[Callers] Workshop follow up

Hi all, Just thought I'd send some follow up about the workshop that I ended up doing ("Helping Hands 4") in the afternoon of Oct 29th. First, I wanted to thank everyone for your comments. They were helpful. I particularly appreciated David's comments about dancing without embellishment. Coincidentally, we had a group of 20-25 new teenaged dancers appear at the dance held one week before the workshop. One of the girls was turning 19 and decided to bring her party to our dance. What a fabulous thing for TCD ! We so needed a boost of contagious, infectious energy ! It was wonderful. But I noticed that the intermediate dancers on the floor didn't tone down the embellishments, and I saw evidence that it was problematic for the newbies. I noticed the newbies twirling around in dosidos and getting so dizzy, that we had to catch a few of them before they fell over ! But they were just following the intermediate dancers who were doing that. I also appreciated Karen's comment about the ladies chain to left hand star and emphasized the connection between figures as a way to guide newbies. And I really appreciated Melissa's comment that the best thing a more experienced dancer can do is ask the newbie to dance and offer encouragement. Absolutely agree there, and luckily, the Torontonians seem to be pretty good at doing that. Anyway, the workshop turnout was relatively low at 17 people. But it was an absolutely glorious, sunny day after a week of rain and gloom and we figure the good weather had an effect. However, as hoped and specifically targeted, the dancers who came were mostly intermediate level dancers, many of whom needed some refining of their own skills. The workshop was billed as an interactive session and everyone got a chance to contribute in terms of discussion. And I did ask them to "spread the word" to other intermediate dancers who couldn't make it. I talked about the better partner/dancer skills (giving weight, transitions between figures, comfortable holds) sprinkled throughout the workshop. And I used 8 dances in the 2 hour session, emphasizing the following in each dance: 1. Breaking down a dance into individual phrases so people can really get a sense of the actual timing for each figure. I asked the band to play an individual phrase of the tune, up to speed, so that everyone could dance each figure to the exact phrase of music. The point was for people to understand exactly how much time they had for the figure without embellishment. And as an aside just to address Nathaniel's comment, no one at the workshop (or any dance in Toronto) was discouraged or "looked down upon" for dancing with embellishments. I *encouraged* intermediate dancers to consider dancing without embellishments when they danced with a newbie, in order to help the newbie learn phrasing and timing. And I do think there is a big difference between the two statements, with the latter being positive. 2. Dancing a traditional dance with no embellishments and with the inactives staying engaged. I used Chorus Jig and this was an interesting challenge for the dancers. I asked the two's to follow the one's down the outside and down the middle with their eyes so that they kept visual contact on them and helped to draw them into the cast and then connect for the contra corners. Even in the workshop, many of the intermediate dancers had trouble with the contra corners figure once the dance got started, even though they had no trouble through the walkthrough and explanation of the figure. Potentially my teaching techniques needs refinement. 3. Communicating with eyes and gestures, no pulling/pushing. I really believe it's possible to guide newbies gently and often without even having to touch them. I set up the set and then asked all couple 2's to leave the room ("step into our sound-proof, skill testing question booth !"). I taught the dance to the 1's with ghost couples (which was lots of fun in and of itself) and then invited the 2's back in and called it as a no walk thru. The 2's were asked to act as newbies and the point was for the 1's to help the 2's thru the dance. The set was so short that the one's became two's pretty quickly and everyone was trying to out-newbie each other ! 4. Communicating II - called Equality Jig (Steve Zakon- Anderson) where the 2's get to pick a 16 count figure on the fly for the B1 during the dance and communicate it to the 1's with gestures. Again, the point was to communicate the figure but the choice was made as a couple. Some very cool figured were invented in that dance, and I also emphasized that mistakes were inevitable but that the fixing them and being ready for the next figure was a sign of great dancing. Someone in the workshop suggested "Better never than late" which I also wholeheartedly agreed with. 5. Communicating III - called Hey Man (Paul Balliet) where the first figure could be gents or ladies and they need to communicate to each other who was going to dance it. Choice was made more as an individual. 6. Moving outside the minor set with beginners - reassuring them that they will get back. Emphasis here was on guiding a newbie to the next figures and bringing them back to their partner. 7. Then I called a more advanced dance because I wanted to try it and mentioned that I wanted to test it with a more advanced set of dancers. I chose White Water (Cary Ravitz) and talked a little bit about what to do on the ends in an advanced dance. We talked about "going where you're needed" instead of trying to teach end effects. 8. And I ended with a no walk through asking them to think about all of the things that had been raised through the dances. I wish I'd seen Chris' comment about adjusting ones dance style to each individual before the workshop, because I think that's also a very valid point and I would have emphasized it, had I thought of it. I received very good feedback from both the dancers attending and the organizers, so I was happy about that. Especially since it was the first workshop like that I'd taught. We all went out for dinner and came back for the Halloween Contra dance that night. And interestingly enough, there were at least 10 - 15 newbies that night. Unfortunately, there were about 70-80 people at the dance and a few of the people that attended the workshop didn't stay. It didn't seem to me that the "spread the word" approach for the concepts discussed worked. But everyone seemed to have a great time at the dance, which of course was the most important thing. ***************************************** The Witful Turnip wturnip(a)sympatico.ca "I'm 40-fucking-5, and I've got nothing to hide !" - Samantha Jones (Sex in the City) *****************************************