[Callers] new contra dancers

I base my introductory workshop on George Marshalls, and am a firm believer that the experienced dancers are the main teachers of the dance. In my workshop, I always pair the experienced dancers with the newbies. The workshop doesn't start until every newbie has an experienced partner. I tell everyone that I'll be calling, but if you're new it will probably sound like Blah Blah Blah. But that's ok because it is your experienced partner and neighbors who will help you through this. Then I teach about connection, giving weight, and line them up to dance Broken Sixpence. The only "move" I teach in the workshop is the swing. At the end of Broken Sixpence I tell them that the tradition is that we trade partners with every dance and that women ask men to dance, women ask women, men ask women, men ask men. Then I tell the experienced dancers to find the newbies to dance with. I often hear callers tell the newbies to find experienced dancers. That's like telling a drowning person to go find a lifeguard! When the "real" dance begins, I follow Beth Molaro's advice of "Test - then Teach." So I might tell them to Allemande R their neighbor. I watch for a couple of seconds to see the dancers teaching their neighbors to Allemande. I don't jump in to teach unless I see that there is a need for it, and there usually isn't, depending on the ratio of newbies to experienced dancers. And then I often ask a foursome to demonstrate, which further reinforces the idea that the dancers are the real teachers here. I verbally describe what is happening while the demonstration is going on, to help them get used to the words that are describing the process. The experienced dancers are my allies and will let me know if there is a need for more instruction. I wrote a blog post about it. You can find it here: http://jolainejonespokorney.blogspot.com/2012/11/dancing-with-newbies.html -- JoLaine Jones-Pokorney "We are as gods and might as well get good at it!" - Stewart Brand