Re: [Callers] Arms Folded in Dosidos

Erik said, "It's just gone out of fashion in the contra dance world" ... and the square dance world, and the ceilidh world, and the English Country Dance world, and the English folk dance world, etc! :-) Erik also said, "I have yet to hear one of the proselytizers for the spinning Do Si Do discuss the problem of the directional nature of the Do Si Do and how they teach that..." I think the problem of direction comes because callers DON'T teach a Dosido - they rely on new dancers picking it up from existing dancers, who of course may well be spinning. One caller told a tale of how, when calling, she said that in this dance she wanted the dancers to do an ordinary dosido; apparently some dancers asked what she meant and were amazed to discover that there were no spins in a standard dosido! If there are ANY newcomers at a dance then I will teach the dosido; I tell them to start facing their partner, work out which is their right shoulder, go forwards, sideways, backwards without turning and finish facing their partner - I usually explain that it comes from the French dos-à-dos meaning back to back. If it is an ONS I am usually in the middle of the floor with my wife and my wireless head-mike and I demonstrate it. If I see anyone folding their arms I tell them that dancers don't do that any more so they don't have to do it, but that they can of course do it if they want to - I always say, "Innovation and improvisation are good" making it clear that they can do what they want as long as they are in the right place at the right time and don't mess anyone up. If anyone is spinning I will tell the newcomers that they may see people spinning and they can ignore it - the move works if one person spins and the other doesn't. If they are a keen energetic crowd I may show them how to spin the dosido since it is fun and some of them pick it up straight away and love it. If it is an English ceilidh I definitely don't mention spinning since it is much harder to do it when dancing hop-steps or skip-change steps - it is not part of the style. Likewise with ECD groups (which don't really exist in England - we mix all the styles up at each event!) since it is not considered part of that style (though often works very well!). Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent