Hi all,

Here in Philly we're restarting our Teen Barn Dance, which had a great four-year run before the pandemic. (Here's the story if you're interested.) 

I love calling for the teens, and have been surprised to find that the best dances for them don't overlap much with either my contra repertoire or my barn dance repertoire. I've written up some of our favorite dances, and I'm looking for more! Specifically:

1) Barn dances that are slightly harder / more interesting than a typical barn dance crowd can handle

2) Contra dances that are partner-role-free, and have no swing or just a neighbor swing. 

Role-free dances are great because people can line up anywhere, there's less anxiety about partnering, and there are no role terms to choose or explain. And swings don't seem to have the same draw for teens as they do for adult contra dancers -- they're intimate, and awkward to master. This time around we're trying cross-hand rather than ballroom swings. These goals rule out many contras (no chains for example), but contras have such a rich figure palette that I think there's room for plenty of good ones.

Do you know any good dances in those categories? If so I'd love to see them, and I hope you like ours.

Rick

PS - I'd also encourage you to consider starting a teen dance! Ours has been fantastic fun, and some of the teens from the first time around are now pillars of our adult dance community. Happy to talk with anybody who's interested.