for a are and is of it's stick [Janet Bertog] Hi Maia, keep in mind you are going to get a huge diversity in opinions for this question. As a more recent dancer and caller, I feel that teaching dances without a partner swing are going to be perceived as dull and boring by your mostly college crowd. Students are most interested in interaction with the person they have come to dance with. Times are different now and partner interaction is wanted. I would start with a basic dance that has at least a partner and neighbor swing in it. Getting them into the swing early and with different people is going to give them more of an opportunity to learn it and practice it and people like to swing, so get it in there early. From there I like to start my dances with Dancing Spell by Cary Ravitz because it has most of the basic moves in it. be [Janet Bertog] When I do a beginner's lesson, I like to teach the concept of giving weight. Some people don't like that word, find something that works for you. But I think that is a critical part of the dance. I teach the connection within a group - connection with a light grip, not a choke hold. I start in a circle and have them circle left and right, reminding them to keep their elbows bent and to feel the connection within the circle. Then I teach a balance and swing. Teaching the balance as part of the swing is important in that giving weight and connection. Sometimes before I do the swing I have them do a two hand turn and have them think about when they were kids on a playground. Remind them that the tighter they are together, the better the spin (think about an ice skater that spins faster when they pull their arms in). Then I teach the swing from there, reminding them to keep that connection and to lean back slightly into their partner's arms as they do it. I demonstrate this. I show how the buzz step works and also tell them that they can do a walking step in the same pattern. I emphasize that they are next to their partner but facing them, not directly head on with their partner - this allows them to walk straight forward rather than galloping. I spend a large amount of time on the swing and giving weight. Then I get them in a line in hand's four position. I do the circle left and right again, emphasizing the connection. I have them swing their neighbor. Circle left three places, swing their partner. I teach the directions of the hall and passing through to the next set. From there, how much I cover depends on how much time we have. I don't find a lot of advantage in a laundry list of the different moves. So if I teach the moves I will teach them as the first dance. I may walk through my first dance with the beginners so they can see the flow of the moves from one to the next. Sometimes I will emphasize that the moves have flow and connection. I like to emphasize the connection of the dance with your partner, your neighbors, your line and the music. I will often emphasize the timing, counting out the beats as we do a circle, for example. For better or worse, modern contra dancing emphasizes the swing. For me, that is for the better. I love it and I emphasize it in my teaching. A good swing is so important to the success of modern contra dances. I like the idea of teaching during the walkthroughs, especially if you have a lot of people out there who are inexperienced or need pointers. I go back and forth on this, because I don't want to overdo it. I have not used it a whole lot, partly because I have not been in an experience that was mostly beginners, partly because I haven't called that much, and partly because I'm not sure how the experienced dancers will react. Greg's idea of getting the crowd to help with teaching is appealing. I may teach one thing in each walk through, like giving weight to make the circle finish on time or how to allemande properly. I should mention, I "borrowed" all my teaching techniques from other people, combining together ideas that I liked.

On 9/4/2012 10:45 AM, Maia McCormick wrote: Is this meant to be an ongoing series or a one-off dance event. In the case of a one time event I would stick with basic dances that are composed almost entirely of figures where the name pretty much tells you what to do (i.e. circles, hand turns, lines of one sort or another). Most people know the do-si-do somehow so that works well and stars are easy to teach. Use whole set dances like Galopede and Cumberland Reel. Check the Country Dances Manual, there are plenty of good dances in there. Easy circle mixers can work as well. Depending on the crowd you might throw in a dance with a swing. I called a dance for a freshman orientation event at a local college a few years ago and swings went over fine (imagine Circassian Circle for 300+ 18 year olds). If this is to be a continuing series then you can work your way up to more challenging material. Run the first dance as you would a one time event and then introduce more stuff at each subsequent dance. Don't try to do it all at once. There are plenty of fun dances that are composed of basic simple figures. I think the main thing is to keep things moving and the dancers active, rather than trying to get them to do a lot of complex moves. So a simple dance at a faster tempo will be better than a challenging dance you have to do slow. I like to use Jefferson's Reel by Dudley Briggs as a first contra dance. I've used it at one time events as well as beginning dances for dance series. It doesn't have a swing, but can be done proper or improper so it doesn't matter who dances with whom. It teaches the basics of the duple minor formation and progression. I find that new dancers often have an "Aha" moment when the 2's duck under the 1's arch and find new neighbors. If you do it right the whole crowd will all cheer at the same time as they realize they have progressed. I've occasionally done this with a rolling start at one night stands, where the band plays softly during a couple of walkthroughs and then just starts playing for real on the 3rd time as I start calling rather than teaching. As far as swinging goes you might start everyone off with a walking swing and then add the buzz step later. Make sure everyone is moving forward, rather than sideways or backwards. This will make the transition to the buzz step easier. Here is Jefferson's Reel in case you don't have it. Jefferson's Reel Dudley Briggs; adapted from Jefferson and Liberty duple proper or improper music: Jefferson and Liberty or any 32 bar reel 1 - circle left 2 - circle right 3 - star right 4 - star left 5 - actives down the outside 6 - return to place 7 - down the hall 4 in line, actives in the center 8 - all back up, actives arch joined hands, inactives duck through the arch to meet new neighbors Good luck. Jonathan ----- Jonathan Sivier Caller of Contra, English and Early American Dances jsivier AT illinois DOT edu Dance Page: http://www.sivier.me/dance_leader.html ----- Q: How many angels can dance on the head of a pin? A: It depends on what dance you call!

