As may be obvious, I love Mad Robins. I'm still working on what is the best way to teach them.
I know about the "Dosido/now face your Partner/on the same path as the Dosido, do a Mad Robin" approach and have used it.
I've heard other callers I admire admonish to not use the "wrong" move as a teaching tool for the "right" move - as it's that much harder to "unlearn" the original bit.
What I've observed is that newer dancers may end up focused on the wrong person, facing the wrong direction, and possibly doing the "Dosido Twirl" when using the Dosido teach. But they do follow the correct path (so long as the caller remembers to say SeeSaw vs. Dosido as the correct analogue) on the floor. Some can make the facing adjustment and some persist in facing the wrong way. If the dance tolerates the facing differences, all is OK.
As a practice, I actively solicit feedback on my calling at each gig. Out of a recent one I got into an extended discussion about the Mad Robin teach with a dancer whom had struggled with their beginner partner in a sequence that evening. I had read that crowd as highly experienced so did only a basic teaching of the move, which they reported having not got through to this beginner. They freely offered that all was well around them, it was just a frustration in their own experience. We touched on the merits and drawbacks of the Dosido teach (which I chose not to use in that situation as it appears to annoy experienced dancers, plus because of the above points).
I'm trying to evolve to something that teaches both the correct motion and the facing direction at the same time - without taxing experienced folks' patience. I have my own ideas on this but welcome others'.
So, how do you teach a Mad Robin most effectively and efficiently? Do you vary it by context, crowd composition, other factors?
Thanks,
Don