“Improper is tougher”
It certainly sounds like an opportunity for people to switch roles, and that it’s tougher suggests it’d be a new experience. If they’ve never done that before, even familiar and simple dances will seem new and newly challenging.
 
Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA
http://lcfd.org

On Oct 4, 2016, at 5:27 PM, Jerome Grisanti via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Jacqui,

I have called proper longways dances (without diagonals or out-of-minor-set interactions) for two couples, switching active couples with every other iteration but maintaining the same orientation in the room. Works well with many English dances -- for example Softly Good Tummas -- because they are proper. Improper is tougher. The idea is similar to Dale's calling party orientation, but the mechanics are a bit different, and the one he describes is better for improper dances.

My group (Maryville MO) is accustomed to smaller attendance, and thus ready to switch to three-couple longways English when another couple shows up, then into old-time squares when a fourth couple shows up. A fifth couple or more puts us into longways duple minors. And always ready to mix it up with a circle mixer.

--Jerome

Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com

"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power and magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

On Tue, Oct 4, 2016 at 2:09 PM, QuiAnn2 via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I recently called at a contra dance where we had exactly 6 dancers for almost the entire evening (one joined us later but only occasionally danced). This was unexpected as they usually have attendance in the 12-20 range. I was able to piece together a night of mixers, triplets, and oddball dances to make it work and the dancers were game for anything so it ended up being a fun night. But it got me thinking about what to do if only 4 dancers came to a dance (meaning even if I jumped in, we would only have 5 total dancers). In order to be better prepared for next time, I have a couple of questions.

1) Do you have any dances you can share that would work for 4 or 5 dancers? Or also dances for 6 dancers that are not triplets (have plenty of triplets). I have already collected Do-Si-3 and Haste to the Divorce, both of which I modified so that they would not progress.
2) Could a whole evening (3 hours) of dance be put together for just 4-5 dancers?
3) What preparation can be done by me in advance to help with this situation? It’s possible to talk with the organizer in advance about canceling the dance if only 4 or 5 dancers show up, however, this particular dance is a 75 minute drive one-way and I’d prefer to avoid the round trip if there won’t be enough dancers. For various reasons, any dance promoting that I do myself would be largely ineffective for this particular dance.

Would love to hear about any ideas you can share. Thanks!

Jacqui Grennan
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