Maia McCormick wrote: For some crowds doing "contra dance", as opposed to just fun contra-like group dancing, is important. Does this apply to yours? If not, then dances like: Virginia Reel variant A1 (8) Long lines (8) P dosido A2 (8) P aleman R (8) P aleman L A3 (16) Top couple sashay down and back B (32+) Whole set peel the bananna, top couple makes an arch at the bottom, everyone else goes through. where there aren't hands fours and gender doesn't matter go over well. If you're looking through the archives you might look for suggestions for dances to do at weddings, which are another environment where most people haven't danced before. If you have some dancers who want "contra dance" and this is important enough to the group, you can do that too. (When I was a student at Swarthmore I would have ignored the advice to do whole-set dances and scatter mixers because people really did want "contra".) The way to do this is to find dances where the experienced dancers can get to have fun swinging, but new people won't get lost, and everyone still has fun. For example: Midwest Folklore: Beckett A1 Circle L 3/4; N dosido A2 N Balance and Swing B1 Circle L 3/4; P dosido B2 P Balance and Swing (slide left to progress) This is about the simplest dance you can have which you could call both for a night at the Scout House and for a group of beginners. Though it wouldn't be my first dance of the evening with beginners. Another dance I'll call is La Bastringue, contra-style: Circle Mixer A1 Into the middle (x2) A2 Circle L; Circle R B1 New partner balance and swing B2 Promenade This one is simple enough that even with total beginner groups I can throw away the teaching and just call it no-walkthrough as long as the crowd is small enough that I can lead and call from the floor setting an example. Otherwise I'll do a quick walkthrough. While it's nice if the band knows the music, it's fine if they don't. What's key in both of these dances is that they have: * loads of catch-up time * simple progressions * few moves * not many things to remember (low piece count) One to build a little by adding "ladies chain": Broken Sixpence A1 N Dosido; Ladies Dosido A2 Gents Dosido; 1s Swing. B1 Down the hall, turn *alone* come on back. B2 Ladies chain over and back. If you go this route, look for other dances like that, and have whole-set dances prepared to fall back on if people are struggling and it turns out the contras you prepared are too hard. You can teach it, and some people will get it, but extended teaching kind of kills the party atmosphere. I just let people do what they want, often elbow swings, and don't worry about it. But if you want to teach it, the best way I've seen is: 1) Scooting: Move the whole group in a big single file circle left, as if the right foot is on a skateboard and the left foot is pushing. Get them putting their right foot down on the downbeat all as a group. 2) In pairs, have them hold two hands with their partner, and do that scooting thing. Then have them move in to ballroom hold, and they should be doing a buzz-step swing. Jeff

Maia -- I read you as saying that you're running a contra dance series for students at your school, students who don't go to outside dances. So you've got a hall full of beginners and many of them keep coming back (and other people show up], but they don't go to outside dances so they don't learn anything you don't teach them. What you're asking is how to hook them immediately and also how to build their dance skills. They're in an environment where they can just turn around and go back to the dorm if it isn't interesting. You're worried about turning them off of contra for the rest of their lives if you give them stuff they think is trivial and dumb, but if it's too hard they'll bail as well. You don't think they have patience for a lesson. Is that right? First thing: Whatever you're doing and however you do it, there are people who won't like it and will bail. It's not personal, and it's not a failure. You're giving people the chance to find out if they find something is fun, different people like different things, and a lot of the people who try it at all (especially under low-commitment conditions like just checking it out because it's on campus and they're free, rather than having to get into car or take a bus. It's like sticking your nose into a store when you're at the mall already; if it doesn't do anything for you, you just go on to the next one. There's a guy who keeps trying - with some success - to spread contra dancing to youth groups at Stanford. As I understand it, he uses recorded music (not at all restricted to "contra dance" music), does pretty much simple figures, is effectively gender-free without armbands (that is, doesn't police crossing over in improper dances), and deliberately doesn't run the dances very many times through, which