16 Jan
2024
16 Jan
'24
10:49 a.m.
Hi fellow contra callers :)
I am wondering if any of you have little activities/exercises that you use
to help dancers improve their knowledge/skills of contra dance?
I know there's lots of opinions on whether this is even necessary or should
be offered. However, I have a few situations where I've got dancers who
are keen to improve their skills and I'd like to have various fun ways of
doing so.
I'd love to hear your ideas!
One activity I remember from mannnnny years ago in Ottawa was led by Adina
Gordon. She had us form up in contra lines and then she would say 1-2
(maybe 3?) figures. We weren't to dance the figure... instead, simply go
to the spot where we would end up after the figure(s). I remember this as
being a lot of fun and a great learning experience.
I also remember from that same session something about sending some dancers
out of the room and teaching the dance to others and then doing the dance.
(I don't remember the details.)
Thoughts?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa ON
25 Jan
25 Jan
7:41 a.m.
New subject: Hmmm Re: Re: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
Callers collective??
Sent from my iPhone
On Jan 25, 2024, at 2:58 AM, Michael Fuerst via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
This almost certainly is not the dance David referred to, but should be of scientific
interest
https://aptsg.org/Dance/dances.html#Unconsoled
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 9:12 PM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers
<contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>>
wrote:
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently
threw in a contra with larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different
rates. Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that chaos
and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop setting.
"Dance with who's coming at you."
David, I'd love to have this dance for uh, scientific purposes and certainly not to
sow chaos 👀
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:02 PM David Harding via Contra Callers
<contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>>
wrote:
I've attended several workshops with this theme, led on different occasions by Carol
Ormand and Jo Mortland. A few of the exercises have been described already, including
teaching the dance to half of each couple and not calling, messing with the music, dancing
with pool noodles, and dancing to the calling of figures with names as nonsensical as our
familiar figures are to first time dancers.
A variant on the pool noodle theme used one teddy bear in each square.
One of my favorites is a different approach to the lost dancer situation. After the group
takes hand four, the caller one dancer from each minor set, shuffling around which one.
They go to the bottom and make new minor sets. This leaves one empty spot in each set
occupied by a ghost. The teaching and calling proceeds, with the dancers having to find
their ways through the dance without the orientation of the full set. As the dance
progresses, sometimes a whole set of four materializes,sometimes it's three dancers,
sometimes it's only two. This really emphasizes awareness of your position in the
set. It's also a useful skill when a partner or neighbor doesn't show up at the
right place and time.
I've danced with a fraction of the dancers in a contra set blindfolded. I also
remember a simple square that we danced multiple times, increasing the number of
blindfolded dancers by one each time through. Again, positional awareness and
communication.
A dance with enforced taking of everyone's less familiar role can help build
acceptance.
One time we were divided into two sets, one with all gents and the other with all ladies.
Some gents came away impressed by how violently they were being swung around while dancing
as robins while some ladies complained about the wimpy larks they danced with. And some
in both lines enjoyed the better matches of forces and energy.
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a contra with larks and robins
progressing in opposite directions or at different rates. Although it was announced as a
mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been
happier with that in a workshop setting. "Dance with who's coming at
you."
On 1/24/2024 11:35 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote:
Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some exercises I've done/seen/considered:
- half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones who got the
walkthrough need to guide the others through the dance NONVERBALLY
- nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random words, define a few terms for
every dancer, call a nonsense dance and the hall has to piece together what's what
- excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take a simple dance and, once
the hall has it, you and the band conspire to just drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or
more!) and dancers need to get themselves in place for the next move. E.g. if the dance
ends with a chain + star and starts with a new neighbor, you might call "robins
chain... new neighbor balance and swing" and the band goes to the top of A1 (i.e.
cutting out the last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know how the dance flows and where
moves start and end to compensate for missing moves
- noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a bunch of friends
coming, they're raw beginners, who will volunteer to dance with them and get them
through the next dance? And the friends in question turn out to be... pool noodles. How do
dancers accommodate partners who quite literally can't do a single thing?
- esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a dance with lots of
movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33) without the sets getting bent out of shape.
That's it, that's the whole challenge.
- a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above: practice dropping a full
hands-4 out of the set. This is a recovery skill that isn't necessarily taught, but if
e.g. one dancer has an injury or urgently needs to drop out, the thing to do is to remove
your entire hands-4 from the set (and people can re-enter from the bottom if they still
want to dance). I ran around with various hats, placing them on people's heads to
denote an "injury"—that person had to then nonverbally get their hands-4 out of
the set, and was then licensed to put the "injury" hat on someone else's
head. (Could also be done with tagging people out.)
- i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to represent an injury,
and folks interacting with them need to notice and be cognizant of it/modify around it
- i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the
Wall<https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthew… for an
exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you communicated a preference or
stylistic request about the swing, and the second time you met them, you got to enact that
preference/request.
- "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged to non-verbally
say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy things at least n times during the
dance. Good practice for communicating and listening for non-verbal "no's"
- beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws to a number of the dancers
(think "always a beat late", "dizzy", "grips tight and moves
slow", "always looks in the wrong direction", etc.). Dancers without an
assigned flaw practice quickly evaluating someone they're dancing with and getting a
sense of skill level/whether they need extra help, and then providing that help. (If you
want to "check people's work", you could at the end have all the
assigned-beginner dances identify themselves, and everyone else can see if they clocked
folks correctly.)
I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk to suggest, ha.
Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't missed my window for suggesting
things—apologies for the delay!). Let us know how it goes!
Cheers,
Maia
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers
<contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>>
wrote:
Hey Folks,
Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I posted.
Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a similar activity as me.
And fascinating discussion about sharing weight John, Joseph and others! I really like
the idea that every allemande/swing is a new opportunity for connecting with someone
different and figuring out that connection. I think it was Will Mentor that referred to
enjoying the little differences in every swing which made me all the more present and
noticing what I liked about different people's swings.
I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to do with dancers who
already know the basics but who want to improve their dancing ability/understanding?
:) Emily
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2:57 a.m.
New subject: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
This almost certainly is not the dance David referred to, but should be of
scientific interest
https://aptsg.org/Dance/dances.html#Unconsoled
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 9:12 PM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Late in a
regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a contra with
larks and robins
progressing in opposite directions or at different rates.
Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that
chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop
setting. "Dance with who's coming at you."
David, I'd love to have this dance for uh, scientific purposes and
certainly not to sow chaos 👀
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:02 PM David Harding via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I've attended several workshops with this
theme, led on different
occasions by Carol Ormand and Jo Mortland. A few of the exercises have
been described already, including teaching the dance to half of each couple
and not calling, messing with the music, dancing with pool noodles, and
dancing to the calling of figures with names as nonsensical as our familiar
figures are to first time dancers.
A variant on the pool noodle theme used one teddy bear in each square.
One of my favorites is a different approach to the lost dancer
situation. After the group takes hand four, the caller one dancer from
each minor set, shuffling around which one. They go to the bottom and make
new minor sets. This leaves one empty spot in each set occupied by a
ghost. The teaching and calling proceeds, with the dancers having to find
their ways through the dance without the orientation of the full set. As
the dance progresses, sometimes a whole set of four materializes,sometimes
it's three dancers, sometimes it's only two. This really emphasizes
awareness of your position in the set. It's also a useful skill when a
partner or neighbor doesn't show up at the right place and time.
I've danced with a fraction of the dancers in a contra set blindfolded.
I also remember a simple square that we danced multiple times, increasing
the number of blindfolded dancers by one each time through. Again,
positional awareness and communication.
A dance with enforced taking of everyone's less familiar role can help
build acceptance.
One time we were divided into two sets, one with all gents and the other
with all ladies. Some gents came away impressed by how violently they were
being swung around while dancing as robins while some ladies complained
about the wimpy larks they danced with. And some in both lines enjoyed the
better matches of forces and energy.
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a contra with
larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different rates.
Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that
chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop
setting. "Dance with who's coming at you."
On 1/24/2024 11:35 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote:
Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some exercises I've
done/seen/considered:
- half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones who got
the walkthrough need to guide the others through the dance NONVERBALLY
- nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random words,
define a few terms for every dancer, call a nonsense dance and the hall has
to piece together what's what
- excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take a
simple dance and, once the hall has it, you and the band conspire to just
drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or more!) and dancers need to get themselves
in place for the next move. E.g. if the dance ends with a chain + star and
starts with a new neighbor, you might call "robins chain... new neighbor
balance and swing" and the band goes to the top of A1 (i.e. cutting out the
last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know how the dance flows and where
moves start and end to compensate for missing moves
- noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a bunch of
friends coming, they're raw beginners, who will volunteer to dance with
them and get them through the next dance? And the friends in question turn
out to be... pool noodles. How do dancers accommodate partners who quite
literally can't do a single thing?
- esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a dance with
lots of movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33) without the sets getting
bent out of shape. That's it, that's the whole challenge.
- a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above: practice
dropping a full hands-4 out of the set. This is a recovery skill that isn't
necessarily taught, but if e.g. one dancer has an injury or urgently needs
to drop out, the thing to do is to remove your entire hands-4 from the set
(and people can re-enter from the bottom if they still want to dance). I
ran around with various hats, placing them on people's heads to denote an
"injury"—that person had to then nonverbally get their hands-4 out of the
set, and was then licensed to put the "injury" hat on someone else's head.
(Could also be done with tagging people out.)
- i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to
represent an injury, and folks interacting with them need to notice and be
cognizant of it/modify around it
- i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the Wall
<https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthewall>
for an exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you
communicated a preference or stylistic request about the swing, and the
second time you met them, you got to enact that preference/request.
- "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged to
non-verbally say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy things at least n
times during the dance. Good practice for communicating and listening for
non-verbal "no's"
- beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws to a
number of the dancers (think "always a beat late", "dizzy",
"grips tight
and moves slow", "always looks in the wrong direction", etc.). Dancers
without an assigned flaw practice quickly evaluating someone they're
dancing with and getting a sense of skill level/whether they need extra
help, and then providing that help. (If you want to "check people's work",
you could at the end have all the assigned-beginner dances identify
themselves, and everyone else can see if they clocked folks correctly.)
I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk to
suggest, ha. Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't missed my
window for suggesting things—apologies for the delay!). Let us know how it
goes!
Cheers,
Maia
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Hey Folks,
Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I
posted.
Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a
similar activity as me. And fascinating discussion about sharing weight
John, Joseph and others! I really like the idea that every allemande/swing
is a new opportunity for connecting with someone different and figuring out
that connection. I think it was Will Mentor that referred to enjoying the
little differences in every swing which made me all the more present and
noticing what I liked about different people's swings.
I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to do
with dancers who already know the basics but who want to improve their
dancing ability/understanding?
:) Emily
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to
contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
_______________________________________________
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24 Jan
24 Jan
10:10 p.m.
New subject: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
On 2024-01-24 10:11 p.m., Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote:
To satisfy your scientific curiosity...
At the Caller's Box, if you search for
Formation is 'Duple Minor' and
Progression is 'Other/Weird', i.e.
https://www.ibiblio.org/contradance/thecallersbox/?formation=Duple+Minor&am…
you'll (currently) get 34 dances, about 22 of which are contra mixers.
Look for progressions that give different amounts for M and W.
E.g., "M1, W3" means that (each time through) the gents move 1 spot,
while the ladies move 3 spots.
-Michael
Late in a
regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a contra with
larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different rates.
Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that
chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop
setting. "Dance with who's coming at you."
David, I'd love to have this dance for uh, scientific purposes and certainly
not to sow chaos 👀
9:34 p.m.
New subject: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
Unfortunately, I was a dancer, not the caller, and I did not collect the
dance. To tell the truth, I'm not even certain any more who the caller
was.
David
On 1/24/2024 9:11 PM, Maia McCormick wrote:
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently
threw in a contra
with larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at
different rates. Although it was announced as a mixer, it was
sufficiently unexpected that chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have
been happier with that in a workshop setting. "Dance with who's
coming at you."
David, I'd love to have this dance for uh, scientific purposes and
certainly not to sow chaos 👀
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:02 PM David Harding via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I've attended several workshops with this theme, led on different
occasions by Carol Ormand and Jo Mortland. A few of the exercises
have been described already, including teaching the dance to half
of each couple and not calling, messing with the music, dancing
with pool noodles, and dancing to the calling of figures with
names as nonsensical as our familiar figures are to first time
dancers.
A variant on the pool noodle theme used one teddy bear in each square.
One of my favorites is a different approach to the lost dancer
situation. After the group takes hand four, the caller one dancer
from each minor set, shuffling around which one. They go to the
bottom and make new minor sets. This leaves one empty spot in
each set occupied by a ghost. The teaching and calling proceeds,
with the dancers having to find their ways through the dance
without the orientation of the full set. As the dance progresses,
sometimes a whole set of four materializes,sometimes it's three
dancers, sometimes it's only two. This really emphasizes
awareness of your position in the set. It's also a useful skill
when a partner or neighbor doesn't show up at the right place and
time.
