[Callers] On teaching Contra Corners to Newbies

Two thoughts: if your dancers are not already familiar w/ casting off as a mid-dance method of progressing, doing that along with contracorners may be tricky. A solid teaching dance I often use: A1 balance and swing neighbors A2 long lines into the center and back Everybody into the center again - 2's go back out to the line while the 1s "swap and prep" = switch sides with each other but remain in center, right hands joined, steeling yourself for the ordeal ahead... B1 Contracorners B2 1s balance and swing Thought two: The following teaching technique is too talky/teachy for a crowd of regular dancers mixed with a few beginners, but if you have a homogenous beginning group that is invested in learning together it works pretty slick: *** 1's start in the center facing each other, directly between the twos, proper, i.e., Man 2 - Man 1 - Lady 1- Lady - 2, as if you were about to start a hey. *** Now, just for practice, to get into the rhythm of it, the 1's allemande each other by the right in the center then the opposite sex by the left on the end, then each other by the right again, then back out to the opposite sex by the left again, and just keep doing that till it becomes easy... it's as if you were doing a strip-the-willow but were somehow stuck in place. The "story line" for the 1s is "You're my partner and I like turning you... but YOU're pretty cute too..." *** Now, have all the ones MOVE DOWN ONE COUPLE TO NEW 2s AND TRY IT AGAIN. The 1s at the bottom will need to dance with ghosts, the 2s at the top will wait out. *** Now the kicker: the 1s MOVE HALFWAY BACK SO NOW THEY HAVE A CHOICE OF 2s TO TURN, one set above and one set below. They will realize pretty quickly that they are "sharing" the 2s with the next sets of 1s. So to make it work out, the rule is LADIES UP FIRST. The "story line" is "I want to check out both of those other cute 2s, but I reassure my partner before/inbetween/after that I'm still theirs..." Like I said, this is talky/teachy and drawn out - but it works very well in a group of all-beginners. Good luck! -Amy