18 Apr
2023
18 Apr
'23
9:36 a.m.
[Somehow Ken Panton's reply to this thread ended up in a new email
altogether. I want to reply to what he and others in this thread have
shared, so I'll quote his text below mine in an effort to streamline.]
"Novel Dances" like what Alan and Ken both speak about is actually my best
answer to Maia's Q#3 about elevating community dance level. Start by
letting your local community expect the unexpected from you — I usually
start with dances where folks leave their minor set more often, but where
the moves themselves are still fairly glossary. I also love dances with
uncommon variations on common moves (circle right; gents right-hand chain)
where the momentum of the dance helps dancers understand where to go next
as they get into and out of the new/tricky part. There are so many skills
to be learned in those dances around musicality, timing, transitions, and
choreographic innovation, so let your dancers get comfortable with those
ideas first!
That said, I do not agree that *novel* choreography is the same as
*advanced* choreography, and agree that more opportunities to call and
dance challenging dances is valuable! It's also true that you need a
*critical mass* of competent dancers to pull off a session focused on
highly challenging choreo (interlocking orbits! contra corners! half a
diagonal hey followed by a half-hey straight across! yum!!). This is why
Flurry and NEFFA go great even with first-timers on the floor.
I agree with Brooke's points about not kicking folks out. I think once
dancers arrive, it's inappropriate to ask them to sit out or leave. This
feels especially true when I think about very experienced dancers who
struggle vs. brand-new dancers who pick up new information rapidly (surely
we can all think of a few dancers that fit into each of these categories!),
or even typically-competent dancers having an unusually difficult time
(brain fog, festival sleep deprivation, anxiety, etc).
Asking dancers to self-identify as "Advanced" or not is tricky, which is
why I also strongly agree with Jeff's point about clear advertising and
promotion. I like how the information he shared from the Concord
Challenging Series offers ways for dancers to make their *best effort* to
determine their skill level. Best Effort is Good Enough here because again,
ultimately, *we don't actually need 100% of the dancers at a session like
this to be 100% advanced.* We just need a critical mass (probably a clear
majority?) of advanced dancers to show up.
That's why I *really* liked this requirement from the Concord series:
** Assisting your partner and neighbor to the next move—while being
friendly and welcoming to those who may be having trouble.*
It sets the reasonable expectation that skill levels will always be mixed,
even at a clearly-promoted advanced evening.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "K P <kenwp1(a)gmail.com>"
Hello all,
> I appreciate the time it takes to
thoughtfully respond to challenging
> questions, and provide a variety of viewpoints. Thus, thanks for all the
> thoughts on this question.
> Something came to mind while reading the
following paragraph late in
> Alan's reply to the question:
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
>> From: "Winston, Alan P."
>> "Purely for callers dealing with the situation once it's happened
>> already: I don't know if advanced contras are meant to be
>> difficult/spatially-challenging etc contras. You could in general try to
>> accommodate.a mixed level floor by trading complexity for novelty. Unusual
>> figures equalize things for everybody (if nobody's used to a left-hand
>> chain the beginners are at no disadvantage)."
> My belief, which, I think, might differ from Alan's, is that
"advanced"
> dancers -- let's define that as those fluent (i.e. able to successfully and
> happily enjoy a hash call) in a substantive set of glossary figures -- will
> have, by osmosis, unavoidably developed a degree of "dance thinking",
> musicality and spacial awareness. That includes an awareness of "the space
> between" figures; i.e. the transitions.
> So, I think that an advanced dancer does,
in fact, have a leg up when
> faced with a novelty figure, or anything new in the dance; they can and
> will use their experience to help figure it out. (Unless, I guess, the
> novelty figure is so far removed from anything previously encountered; "if
> Einstein were a contradance choreographer and brought along a "quantum
> figure", for example. Egads!)
> Also, novelty, in my experience, can be
hit-and-miss. From unexpected
> bliss to eye-rolling hokiness.