means that there are more opportunities to jump aboard - people don't come in the door, see a dance going on and on, and turn around and walk out. People aren't stuck with incompetent or skeevy partners for very long. The recorded music means that it's not all alien sounding to contemporary people who come through the door. That said, if it were me, I'd run a series that was more like a barn dance than a contemporary contra. The all-longways-duple-improper-driving-music-trancey-dancing seems to me to only successfully bring newcomers on-board because it's a going concern, that is, because most of the people in the hall know what they're doing and can help the newcomers get where they need to be until they learn by osmosis (or never really learn, which does happen). I would pick up a bunch of dances in different formations, with swings - probably mostly from the English ceilidh tradition because there are a bunch of them there and they're quick teaches - drop the ones that require ranting or step-hops - always have something I can do no matter how many people are in the hall, play high-energy cheerful music (contra-dance band tracks more than ceilidh band tracks, with exceptions for the not-so-thuddy-and-slow ceilidh bands like the Committee Band or Peeping Tom), try to make sure that something was going on pretty constantly (because people will look in the door while you're having a two minute rest and decide it's dull), keep playing recorded music during the breaks, and anything else you can think of. Call only dances you believe in. The biggest determining factor in whether non-dancers think your dances are dumb is what you think about them and how you present them. (That's not what you tell them in words, but what your body language, tone of voice, etc, put forth. If you model digging it, they're way likelier to dig it - if they can be reached at all.) I personally believe fully in a bunch of pretty dumb dances - Galopede, Cumberland Square, Circassian Circle mixer, Circle Waltz mixer, La Bastringue. I even believe in Grand Marches (which are just follow the leader, really). There's nothing wrong with dumb dances, especially ones where you can fly all around. I don't personally believe in Le Brandy, despite having enjoyed dancing it, so I don't call that, and I suspect the butt-bumping looks pretty dorky to people who aren't doing it. If you want, you can do that, and also try to build somewhat in complexity over the course of the evening or the course of the semester. First-timers often drop away at the mid-dance break; if you assess that the people left understand phrasing, etc, move to longways contra then. Do a mini-workshop after you've earned their attention by giving them fun stuff to do and a sense of success. [And that's me, and I don't swear it'll work for you.] (I think there've been good suggestions about teaching the swing. I sometimes do beginner workshops by getting people walking around the room to show that it's smooth walking, not skipping, then start allemanding everybody in sight and insisting on getting good weight on the allemande. People who've had the feeling from allemanding can then work with others who haven't had it yet, and pretty soon most of the room can do a satisfying allemande. Once they have the satisfying shared weight feeling, it's easier to point them into how to do a walking or buzz step swing then if they start without having had the feeling.) Here's an article from people who've run on-campus dance series as non-students. This isn't 100% relevant to your circumstances - there's a lot about relating to students when you're not one, dealing with management as outsiders, etc - but maybe something will be helpful. http://germantowncountrydancers.org/campus.html And here's the country dance and song society starter kit for college dances: http://www.cdss.org/college-starter-kit.html I see that the programming page has this quote, which it looks like you're already on top of: * Be aware of the needs and insecurities of your audience. Plan styles and figures that are likely to seem cool and allow your audience to get over their initial hang-ups about dancing. /"At Brown, students were often embarrassed to do dances that had "dorky" figures, whereas they took to easy smoothly-flowing dances nicely. College students can be very self-conscious, and this can be a barrier to them dancing in the first place. At Brown dances, students who had never danced before would regularly cluster outside the door, peeking in to decide if they wanted to join. They would pay their money and walk through the door most often when what was going on inside looked 'cool' to the average college observer."*-*/*Julia Nickles, Brown alum* I hope this is the kind of answer that you're looking for and is maybe even of some help. -- Alan On 9/4/2012 8:45 AM, Maia McCormick wrote: