14 Sep
2023
14 Sep
'23
6:42 p.m.
New subject line because Dale’s comment reminded me of a question that’s been on my mind:
what are some favorite dances, sequences, or figures that are slightly challenging for
experienced dancers but don’t register as preferentially more challenging for beginners?
In other words, these are movements that play off our biases/expectations from years of
dancing, but are not actually technically complex.
Some examples:
- pretty much any well-structures circle right
- there’s a dance I have that does a left-hand pull by up/down the set directly out of a
R-L through courtesy turn, which I think qualifies.
I find these occasionally useful for dances with lots of beginners, but which also have a
small group of experienced dancers who happen to be there. Does anyone else have ideas
that fit this theme?
Sargon
On Sep 14, 2023, at 13:29, Dale Wilson via Contra
Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Jeff says:
I'll bite that bullet: callers generally shouldn't be calling a dolphin hey at a
regular evening dance.
And Amy says:
It always helps to read the room first. Got a bunch of beginners? Call simpler dances, at
least the first half. Explain them well. Don't call a complicated move that will
discourage them. You want them to return, right? Baby steps, then walking, then jogging,
then dolphin heys.
So I say:
Exactly right, Amy. I always have a challenging dance on tap ready to call toward the
middle of the second half of the evening. If there are too many beginners (including our
perpetual beginners) when the time comes, I simply skip the challenging dance. If the
walk-thru doesn't go well, I'm ready with an easy replacement. But when it works
our experienced dancers love conquering a [small] challenge -- at least that's what
they tell me later.
Dale
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