> To my mind, "dance thinking"
somewhat analogous to "design thinking"; that
> is, a way of thinking that guides the experienced practitioner in whatever
> context the designer practices the craft.
> From Alan's paragraph, therefore, I
might change the suggestion of
> "trading complexity for novelty" to "trading complexity of figures
for
> satisfying, perhaps novel, combinations".
> Don't know if that's a useful
observation.
> I'm, otherwise, totally on-board with
Alan's appreciation of a dance
> session in which high levels of skill and trust are so concentrated (i.e.
> ratio of adepts to novices) that magic can happen.
> Three examples from my experience.
> 1. An advanced dance weekend I attended,
repeatedly, years ago which had a
> "word of mouth, invite your skilled dance friends", form of recruitment.
> The caller(s) knew the crowd could navigate through any hash thrown at them
> in an hour-long marathon medley. (Yes, it's exclusionary. So is El Capitan
> for climbers. Or uni courses with prerequisites.)
> 2. The Flurry Festival in upstate New York.
The synchronicity of 1000-ish
> dancers, invariably including some novices, successfully flowing through
> moderately challenging contras is a marvel and a delight.
> 3. Similarly wonderful, though not quite as
large -- due to space
> limitations -- is the contra pavilion (Warren's Roadhouse!) at Seattle's
> Folklife festival which, like the Flurry, would see a modicum of novice
> dancers successfully assimilated into the Borg.
> In dance,
> Ken Panton
> _______________________________________________
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On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 7:19 PM Julian Blechner via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> I just wanted to also say that I really like the additions Brooke
> contributed.
> Julian
> Western Mass
> On Mon, Apr 17, 2023, 4:23 PM Brooke
Friendly <
> brookefriendlydance(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Most of my experience with this comes from the ECD world rather than
>> contra. That said...
> >> 1. As a caller, I teach to who is there
regardless of how the dance is
>> advertised. This means flexibility, ability to shift expectations, shift my
>> program, work on my patience. Sometimes this means for a particular dance,
>> from the mic I invite 'if you are new or struggled with the last dance,
>> you'll have more fun watching this next one' and follow it by an easy
>> dance. I may also need to encourage attitude adjustment if the
'advanced'
>> dancers are being cranky (lots of ways to do this, not going to take
>> the time right now). And, there are lots of ways to have an 'advanced'
>> dance. Complicated choreography is one. Less teaching/prompting is another.
>> Offering things such as (usually easy) no walk through dances is another.
>> Relatively accessible dances with extra time to teach dancing well is
>> another.
> >> 2. As organizers, what do you do to try
and keep your advanced
>> sessions... advanced?
>> I'm with Julian on being against kicking people out. It is not the kind
>> of community I want, can backfire in a big way, and make people really
>> unhappy. I hadn't thought about the economic injustice aspect of it, so
>> thanks for that.
>> I'm also fine with having advanced dances. And the messaging needs to be
>> super clear. I wouldn't use words like 'advanced' or
'experienced' but
>> rather outline the skills needed and the expectations, e.g., comfort with
>> the following figures (ability to just do them), ability to recover
>> quickly, ability to learn quickly, ability to dance without
>> prompting...whatever your group decides are the features for the dance.
>> Perhaps say what will and won't be taught, one walkthrough only with
>> rolling start...
>> And not everyone will get the message. That's life.
> >> 3. As dancers (/organizers/callers),
how do we elevate the dance level of
>> our local communities?
>> Practice kindness, teach/model attitude of 'mistakes are awesome - it's
>> how you learn, it can lead to laughter if you let it', teach/model recovery
>> skills.
>> Add skills workshops into the mix. Fun for skilled, unskilled,
>> experienced, inexperienced dancers. Can be a special session prior to dance
>> (or the first X amount of time of a regular dance) or at a special
>> time/place. Can be about figures, social skills, dancing well...
>> In my mind, part of being an advanced dancer is the ability and joyful
>> attitude to dance with anyone regardless of skill or expectation of why you
>> came. That is another skill to teach.
