Re: [Callers] Back to Calling Medleys

Mark, Well said. Personally, I don't often call medleys - but it has nothing to do with the dancers abilities. I did call one at a regular dance a couple weeks ago as the last dance of the evening. By that time everyone there had enough experience to handle a couple easy dances without a walk thru. While I avoid doing anything that excludes new dancers, I am not afraid to challenge them along with our more experienced dancers. With the new dancers properly dispersed in each line and some very talented regular dancers assisting, you can get away with quite a bit. I spend the early dances evaluating the skill level for that evening and revise my program to suit the crowd. I come with a program I have planned for the evening - but usually end up using about half of it. For example, you mentioned contra corners. I almost always include it in my program for the second half of the evening - but it usually gets cut for something more appropriate for beginners. If we have a fairly skilled group, it stays in. In my experience - the regular dancers really enjoy a wide variety of dances - so my focus is making sure we show the new dancers the best time we can. Hopefully they finish the evening having had a lot of fun and feeling like they really could do this type of dancing. Mac ________________________________ From: Mark Widmer <mark(a)harbormist.com> To: callers(a)sharedweight.net Sent: Tue, February 1, 2011 8:59:49 PM Subject: Re: [Callers] Back to Calling Medleys Rich, You've pretty much summed up my approach (and that of other callers I know) to calling medleys at a regular contra dance -- i.e., not at a festival. A medley is a fun surprise for the dancers, there is no need to "warn" them about it. Straightforward dances are used, so it is arguably less challenging to beginners than doing a dance with contra corners or having a shadow. That being said, I do occasionally encounter a hallful of dancers where I feel, on balance, a medley would not be a good idea. But that is the exception rather than the rule. Mark Widmer On Tue, 1 Feb 2011 19:27:31 +0000 (UTC),richgoss(a)comcast.net wrote: contra _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers