Re: [Callers] 10 things

In response to the recent discussion regarding the swing, I would say as a caller, teaching the walking swing is easy. It gets new dancers doing something, when the caller says "swing". As a dancer I think perhaps teaching the walking swing is perhaps one of the most limiting factors in starting a dancer to dance. I think teaching the "buzz-step" is really important in establishing perhaps one of the great pleasures of contra dancing. I do not claim to have a full-proof way to teach the "buzz-step", but in teaching it is all about the language. It is about using language so that the new dancers understand. If you are teaching new dancers any dance move, if it is an allemande, do-si-do, and even the swing and they are not understanding how to do a certain dance move, then the caller or teacher is not using the correct language to teach them. From the many beginners workshops I have seen, I see a lot of good callers, good teachers, teach the "buzz-step" with success. I encourage people to go to beginners workshops, not necessary for learning how to contra dance, but to learn how to teach contra dance. You will see so teaching/language work well and so not... It's all about the communication, not necessary the subject matter. Jeff