Re: [Callers] swingless contras

Many experiences with enthusiastic teens dancing for the first time has taught me the importance of training them to listen for each successive call. They can lapse into autopilot on any figure--I've had teens who take forever to get a star rotating, then just keep going to indulge their success through two or even three subsequent calls. Starting out with longways dances (such as the many variants of the Virginia Reel) with several 8-count figures ending in long lines facing across can establish good listening behavior especially if you insist they wait for each call before launching into the next figure. I try to get them to really notice how dynamic it is when the whole set of dancers moves together so they are thinking more about the big picture. I also tell them if they realize they're really late on a figure, skip it if they can and wait for the next call (and I try to pick dances that tolerate that well). As far as contras go, dances with 16-count swings actually have worked better for me because the dancers usually wear themselves out more quickly and settle down into a more energy-conserving mode. But in the walkthrough and while the dance is in progress, I almost always insert a warning such as "end the swing and face across" (or whatever) before I give the call for the next figure. Chip Hedler