I've danced with a fraction of the dancers in a contra set
blindfolded. I also remember a simple square that we danced
multiple times, increasing the number of blindfolded dancers by
one each time through. Again, positional awareness and
communication.
A dance with enforced taking of everyone's less familiar role can
help build acceptance.
One time we were divided into two sets, one with all gents and the
other with all ladies. Some gents came away impressed by how
violently they were being swung around while dancing as robins
while some ladies complained about the wimpy larks they danced
with. And some in both lines enjoyed the better matches of forces
and energy.
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a
contra with larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or
at different rates. Although it was announced as a mixer, it was
sufficiently unexpected that chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd
have been happier with that in a workshop setting. "Dance with
who's coming at you."
On 1/24/2024 11:35 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote:
Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some
exercises I've
done/seen/considered:
- half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones
who got the walkthrough need to guide the others through the
dance NONVERBALLY
- nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random
words, define a few terms for every dancer, call a nonsense
dance and the hall has to piece together what's what
- excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take
a simple dance and, once the hall has it, you and the band
conspire to just drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or more!) and
dancers need to get themselves in place for the next move. E.g.
if the dance ends with a chain + star and starts with a new
neighbor, you might call "robins chain... new neighbor balance
and swing" and the band goes to the top of A1 (i.e. cutting out
the last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know how the dance flows
and where moves start and end to compensate for missing moves
- noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a
bunch of friends coming, they're raw beginners, who will
volunteer to dance with them and get them through the next dance?
And the friends in question turn out to be... pool noodles. How
do dancers accommodate partners who quite literally can't do a
single thing?
- esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a
dance with lots of movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33)
without the sets getting bent out of shape. That's it, that's the
whole challenge.
- a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above:
practice dropping a full hands-4 out of the set. This is a
recovery skill that isn't necessarily taught, but if e.g. one
dancer has an injury or urgently needs to drop out, the thing to
do is to remove your entire hands-4 from the set (and people can
re-enter from the bottom if they still want to dance). I ran
around with various hats, placing them on people's heads to
denote an "injury"—that person had to then nonverbally get their
hands-4 out of the set, and was then licensed to put the "injury"
hat on someone else's head. (Could also be done with tagging
people out.)
- i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to
represent an injury, and folks interacting with them need to
notice and be cognizant of it/modify around it
- i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the Wall
<https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthewall>
for an exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you
communicated a preference or stylistic request about the swing,
and the second time you met them, you got to enact that
preference/request.
- "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged
to non-verbally say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy
things at least n times during the dance. Good practice for
communicating and listening for non-verbal "no's"
- beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws
to a number of the dancers (think "always a beat late",
"dizzy",
"grips tight and moves slow", "always looks in the wrong
direction", etc.). Dancers without an assigned flaw practice
quickly evaluating someone they're dancing with and getting a
sense of skill level/whether they need extra help, and then
providing that help. (If you want to "check people's work", you
could at the end have all the assigned-beginner dances identify
themselves, and everyone else can see if they clocked folks
correctly.)
I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk
to suggest, ha. Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't
missed my window for suggesting things—apologies for the delay!).
Let us know how it goes!
Cheers,
Maia
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hey Folks,
Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the
question I posted.
Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had
experienced a similar activity as me. And fascinating
discussion about sharing weight John, Joseph and others! I
really like the idea that every allemande/swing is a new
opportunity for connecting with someone different and
figuring out that connection. I think it was Will Mentor that
referred to enjoying the little differences in every swing
which made me all the more present and noticing what I liked
about different people's swings.
I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun
activities to do with dancers who already know the basics but
who want to improve their dancing ability/understanding?
:) Emily
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list --
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to
contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list --contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email tocontracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
_______________________________________________
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To unsubscribe send an email to
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9:11 p.m.
New subject: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently
threw in a contra with
larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at
different rates.
Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that
chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop
setting. "Dance with who's coming at you."
David, I'd love to have this dance for uh, scientific purposes and
certainly not to sow chaos 👀
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:02 PM David Harding via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
> I've attended several workshops with this theme, led on different
> occasions by Carol Ormand and Jo Mortland. A few of the exercises have
> been described already, including teaching the dance to half of each couple
> and not calling, messing with the music, dancing with pool noodles, and
> dancing to the calling of figures with names as nonsensical as our familiar
> figures are to first time dancers.
>
> A variant on the pool noodle theme used one teddy bear in each square.
>
> One of my favorites is a different approach to the lost dancer situation.
