Thanks again to those who advised me on my dance-leadership presentation! I'm satisfied with the experience considering its weird cross-purpose (e.g. I was hoping to intrigue a few of them for dancing, but really didn't have time to provide them with more than a tiny peek into the whole concept thereof, and what I was actually being evaluated on was "myself as a leader"). Here's what I finally wound up teaching them--slightly revised again from what I sent out the other day. ***** "Bare to the Bone" Lark-Aeryn Speyer, 2009 Circle MIXER A (verse) 1-2 Circle L 3-4 Circle R, face partner 5-6 step R & honor pt, step L & honor pt 7-8 2-hand turn partner, face the center B (chorus) 1-4 forward & back (into the center) *twice*, face partner 5-6 2 changes grand chain (4 counts each), beginning R to partner 7-8 meet NEW partner (the 3rd person) with a 2-hand turn, face center ***** My musician (a fiddling classmate) and I did not have time to practice just with the two of us--I didn't even actually get to hear her play the tune all the way through until the "let's listen to the tune" moment, so that was sub-optimal, because of course there were some parts of her interpretation that I hadn't planned on! As you may have noticed if you checked the tune to "Bare to the Bone," it's got a sort of syncopation that's difficult to get a strong beat out of for walking, so my classmates had a little trouble moving in time. That's of course my fault for never even pointing out the beat and suggesting they place their feet to it. We did the whole thing (verse + chorus) twice through. I had planned out "teaching points" to try to make it smooth and with some semblance of the beautiful, but I dispensed with everything except telling and showing them the moves, basically, because I was supposed to wrap up the whole thing in 5 minutes flat (yeep!). So it was a little bit wild, but people smiled (even laughed!) and moved, so it can't possibly have been all bad. In sum: I realize I did nowhere near to justice to the folk dance traditions. And if anyone thinks I did a disservice to folk dance, I hope you'll just write me off no more than a tiny drop in the bucket of misperceptions. But, although I doubt my classmates will act on any interest I may (or may not) have awakened, it is my evaluation that I did provide them with a memorable and positive experience regarding moving and music and holding hands. Which is kind of like dancing, I hope. One of them even told me that she was initially apprehensive, but started thinking, "Hey, I can do this!" as I was teaching. So that I liked. Thanks again, Lark -- There is no conceivable beauty of blossom so beautiful as words,--none so graceful, none so perfumed. It is possible to dream of combinations of syllables so delicious that all the dawning and decay of summer cannot rival their perfection, nor winter's stainless white and azure match their purity and their charm. --Thomas Wentworth Higginson