The courtesy turn is the hard part.   Sometimes Teaching hat first works as they practice the movement prior to moving - then have them walk across and do same turn.   Similar for ladies chain although I think having a dance with R&L b4 chain is my new approach.      And sometimes it just doesn't work with many beginners - so I apologize for not explaining well and change to an easy backup dance 

Cheryl Joyal

630-667-3284

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 27, 2015, at 8:28 AM, Jacob Nancy Bloom via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

I would absolutely believe that the dancers were completely confounded by "right and left through".  I remember how surprised I was, when I called my first dance, to discover how much more confusing it was than a Ladie's Chain.  If you are used to both of them, then you tend to think of them as being similar.  If you've never done either, then one of them has you connected to other people, while the other leaves you by yourself, trying to figure out which way to turn (and usually getting it wrong.)

But learning which figures are easier and harder comes quickly.  Learning which dances to call for a given crowd and how to teach them efficiently is a neverending process!

Jacob

On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 10:47 AM, Brooks Hart via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

So, as the original poster, I am reporting back.

The dance with the solo fiddler was a mixed bag.  The music was very nice, but because I am new to calling, and our dancers are 99% beginners, way too much time was spent on walk-throughs and teaching. The fiddler sat out for long stretches of time, which seemed like a waste of his time and the money spent on live music.

I thought I had picked easy dances, but you wouldn't believe how confounded so many of the people were at "right and left through",  and that falls on me and my lack of experience with teaching and crowd wrangling.

A special moment for everyone, though, was doing a circle waltz dance with the fiddler playing, unplugged, in the center of the circle. 

So, thanks again for everyone's input and encouragement,

Brooks

> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 03:50:51 -0700
> To: callers@lists.sharedweight.net
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Solo fiddler or recorded music?
> From: callers@lists.sharedweight.net
>
> [resting up before the CALLERLAB convention, catching up on some older
> messages]
>
> On Thu, Mar 05, 2015, Neal Schlein via Callers wrote:
> >
> > So, the moral of the story is that if a caller isn't USED to working with a
> > band, live music isn't necessarily going to result in the best experience
> > for the dancers.
>
> My experience as a relatively new caller is that it also depends on the
> caller's experience as a dancer. My hearing makes it a bit difficult to
> tune into the phrasing of a live band to call at the correct times, but
> because I've been contra dancing for so many years (almost exclusively to
> live music) I can roughly manage it -- and I know what it's supposed to
> sound like.
> --
> Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/
> <*> <*> <*>
> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html
> _______________________________________________
> Callers mailing list
> Callers@lists.sharedweight.net
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