> After the group takes hand four, the caller one dancer from each minor set,
> shuffling around which one. They go to the bottom and make new minor
> sets. This leaves one empty spot in each set occupied by a ghost. The
> teaching and calling proceeds, with the dancers having to find their ways
> through the dance without the orientation of the full set. As the dance
> progresses, sometimes a whole set of four materializes,sometimes it's three
> dancers, sometimes it's only two. This really emphasizes awareness of your
> position in the set. It's also a useful skill when a partner or neighbor
> doesn't show up at the right place and time.
>
> I've danced with a fraction of the dancers in a contra set blindfolded. I
> also remember a simple square that we danced multiple times, increasing the
> number of blindfolded dancers by one each time through. Again, positional
> awareness and communication.
>
> A dance with enforced taking of everyone's less familiar role can help
> build acceptance.
>
> One time we were divided into two sets, one with all gents and the other
> with all ladies. Some gents came away impressed by how violently they were
> being swung around while dancing as robins while some ladies complained
> about the wimpy larks they danced with. And some in both lines enjoyed the
> better matches of forces and energy.
>
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently
threw in a contra with
> larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or
at different rates.
> Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that
> chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop
> setting. "Dance with who's coming at you."
>
>
> On 1/24/2024 11:35 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote:
>
> Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some exercises I've
> done/seen/considered:
> - half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones who got
> the walkthrough need to guide the others through the dance NONVERBALLY
> - nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random words, define
> a few terms for every dancer, call a nonsense dance and the hall has to
> piece together what's what
> - excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take a
> simple dance and, once the hall has it, you and the band conspire to just
> drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or more!) and dancers need to get themselves
> in place for the next move. E.g. if the dance ends with a chain + star and
> starts with a new neighbor, you might call "robins chain... new neighbor
> balance and swing" and the band goes to the top of A1 (i.e. cutting out the
> last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know how the dance flows and where
> moves start and end to compensate for missing moves
> - noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a bunch of
> friends coming, they're raw beginners, who will volunteer to dance with
> them and get them through the next dance? And the friends in question turn
> out to be... pool noodles. How do dancers accommodate partners who quite
> literally can't do a single thing?
> - esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a dance with
> lots of movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33) without the sets getting
> bent out of shape. That's it, that's the whole challenge.
> - a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above: practice
> dropping a full hands-4 out of the set. This is a recovery skill that isn't
> necessarily taught, but if e.g. one dancer has an injury or urgently needs
> to drop out, the thing to do is to remove your entire hands-4 from the set
> (and people can re-enter from the bottom if they still want to dance). I
> ran around with various hats, placing them on people's heads to denote an
> "injury"—that person had to then nonverbally get their hands-4 out of the
> set, and was then licensed to put the "injury" hat on someone else's
head.
> (Could also be done with tagging people out.)
> - i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to represent
> an injury, and folks interacting with them need to notice and be cognizant
> of it/modify around it
> - i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the Wall
> <https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthewall>
> for an exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you
> communicated a preference or stylistic request about the swing, and the
> second time you met them, you got to enact that preference/request.
> - "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged to
> non-verbally say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy things at least
n
> times during the dance. Good practice for communicating and listening for
> non-verbal "no's"
> - beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws to a
> number of the dancers (think "always a beat late", "dizzy",
"grips tight
> and moves slow", "always looks in the wrong direction", etc.).
Dancers
> without an assigned flaw practice quickly evaluating someone they're
> dancing with and getting a sense of skill level/whether they need extra
> help, and then providing that help. (If you want to "check people's
work",
> you could at the end have all the assigned-beginner dances identify
> themselves, and everyone else can see if they clocked folks correctly.)
>
> I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk to
> suggest, ha. Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't missed my
> window for suggesting things—apologies for the delay!). Let us know how it
> goes!
>
> Cheers,
> Maia
>
> --
> Maia McCormick (she/her)
> 917.279.8194
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers <
> contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>> Hey Folks,
>>
>> Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I posted.
>>
>> Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a similar
>> activity as me. And fascinating discussion about sharing weight John,
>> Joseph and others! I really like the idea that every allemande/swing is a
>> new opportunity for connecting with someone different and figuring out that
>> connection. I think it was Will Mentor that referred to enjoying the little
>> differences in every swing which made me all the more present and noticing
>> what I liked about different people's swings.
>>
>> I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to do with
>> dancers who already know the basics but who want to improve their dancing
>> ability/understanding?
>>
>> :) Emily
>> _______________________________________________
>> Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>> To unsubscribe send an email to
>> contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
> To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
>
9:01 p.m.
New subject: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
I've attended several workshops with this theme, led on different
occasions by Carol Ormand and Jo Mortland. A few of the exercises have
been described already, including teaching the dance to half of each
couple and not calling, messing with the music, dancing with pool
noodles, and dancing to the calling of figures with names as nonsensical
as our familiar figures are to first time dancers.
A variant on the pool noodle theme used one teddy bear in each square.
One of my favorites is a different approach to the lost dancer
situation. After the group takes hand four, the caller one dancer from
each minor set, shuffling around which one. They go to the bottom and
make new minor sets. This leaves one empty spot in each set occupied by
a ghost. The teaching and calling proceeds, with the dancers having to
find their ways through the dance without the orientation of the full
set. As the dance progresses, sometimes a whole set of four
materializes,sometimes it's three dancers, sometimes it's only two.
This really emphasizes awareness of your position in the set. It's also
a useful skill when a partner or neighbor doesn't show up at the right
place and time.
I've danced with a fraction of the dancers in a contra set blindfolded.
I also remember a simple square that we danced multiple times,
increasing the number of blindfolded dancers by one each time through.
Again, positional awareness and communication.
A dance with enforced taking of everyone's less familiar role can help
build acceptance.
One time we were divided into two sets, one with all gents and the other
with all ladies. Some gents came away impressed by how violently they
were being swung around while dancing as robins while some ladies
complained about the wimpy larks they danced with. And some in both
lines enjoyed the better matches of forces and energy.
Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a contra with
larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different
rates. Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently
unexpected that chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with
that in a workshop setting. "Dance with who's coming at you."
On 1/24/2024 11:35 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote:
Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some exercises
I've
done/seen/considered:
- half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones who
got the walkthrough need to guide the others through the dance NONVERBALLY
- nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random words,
define a few terms for every dancer, call a nonsense dance and the
hall has to piece together what's what
- excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take a
simple dance and, once the hall has it, you and the band conspire to
just drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or more!) and dancers need to get
themselves in place for the next move. E.g. if the dance ends with a
chain + star and starts with a new neighbor, you might call "robins
chain... new neighbor balance and swing" and the band goes to the top
of A1 (i.e. cutting out the last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know
how the dance flows and where moves start and end to compensate for
missing moves
- noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a bunch
of friends coming, they're raw beginners, who will volunteer to dance
with them and get them through the next dance? And the friends in
question turn out to be... pool noodles. How do dancers
accommodate partners who quite literally can't do a single thing?
- esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a dance
with lots of movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33) without the
sets getting bent out of shape. That's it, that's the whole challenge.
- a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above:
practice dropping a full hands-4 out of the set. This is a recovery
skill that isn't necessarily taught, but if e.g. one dancer has an
injury or urgently needs to drop out, the thing to do is to remove
your entire hands-4 from the set (and people can re-enter from the
bottom if they still want to dance). I ran around with various hats,
placing them on people's heads to denote an "injury"—that person had
to then nonverbally get their hands-4 out of the set, and was then
licensed to put the "injury" hat on someone else's head. (Could also
be done with tagging people out.)
- i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to
represent an injury, and folks interacting with them need to notice
and be cognizant of it/modify around it
- i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the Wall
<https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthewall>
for an exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you
communicated a preference or stylistic request about the swing, and
the second time you met them, you got to enact that preference/request.
- "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged to
non-verbally say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy things at
least n times during the dance. Good practice for communicating and
listening for non-verbal "no's"
- beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws to a
number of the dancers (think "always a beat late", "dizzy",
"grips
tight and moves slow", "always looks in the wrong direction", etc.).
Dancers without an assigned flaw practice quickly evaluating someone
they're dancing with and getting a sense of skill level/whether they
need extra help, and then providing that help. (If you want to "check
people's work", you could at the end have all the assigned-beginner
dances identify themselves, and everyone else can see if they clocked
folks correctly.)
I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk to
suggest, ha. Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't missed my
window for suggesting things—apologies for the delay!). Let us know
how it goes!
Cheers,
Maia
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hey Folks,
Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I
posted.
Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a
similar activity as me. And fascinating discussion about sharing
weight John, Joseph and others! I really like the idea that every
allemande/swing is a new opportunity for connecting with
someone different and figuring out that connection. I think it was
Will Mentor that referred to enjoying the little differences in
every swing which made me all the more present and noticing what I
liked about different people's swings.
I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to
do with dancers who already know the basics but who want to
improve their dancing ability/understanding?
:) Emily
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to
contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
_______________________________________________
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To unsubscribe send an email tocontracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
11:35 a.m.
New subject: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some exercises I've
done/seen/considered:
- half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones who got the
walkthrough need to guide the others through the dance NONVERBALLY
- nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random words, define
a few terms for every dancer, call a nonsense dance and the hall has to
piece together what's what
- excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take a
simple dance and, once the hall has it, you and the band conspire to just
drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or more!) and dancers need to get themselves
in place for the next move. E.g. if the dance ends with a chain + star and
starts with a new neighbor, you might call "robins chain... new neighbor
balance and swing" and the band goes to the top of A1 (i.e. cutting out the
last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know how the dance flows and where
moves start and end to compensate for missing moves
- noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a bunch of
friends coming, they're raw beginners, who will volunteer to dance with
them and get them through the next dance? And the friends in question turn
out to be... pool noodles. How do dancers accommodate partners who quite
literally can't do a single thing?
- esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a dance with
lots of movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33) without the sets getting
bent out of shape. That's it, that's the whole challenge.
- a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above: practice
dropping a full hands-4 out of the set. This is a recovery skill that isn't
necessarily taught, but if e.g. one dancer has an injury or urgently needs
to drop out, the thing to do is to remove your entire hands-4 from the set
(and people can re-enter from the bottom if they still want to dance). I
ran around with various hats, placing them on people's heads to denote an
"injury"—that person had to then nonverbally get their hands-4 out of the
set, and was then licensed to put the "injury" hat on someone else's head.
(Could also be done with tagging people out.)
- i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to represent
an injury, and folks interacting with them need to notice and be cognizant
of it/modify around it
- i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the Wall
<https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthewall>
for an exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you
communicated a preference or stylistic request about the swing, and the
second time you met them, you got to enact that preference/request.
- "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged to
non-verbally say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy things at least n
times during the dance. Good practice for communicating and listening for
non-verbal "no's"
- beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws to a number
of the dancers (think "always a beat late", "dizzy", "grips tight
and moves
slow", "always looks in the wrong direction", etc.). Dancers without an
assigned flaw practice quickly evaluating someone they're dancing with and
getting a sense of skill level/whether they need extra help, and then
providing that help. (If you want to "check people's work", you could at
the end have all the assigned-beginner dances identify themselves, and
everyone else can see if they clocked folks correctly.)
I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk to
suggest, ha. Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't missed my
window for suggesting things—apologies for the delay!). Let us know how it
goes!
Cheers,
Maia
--
Maia McCormick (she/her)
917.279.8194
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hey Folks,
Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I posted.
Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a similar
activity as me. And fascinating discussion about sharing weight John,
Joseph and others! I really like the idea that every allemande/swing is a
new opportunity for connecting with someone different and figuring out that
connection. I think it was Will Mentor that referred to enjoying the little
differences in every swing which made me all the more present and noticing
what I liked about different people's swings.
I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to do with
dancers who already know the basics but who want to improve their dancing
ability/understanding?
:) Emily
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
18 Jan
18 Jan
3:13 a.m.
During an allemande, dancers should think of their arn as a
spring--neither the elbow nor is rigid. Without instruction, most
beginners will keep one or both rigid
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 7:39 PM Read Weaver via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I quite like Alan’s tetherball pole, something I’ll
keep in mind.
I’ve so rarely found anyone giving too much weight that I’ve thought the
objections to the term were theoretical rather than practical, but perhaps
I’ve been lucky (or give too much weight myself). It has occurred to me
that “taking weight” is perhaps a better term, since that better suggests
something you’re offering rather than demanding.
When I teach beginners, the very first thing I do is teach giving weight,
both because I think it’s so important, and because I then point out
moments where you can do it in all* the other figures. For example, in a
chain across, I describe the connection that the people crossing have as
they take hands and pull past as giving weight, awa a very different giving
weight in a well-done courtesy turn. I think calling all of that “giving
weight” is a way of getting across that it’s not just one thing, and that
it’s really central to the difference between dancing near others and
dancing with others. And I’ll tell beginners that if they’re good at giving
weight, they can make lots of mistakes and people will think it’s their own
fault ‘cause they’ll assume from the good giving weight that they’re
dancing with a skilled dancer.
