perhaps an orientation wasn't considered necessary in the New England setting because everybody more or less knew what contra and traditional square dances were, even if they didn't necessarily dance them. Whereas in other parts of the country people might not have that knowledge, coming in. We don't any longer have any 'original members' of my local community to check this, but it stands to reason that if you were trying to start up a series in a new part of the country (maybe having moved there from New England, which is how a lot of West Coast dance communities got started), you'd certainly provide a lesson/orientation. If beginners' workshops did originate elsewhere and then were imported back to New England, that might explain why your memories of them there may be more recent than my memories of them here. Jon Southard Santa Barbara, CA www.jonsouthard.com -----Original Message----- From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of David.Millstone(a)valley.net Sent: Friday, September 02, 2011 10:53 AM To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Subject: Re: [Callers] Implied Messages in First-Timer's Orientation [bcc][faked-from][senderbase] [Many good comments deleted] David notes: P.S. As a historical note, I think it worth pointing out the concept of workshops before the dances is a relatively recent phenomenon... maybe 25 years old, but probably more like 10-15 years. (I'd be interested to hear from others around the country on when they think these introductory sessions began in their neighborhood.) To be sure, going back into earlier centuries, there were dancing masters and classes, but I'm talking about twentieth century social dances, at least in the part of New England about which I know the most. People just came to the dance and learned as they went; that's certainly what happened at community square dances; where contras were done, which was a relatively small number of venues, there wasn't such an introduction in places such as Nelson, NH, and at Dudley dances throughout the late 1960s and into the 1970s, the events that (IMHO) were the primary jumping off point for making contras a much more popular dance form. It might be worth speculating on what led to the introduction of such workshops...why folks came to feel that they were necessary. Changes in the dance programs? In the folks coming to the dances? in the caller's expectations of what they hoped to accomplish in the course of the evening? broader societal / cultural changes? But all of that is grounds for starting a new thread, so if anyone is interested in picking it up, I hope they'll change the subject line. _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers