Re: [Callers] Contra friendly squares

I don’t dislike squares. But I hesitate to call them unless there are only four or maybe 8 couples left at the end of the dance for a number of reasons - one being the large teaching to dancing ratio in general as mentioned below, another being the fact that you can have two - seven people who want to dance that have to sit the whole thing out because there are not enough people, and the last, and most important to my mind, is that if you are in a square where you have one or two people who never ever ever get it right and always screw up the square, or if you are the poor unfortunate person doing that, you have a miserable time - irritable for never getting to dance it right, or feeling that everyone blames you for never getting to dance it right. These are not emotions I want to elicit on the dance floor. With contra, if you screw up, you move to the next couple, get another chance, and people are gracious in helping you because it’s only one time through. It’s different at one night stands where a dance like Birdie in the Cage is fun and funny and people aren’t expecting great dancing and just like moving to the music and laughing at their own and others mistakes, none of which usually results in the dance falling apart completely because it’s so easy. Otherwise at the end of the night in a small contra crowd usually the diehards and good beginners are left so the squares succeed. Other than that, I only do them earlier in a contra for special occasions - like having an incredible band that likes to play for squares - so I will be calling one soon with Patt and Possum here in San Diego - and I’m so glad you all shared the contra friendly squares so I have some new ones to choose from! Martha