Re: [Callers] Mill City - first night

Seth, thanks for the glowing review! Hi everyone! Of course, I'm my own best (or worst) critic, so I focused on all of the things that I did wrong or forgot. I was running late and was frazzled, plus we were having problems with the sound system, so I didn't run the beginners session. When we lined up for the first dance, there were 6 couples, 4 of which were complete beginners. The first walk through turned into a beginners workshop with me on the floor leading people through figures, demonstrating when necessary and having the few experienced dancers pull people through. When all was done, they did a great job and experienced dancers joined in as they arrived. Things got better from there on. After the first 1/2 to 3/4 hour, more experienced dancers arrived and the dancing smoothed out and people got into enjoying the music. We ended up with more than 40 dancers. There was a A1 level Modern Western Square Dance going on in the secondary hall and some of the attendees went over and danced there a couple of times. Clark Baker grabbed one of the square dancers and pulled her through one of our dances and she had a great time (even though she was dizzy and out of breath at the end). 8^) My program (made up on the fly for the most part, but at the break I did put some planning into the 2nd half): Broken Sixpence The Baby Rose Spring Fever La Bastringue You're Among Friends Square Affair Break With Thanks to the Gene Al's Safeway Produce Forgotten Treasure Chorus Jig The Carousel As Seth mentioned, I decided to put Chorus Jig into the program on the spur of the moment and got a great murmur of approval when I told them to "find a partner for Chorus Jig". As people were lining up, I saw a lot of familiar faces, so I asked the question "How many of you know Chorus Jig by heart?" All but two hands went up out of 20+ dancers, so we did it no-walk-through. This is the second time that this has happened to me in NH late in the evening. By the last dance, I was comfortable enough to come off the stage and dance the last one with Seth's wife, Bethany. All in all it was a good evening and everyone had fun. People were great in giving feedback about problems with finding the hall and with the directions. People were great about volunteering to help and I gave out a few passes for free admission to them. I have some ideas for helping people find the dance and will add some things like water and lemonade to the experience. A few of us went out afterwards to the local diner, so I'll put a flyer on the table telling people about the place with directions. It's time to do it all again this Friday! I'm looking forward to it and hope that we have a great crowd again! Thanks for everyone's support! Chris Seth Seeger wrote: