Re: [Callers] Social Dance Club intro program

Greetings fellow callers, My graduate school's social dance club is going to be having a Contra night, which I will be calling. I was hoping to get some advice on how to structure the evening. Here's what I'm expecting: Two 2 hour events, on March 3 and 10 20-30 people, with maybe 5-8 who have danced contra before at all, 1-3 who I would consider experts The second week will most likely have people who did not come the first week Minimal live band (who I have worked with before) Here's what I'm thinking so far: 1st dance: something simple without any swing to teach a few of the most basic moves 2nd dance: teach the swing, do an easy dance remaining dances: teach one new move before each dance, then do a dance that incorporates that move 2nd week: plan a generally easy program, but review moves as they come up (for those who missed the first week) I'm hoping for suggestions of specific dances that I should use, and ways to teach and handle a group with very few experienced dancers. How do I prevent the whole thing from falling apart? In general, I think they'll be more tolerant towards additional teaching time because it's billed more as a lesson than a dance. (Last month they had a salsa lesson which went on for 2 hours before they turned on the music.) I'm hoping that the fact that these are mostly graduate/medical students who have done other forms of social dance before will help greatly, but any and all advice is welcome. Sincerely, Ben Hornstein _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers