[Callers] Wedding dances

Dear Luke, Your biggest challenge is figuring out exactly how many guests have done contra dancing before, but this may not be the group that you wish to focus on! For me, the much more important folks are all of the family members and friends who have never been to a contra dance before. If children are at the wedding, it is also great to make sure the dances can be done by them, as well. Welcoming these folks into the world of dancing, and making the dances fun and fool-proof is so rewarding when accomplished! Those who have danced before will understand what you are trying to do, and won't expect dances that they might normally do at a monthly dance. We take progressing and identifying actives and inactives for granted. However, these concepts can be a bit difficult, especially for a group that includes many novices. And you can bet that the novices WILL be dancing together! Another challenge may be that there are more women, or more men present. or same sex couples....adding another layer of complexity to improper dances that might be called. To deal with all of these challenges, I tend to call longways dances (Galopede; Boston Tea Party, Le Brandy, variations of the Virginia Reel); circle mixers (you have chosen La Bastringue; there are others with shorter swings); Sicilian Circles (especially those that can be called without regard for gender), and other formations, which work very, very well. An example: Do Si Three Formation is a line of three dancers (facing down the hall), facing another line of three dancers (facing up the hall) in a contra-type set (imagine contra couples, each with an extra person) A1 (Take hands in a circle of six) Circle left Circle right A2 Ends of the line Do si do your opposite (only the four people who are on the ends of each line) Middles of the line do si do your opposite (only the two people in the middle of the lines) B1 Ends of the line Two hand turn your opposite ( and return home) Middles of the line Two hand turn your opposite (and return home) B2 In lines of three (another words, with your partners) go forward and back "say goodbye to these neighbors" And pass through to the next line of three I put this dance together especially for this type of celebration. So many potential problems are solved! Lines of three can be any number of men, women, or combo. Children easily understand the dance (as long as they are not too young). Even young children, if trioed up with adults, can be included. The progression to a new group is very, very easy. At the ends, I remind dancers that they wait out one time through the dance, turn around as a line, and get back in the dance. I never have to talk about actives/inactives, but I do mention that after each dance move, the dancers go "home", and home changes at the ends only. I don't teach a contra swing....I encourage a two hand swing (the experienced dancers will naturally go into a swing with each other, the others will have a great time with the two hand swing). The dancers have lots of surprises.....who they swing, how they might get back to the same neighbors (from the first time through the dance), how successful they are, and how much fun everyone has doing the dance! I recognize that I might be promoting dances that are much too easy for your particular group of wedding guests. I also realize that much of what you plan to do highly depends on what the bride and groom wish to have happen, since it is their day! However, I also want to give you lots of "permission" to call a simpler program if the situation warrants it. Those of us who have literally called hundreds of weddings/birthday parties/benefit dances/etc. have shared thoughts about programming at conferences, dance weekends, etc., and we all agree that simple, easily taught, gender role free, accessible dances will add immeasurably to the joy of the occasion. Have a great time! warmly, Linda Leslie On Jul 30, 2009, at 12:00 PM, callers-request(a)sharedweight.net wrote: