Meg said, "I have better luck teaching that to beginners if I teach the grand right and left first and *then* add the allemande left, rather than teach it in the sequence it's presented in the dance."
The same advice was given by Lloyd Shaw in "Cowboy Dances" in 1939:
"It is so simple that it may seem labored to teach it in two parts in this way. But I have found, especially with a large crowd, that it saves a lot of confusion and innumerable collisions. Starting with the simple Grand right and left gets their directions established and the men get in the habit of always going right and the ladies always going left with a serpentine, touching alternate hands. Once this is established it is easy to add the preliminary left hook of the Allemande, and the trick is done. But try to teach the two manoeuvers at the same time to a large crowd and you will have them all running off wildly in all directions, and the stampede will be hard to check."
Nothing changes! :-)
For beginner groups, especially one night stands, I don't add the Allemande at all.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john@modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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