5 Aug
2025
5 Aug
'25
5:32 p.m.
Greg,
Is the scenario that new dancers have joined at the bottom in great clump and are all the
same hands four?
Progress them twice or 4 times at the beginning before the walkthrough.
“You’re in contra dance lines, across from your partner. We’ll practice the progression a
few times first! Balance the ring, past your neighbor by the right to meet new neighbors.
Take hands here (at the ends when you get spit out, trade places with your partner.)"
repeat once or three more times depending on how big the clump is.
Then start the walkthrough of a dance that presumably has a balance the ring and pass
through to progress.
If it’s a becket dance you can just have the whole oval circle left 2 couples and take a
new hands 4.
If the problem is throughout the night, I do what Maia said- asking friends to ask them to
dance. If they’re young new dancers, ideally a few folks in their general age would be
good.
Alexandra Deis-lauby
VILLAGEWESTDESIGN
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On Aug 5, 2025, at 1:15 PM, Richard Hart via Contra
Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
A simple circle mixer is often a good choice whenever some new beginners arrive.
Sent from my iPhone
On Aug 5, 2025, at 1:07 PM, Maia McCormick via
Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
You might consider a mixer to help get the newbies out of their cluster and meeting other
people on the floor--hopefully some of those other folks will then ask the newbies to
dance, and it'll be a less scary experience.
I feel like most dance communities with good beginner-welcoming practices will do this
already, but if you've got some friends on the floor, you might ask them directly
"hey, could you and some of your friends ask the new folks to dance for the next
dance or two?"
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Tue, Aug 5, 2025 at 12:15 PM Casey Carr via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
Agree with the things you listed and just had this thought. If you do
two walk-throughs as you start the dance, some of them will naturally be
moved down the line to dance with more experienced dancers. Since the
swing is so important in getting people on the correct side of their
partner, I would re-teach the swing as I teach the dance.
Casey Carr
On 8/5/2025 12:07 PM, Gregory Frock via Contra Callers wrote:
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Here's the scenario: You are finishing up a new dancers' lesson, and
will be starting the dance in a few minutes. In walks a significant
number (say 6+) of newbies, all friends who want to dance together.
Besides the two most common solutions, lower the difficulty and insist
they NOT do the first couple of dances together, does anyone have an
additional creative/elegant solution, enhancement actions to make the
basics more effective, or important issues for consideration that are
commonly missed?
Greg
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