[Callers] Re: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill

larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different rates. Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop setting. "Dance with who's coming at you." David, I'd love to have this dance for uh, scientific purposes and certainly not to sow chaos 👀 -- Maia McCormick (she/her) 917.279.8194 On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:02 PM David Harding via Contra Callers < contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: > I've attended several workshops with this theme, led on different > occasions by Carol Ormand and Jo Mortland. A few of the exercises have > been described already, including teaching the dance to half of each couple > and not calling, messing with the music, dancing with pool noodles, and > dancing to the calling of figures with names as nonsensical as our familiar > figures are to first time dancers. > > A variant on the pool noodle theme used one teddy bear in each square. > > One of my favorites is a different approach to the lost dancer situation. > After the group takes hand four, the caller one dancer from each minor set, > shuffling around which one. They go to the bottom and make new minor > sets. This leaves one empty spot in each set occupied by a ghost. The > teaching and calling proceeds, with the dancers having to find their ways > through the dance without the orientation of the full set. As the dance > progresses, sometimes a whole set of four materializes,sometimes it's three > dancers, sometimes it's only two. This really emphasizes awareness of your > position in the set. It's also a useful skill when a partner or neighbor > doesn't show up at the right place and time. > > I've danced with a fraction of the dancers in a contra set blindfolded. I > also remember a simple square that we danced multiple times, increasing the > number of blindfolded dancers by one each time through. Again, positional > awareness and communication. > > A dance with enforced taking of everyone's less familiar role can help > build acceptance. > > One time we were divided into two sets, one with all gents and the other > with all ladies. Some gents came away impressed by how violently they were > being swung around while dancing as robins while some ladies complained > about the wimpy larks they danced with. And some in both lines enjoyed the > better matches of forces and energy. > > larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different rates. > Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that > chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop > setting. "Dance with who's coming at you." > > > On 1/24/2024 11:35 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote: > > Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some exercises I've > done/seen/considered: > - half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones who got > the walkthrough need to guide the others through the dance NONVERBALLY > - nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random words, define > a few terms for every dancer, call a nonsense dance and the hall has to > piece together what's what > - excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take a > simple dance and, once the hall has it, you and the band conspire to just > drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or more!) and dancers need to get themselves > in place for the next move. E.g. if the dance ends with a chain + star and > starts with a new neighbor, you might call "robins chain... new neighbor > balance and swing" and the band goes to the top of A1 (i.e. cutting out the > last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know how the dance flows and where > moves start and end to compensate for missing moves > - noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a bunch of > friends coming, they're raw beginners, who will volunteer to dance with > them and get them through the next dance? And the friends in question turn > out to be... pool noodles. How do dancers accommodate partners who quite > literally can't do a single thing? > - esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a dance with > lots of movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33) without the sets getting > bent out of shape. That's it, that's the whole challenge. > - a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above: practice > dropping a full hands-4 out of the set. This is a recovery skill that isn't > necessarily taught, but if e.g. one dancer has an injury or urgently needs > to drop out, the thing to do is to remove your entire hands-4 from the set > (and people can re-enter from the bottom if they still want to dance). I > ran around with various hats, placing them on people's heads to denote an > "injury"—that person had to then nonverbally get their hands-4 out of the > set, and was then licensed to put the "injury" hat on someone else's head. > (Could also be done with tagging people out.) > - i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to represent > an injury, and folks interacting with them need to notice and be cognizant > of it/modify around it > - i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the Wall > <https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthewall> > for an exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you > communicated a preference or stylistic request about the swing, and the > second time you met them, you got to enact that preference/request. > - "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged to > non-verbally say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy things at least n > times during the dance. Good practice for communicating and listening for > non-verbal "no's" > - beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws to a > number of the dancers (think "always a beat late", "dizzy", "grips tight > and moves slow", "always looks in the wrong direction", etc.). Dancers > without an assigned flaw practice quickly evaluating someone they're > dancing with and getting a sense of skill level/whether they need extra > help, and then providing that help. (If you want to "check people's work", > you could at the end have all the assigned-beginner dances identify > themselves, and everyone else can see if they clocked folks correctly.) > > I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk to > suggest, ha. Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't missed my > window for suggesting things—apologies for the delay!). Let us know how it > goes! > > Cheers, > Maia > > -- > Maia McCormick (she/her) > 917.279.8194 > > > On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers < > contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: > >> Hey Folks, >> >> Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I posted. >> >> Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a similar >> activity as me. And fascinating discussion about sharing weight John, >> Joseph and others! I really like the idea that every allemande/swing is a >> new opportunity for connecting with someone different and figuring out that >> connection. I think it was Will Mentor that referred to enjoying the little >> differences in every swing which made me all the more present and noticing >> what I liked about different people's swings. >> >> I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to do with >> dancers who already know the basics but who want to improve their dancing >> ability/understanding? >> >> :) Emily >> _______________________________________________ >> Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net >> To unsubscribe send an email to >> contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net >> > > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net > > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net >