Warning: this is going to be a fairly detailed self-critique. The short
version is that the evening went well. No one got hurt, and people
enjoyed themselves. We had about 20+ people and I covered my gas money
for the trip down. Amy's evaluation was that I handled the crowd well.
We had one couple that were absolute beginners and a couple of people
that were relatively new, and one busybody who kept trying to teach the
new couple figures that I was teaching. 8^)
The original plan for the evening is at the end of the e-mail.
Details:
The evening started off slow. We only had 3 couples for the first
dance. It gave me the opportunity to make a joke about not-so-long
lines forward and back.
I decided that we didn't have enough people (although we had 5 or 6
couples now) to do the circle mixer, so I switched the order with
Second Time Around at Amy's suggestion. Unfortunately, this is where
the new couple joined in (and danced with each other). We ended up
spending a fair amount of time walking through the dance until they
could get through the 1/2 hey. This is where the busybody made things
difficult. It took me a little while to get people's attention back and
recruit a demonstration set. People were very patient throughout the
process. After the dance got started, I attempted to replace the
gypsies with balances to help the new people, but was ignored by the
experienced dancers. I also learned to make sure that I tell the
experienced dancers that it was a 1/2 hey before I ran through the
shoulder passes.
Esmerelda's Revenge went well. I need to find some better words to
describe the return promenade. I think that it would be too easy to
face your partner along the ring instead of into and out of the center.
I used the words: "face your partner squarely" and was met with many
"huh?"s.
There weren't any problems with The Baby Rose. I had called this before
(at Pinewoods) and was comfortable with the teaching and calling.
Marian's delight also went well. I called it, even with Clark's comment
about the difficulty of the progression. It was interesting to watch,
how after the first three times through with everyone being late for
the Neighbor Bal.&Sw. that almost immediately most people were on
time. I just kept calling it on time, and the dancers learned how to
end early enough to give time time to progress. I also watched people
skip the butterfly whirl when they had taken too long.
At this point, I realized that I had been running the dances long (plus
the extended walk through for Second Time Around) and that it was 9:15
and I had two more dances to do. After a quick conversation with Amy
and Chuck (who was at the head of the line), we decided to run the
first half long since we knew that we would lose a lot of people at the
break.
So I called Carousel, again without any problems. At this point the new
couple had decided that they were done, and sat out the rest of the
evening (although they stayed until the end and danced some Cajun
during the break). Up until this point almost every dance had started
with either a Neighbor Bal. & Sw., or a Neighbor Gypsy & Swing.
I caught a couple of amused glances the last couple of dances from
dancers who noticed.
Square Affair also went well. I am still having problems with the
timing of the calls for the second half of the square thru. I always
get better, but the first and second times through I'm late.
We took the break and as we thought, we lost 3 or 4 couples. Midwest
Folklore started things off well. I didn't realize that it's pretty
difficult for the dancers to remember the slide left progression. I
ended up calling it for 90% of the dance.
At this point we lost more people. I realized that with 4 couples, a
shadow dance (Another Nice Combo) made no sense, so I skipped to Zoe
and Me. Again, I
learned that I needed to plan my words to be more efficient. I had
problems with the teaching of the "flatten to a wave" concept. Once
they got it, they got it, though.
Beyond this, we lost even more people, and didn't have enough dancers
to continue the dance, so we ended the evening at 10:30. I think that
the fact that I ran the dances long in the first half burned some
people out. I needed to do better at watching the clock and identifying
the top couple at the beginning of the dance. Amy and Jonathan were
playing great music, as always, and quoting Christmas carols in the
middle of the dances. This had the side effect of making Amy lose her
place in the dance, so I had to be on top of knowing whether we were in
the A2 or the B1 so I could tell her.
The things that I think that I did well are: I had good timing with my
calls (just a little rough). Most of my teaching went very well with
only one walk through. I did a fairly good job of reading the crowd and
knowing when to walk it through again, or realizing that the dancers
didn't understand my instructions and giving them new words to help
them. I also did well at evaluating which dances would work with the
current makeup of dancers each time and making sure that the dance I
programmed worked before I called it (except for 2nd time around when I
didn't realize the new couple had joined).
Amy expressed her interest in hiring me again if she has some open
dates. 8^) (Taking any trips soon, Linda?)
Whoohooo!
Chris
Chris Weiler wrote:
Forgotten Treasure
Esmerelda's Revenge
The Second Time Around
The Baby Rose
Marian's Delight (without Mods)
Carousel (Alt: Mary Cay's Reel)
Square Affair
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Midwest Folklore
Another Nice Combination (Alt: Chorus Jig)
Zoe and Me
Bertha's Landfall
Al's Safeway Produce (mod)