> >> Brooke Friendly
>> Ashland OR
> >
>> On Mon, Apr 17, 2023 at 12:42 PM jim saxe via Contra Callers <
>> contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> >>> You can hear some thoughts from
sixty years ago relating to topics in
>>> this thread in this recording of a 1962 Q&A session with the late great
>>> square dance caller Ed Gilmore:
>> >>>
http://squaredancehistory.com/items/show/702
>> >>> You
might start by listening for a few minutes beginning from 17:53.
>> >>> The
early MWSD scene that Ed was involved with had some differences from
>>> our current contradance culture, including structure of clubs and classes
>>> among other things, so some things Ed says may not translate directly.
>>> Nonetheless, I believe Ed was a keen observer and an insightful thinker and
>>> worthy of a listen.
>> >>> --Jim
>>> (Santa Clara, CA)
>> >>> > On
Apr 17, 2023, at 9:57 AM, Julian Blechner via Contra Callers <
>>> contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>>> >>> >
I've given this some thought. I've been a dancer in this situation,
>>> and heard other organizers ask this question.
>>> >>> > I
don't like the idea of asking someone to leave. I do think this is
>>> antithetical to my values as a dance organizer.
>>> >>> > I
don't like the idea of gatekeeping and presuming I know how well a
>>> person may succeed not - especially since contra is a team sport.
>>> >>> > I
also want to raise the idea of economic injustice - many folks
>>> carpool, or, in NYC it may be a pain to get to a location - even by mass
>>> transit a new person could really need the help of a friend. Especially if
>>> it's a person from out of town; having lived in and around NYC for a
>>> decade, it can be _daunting_. So I can totally see some experienced dancers
>>> wanting to bring a friend, and having them come later is not an option.
>>> Forcing them to come later may be easier for folks with financial means,
>>> which is why I'm saying this may touch on an issue of economic justice
and
>>> privilege.
>>> >>> > An
alternative I might have - and, totally with the benefit of
>>> hindsight and reflection:
>>> >>> > I
think if I'm in this situation in the future, I will do the
>>> following:
>>> > 1. Caution the dancer of the expected skill level.
>>> > 2. Offer them to sit and enjoy the music for free / donation instead
>>> of required entry fee.
>>> > 3. Recommend that if they're set on trying it out, to do so, but if
>>> they're not getting it, come hang out and stay, with fee refunded. (Like
a
>>> satisfaction guarantee.)
>>> >>> >
Ideally, if they do stay and sit, some dancers will need breaks and
>>> sit with them and make them feel welcome.
>>> >>> > In
dance,
>>> > Julian Blechner
>>> >>> >>>
>>> > On Sun, Apr 16, 2023, 9:50 PM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers
<
>>> contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>>> > I attended an advanced dance this afternoon that was intermediate at
>>> best, and had a few raw beginners in there, and it got me wondering:
>>> >>> > 1.
As callers, what do you do when a bunch of intermediate and/or
>>> beginner dancers show up to an advanced session?
>>> > 2. As organizers, what do you do to try and keep your advanced
>>> sessions... advanced? (Either in messaging or at the dance itself?)
>>> Obviously I'm not advocating for kicking anyone out, but if a bunch of
>>> newbies show up at an advanced session, both they and the dancers who came
>>> for gnarly stuff are going to have a less-than-ideal time.
>>> > 3. As dancers (/organizers/callers), how do we elevate the dance level
>>> of our local communities? I'm talking about increasing familiarity with
>>> some of the less common moves (contracorners, left hand chains, etc.) but
>>> also about building awareness of the dance and recovery skills, and
>>> technical things like giving satisfying weight, swinging correctly, guiding
>>> linemates into the next figure, etc.
>>> >>> > I
welcome any thoughts and musings!
>>> >>> >
Cheers,
>>> > Maia (Brooklyn, NY)
>>> > --
>>> > Maia McCormick (she/her)
>>> > 917.279.8194
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>> > To unsubscribe send an email to
>>> contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>>> > _______________________________________________
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>>> contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>> >>>
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>> >>
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