Anything that gets a laugh is more likely to be remembered. I've heard folks (Adina Gordon comes to mind) say something like: "If there's no one on your left diagonal... (dramatic pause) ...for the love of God, don't do anything!" Still don't have a particularly good way to get folks back IN on a diagonal though, eagerly following this thread for that!

I will mention a bit of advice I got (believe it was from the esteemed Will Mentor) on calling new/old neighbor figures: and that's to avoid use of the phase "go BACK to your..." because to many that implies backwards motion and generally folks will be walking forward, and you only perceive that direction as "back" if you have a pretty well-developed sense of contra geography. Instead, say something like "return". I also find it useful, in this cases, to give the players funny and memorable names other than "current neighbor" and "next neighbor"--like maybe your "one true neighbor"?

Cheers,
Maia

On Tue, Oct 11, 2016 at 8:27 AM, K Panton via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

Thanks to all for the ideas.

Special thanks to Maia!

If anyone has insights into teaching diagonal figures to the uninitiated I'd love to hear them.

Ken


On Oct 10, 2016 12:36, "K Panton" <panton90@tricolour.queensu.ca> wrote:

3-33-33 is not a good choice for introducing beginners to extra-4some expeditions. I've also found that a diagonal chain followed by a straight-across figure causes confusion.

The Young Adult Rose,and others, have a pass-through to shadow allemande which is doable.

Does anyone have some reliable key to unlock this mystery for new dancers, thereby opening up a whole new world!

Thanks

Ken


_______________________________________________
Callers mailing list
Callers@lists.sharedweight.net
http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net