New subject: Callers Digest, Vol 79, Issue 11

23 Mar 2011

At the Pinewoods A&E week last summer, Jacqui from Michigan (Henry's wife)
told me she had read a research article that studied peoples' sense of
rhythm and timing. The article concluded that about 20% of all people never
develop a "sense" of rhythm/timing as they age. They further found that, of
that 20%, almost none of them were able to improve their rhythm even after
extensive work to improve their timing. Rhythm is apparently something you
pick up when you're younger, and if it's not gotten then, you likely aren't
getting it... So that's one thing to keep in mind when dealing with newbies,
or some of the perpetual beginners in your dance groups.

But Alan and Martha touch on something else. People who just don't connect
in some sensory way that we expect them to.... Some people have very extreme
and/or erratic reactions to new experiences, one or more senses will do
surprising things. The guy at the calling party didn't understand until the
end that the caller is telling you what to do--why didn't he? He probably
observed everyone else moving along to what a caller said, and the same
words were said when he got individual instruction--but nothing sank in. No
offense, Martha, but did anyone simply tell him to listen to the caller?
Some part of his hearing, or learning process, was simply shut down until
the end of the dance. Who knows why? Fear? Embarrassment? Literally being
"out of his mind" and not allowing himself to focus on the real world?

I've had one woman tell me directly, and have heard the same from another
indirectly, that the dancing was so tactilely and physically stimulating
that she would get close to orgasming on the floor, and that made it
difficult to hear and follow the caller... This example is probably a less
common one, but the point is, we have no idea of all the emotional, mental
and physical things happening on the dance floor that may be getting in the
way of people being more successful. You just try to get their attention,
and lead them gently to where you want to go if you get it. (This is one
argument for keeping beginner sessions short: they already come in with so
much on their minds, you shouldn't be trying to dump 30-45-60 minutes of new
info into an already-addled brain. Get 'em moving, to get them out of their
heads ASAP.)

Alan, if that Portabella sequence is what you used to judge your beginner
with... well, we have regular dancers with talent who would mess up that
sequence 3 times out of 10.

Keith

  7. Re: What do you do as caller when you're completely failing
...
       to reach a dancer? (Martha Edwards)

 Message: 7
 Date: Tue, 22 Mar 2011 23:42:30 -0500
 From: Martha Edwards &lt;meedwards(a)westendweb.com&gt;
 To: "Caller's discussion list" &lt;callers(a)sharedweight.net&gt;
 Subject: Re: [Callers] What do you do as caller when you're completely
        failing to reach a dancer?
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 Yes!  We had a similarly strange experience last week at one of our Calling
 Parties. There were just six of us there - five of our very best dancers,
 most of them callers, and one guy who simply could not process what we were
 telling him. Each person would try to explain a move, but all that would
 happen was more confusion. One dance had a hey in it, and after our usual
 explanations had not worked, one caller said "Watch this!" and did a hey
 for
 four just by walking straight across the set and back, letting the other
 three people weave around him. When the new guy didn't understand that, we
 did the PattyCake Polka and a simple couples mixer. He did okay with the
 Pattycake Polka (He did swing dancing, and I think the footwork made him
 more comfortable - THAT was like dancing!), and during the couples mixer
 excitedly said "OHHHHhhh... You listen to the caller and he tells you what
 to do!"

 He didn't seem otherwise stupid or anything, but it was as if he couldn't
 "get" what we were saying about dancing. He kept saying "I just don't
know
 where to go." It seemed as if his whole brain was occupied with some other
 thoughts so that nothing else could get through - like a denial of service
 attack...

 We've all been wondering ever since what we could have done, if anything,
 short of turning the evening into a One Night Stand dance.

 M
 E

 On Sat, Mar 19, 2011 at 9:42 PM, Robert Golder &lt;robertgolder(a)comcast.net
 wrote: 
  There's only one thing I can think of to try
at that point, and that's to
 strike up a conversation at the break, ask the guy if he's enjoying the
 evening, how he heard about the dance, etc., and if conversation  indicates
  he's not compromised in some obvious fashion,
then ask him what's up. Had
 something similar happen to me with a couple that would fit the  description
  you gave. It turned out that as a consequence of
surgery he would have
 occasional, unpredictable disorientation episodes. He really wanted to  dance
  but it may have brought on a spell; at any rate,
though he seemed  clueless,
  he had instead been trying to fight the
disorientation and continue  dancing,
  but he realized with disappointment after a few
attempts that he couldn't
 dance any more that evening. He was a good guy and I wish he could have
 participated more fully.

 On Mar 19, 2011, at 10:05 PM, Alan Winston - SSRL Central Computing  wrote:

  Callers:

 Here are things that didn't seem to help this guy in any visible way:

 - continuing to call the dance when everybody else had it
 - doing demos of things that we otherwise would not (eg, Trip to  Tunbridge)
  - having dancers in his set beckon or point, as
appropriate
 - strong partners who tried to lead him (by whatever means) where he  needed
    to go
 - pointing out other people in the line in the same role to copy from.
 - second walkthroughs

 I gave up following a problem couple up and down the set and calling to  just
  them years ago; that almost never works and just
raises everybody's  anxiety
 > level.  I don't think it would have helped here.
 > 
   I could
see that he was never really managing to build a model of the  dance,
  and that he was, if anything, a kinetic learner. 
(Eg, in Portabella,  where if
 > you're a 1 the A1 is gent cast off with partner behind and orbit  through
  2s
 > place and back to place, and B2 is 1s cross, cast, and half-figure  eight,
  he
  seemd to have some kind of memetic entrapment
where having crossed he'd  turn
  back and follow his partner down the wrong side,
as though it were A1  again.)
  I don't think he ever connected pieces of
music to pieces of dance.  It  wasn't
 > "he's got it except for"; I don't think he ever understood the
basics  of
  any
 > dance well enough to be able to fix the parts that weren't working.
 >
 > He sat down at the last dance before the break and didn't dance again 
the
  rest
  of the evening.

 Now, maybe he's just not cut out for this.  (

 But maybe my bag of tricks isn't deep enough.

 What do you to do reach somebody like this?  When do you know to let it  go?
 >
 > -- Alan 

Re: [Callers] Callers Digest, Vol 79, Issue 11