*Except wrist-grip star—possible to do it, and if you do you’ll hurt the
person whose wrist you’re gripping.
The trick I start with for learning it is to have folks in allemande
position, and then have them go around really fast while paying close
attention to what that feels like in their hand and arm. I’ll then have
them do it again, starting out fast and then slowing down (maybe slower
than you’d actually dance it) while keeping that same feeling in their hand
and arm.
But the original question was about _improving_ skills—the specific thing
for that would be giving weight in a circle, something that so rarely
happens. In my beginners’ classes, I point out that a circle four is a
really boring figure, _unless_ everyone is giving weight; then it’s
actually a pretty worthwhile figure. (It’s why grapevine step has inveigled
it’s way from club squares—it adds something at least a little interesting
to a (weightless, poorly done) circle four. I strongly discourage it, since
it’s so much harder (albeit not impossible) to give steady weight while
grapevining.)
Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA
http://lcfd.org
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17 Jan
17 Jan
7:38 p.m.
I quite like Alan’s tetherball pole, something I’ll keep in mind.
I’ve so rarely found anyone giving too much weight that I’ve thought the objections to the
term were theoretical rather than practical, but perhaps I’ve been lucky (or give too much
weight myself). It has occurred to me that “taking weight” is perhaps a better term, since
that better suggests something you’re offering rather than demanding.
When I teach beginners, the very first thing I do is teach giving weight, both because I
think it’s so important, and because I then point out moments where you can do it in all*
the other figures. For example, in a chain across, I describe the connection that the
people crossing have as they take hands and pull past as giving weight, awa a very
different giving weight in a well-done courtesy turn. I think calling all of that “giving
weight” is a way of getting across that it’s not just one thing, and that it’s really
central to the difference between dancing near others and dancing with others. And I’ll
tell beginners that if they’re good at giving weight, they can make lots of mistakes and
people will think it’s their own fault ‘cause they’ll assume from the good giving weight
that they’re dancing with a skilled dancer.
*Except wrist-grip star—possible to do it, and if you do you’ll hurt the person whose
wrist you’re gripping.
The trick I start with for learning it is to have folks in allemande position, and then
have them go around really fast while paying close attention to what that feels like in
their hand and arm. I’ll then have them do it again, starting out fast and then slowing
down (maybe slower than you’d actually dance it) while keeping that same feeling in their
hand and arm.
But the original question was about _improving_ skills—the specific thing for that would
be giving weight in a circle, something that so rarely happens. In my beginners’ classes,
I point out that a circle four is a really boring figure, _unless_ everyone is giving
weight; then it’s actually a pretty worthwhile figure. (It’s why grapevine step has
inveigled it’s way from club squares—it adds something at least a little interesting to a
(weightless, poorly done) circle four. I strongly discourage it, since it’s so much harder
(albeit not impossible) to give steady weight while grapevining.)
Read Weaver
Jamaica Plain, MA
http://lcfd.org
12:53 p.m.
New subject: Re Workshop/activity ideas for improving dancer skill
Hey Folks,
Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I posted.
Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a similar
activity as me. And fascinating discussion about sharing weight John,
Joseph and others! I really like the idea that every allemande/swing is a
new opportunity for connecting with someone different and figuring out that
connection. I think it was Will Mentor that referred to enjoying the little
differences in every swing which made me all the more present and noticing
what I liked about different people's swings.
I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to do with
dancers who already know the basics but who want to improve their dancing
ability/understanding?
:) Emily
9:31 a.m.
Winston, Alan P. wrote:
Over in English dance land, Bruce Hamilton used to
describe the amount of pulling force as
[Stuff deleted]
Alan, I particularly like the understandable reference to a tetherball pole. I think
it's easy for anyone to comprehend what might happen if one used the same forces on
another dancer that one might use to navigate around the pole.
I heartily agree, also, with your observation that a negotiation takes place every time
one makes (intentional... and choreographed!) contact with another dancer. That period of
negotiation might last only for a second. Even less, maybe. And, I think, it will
determine the quality of the interaction.
Ken Panton
Ottawa
"
More recently he's been taking that the position
that the hand *knows* the right
amount of pull/connection; you can find out by putting your cupped hand around a
tetherball post (or some other round pole) and turning around it with an amount of
weight
you find satisfactory. The static post essentially gives you back as much firmness /
connection as you put into it - and it does it without squeezing your hand or trapping
your thumb.
It may also be worth pointing out that every allemande is, and every swing is, a
negotiation, where you find a mutually comfortable amount of tension and of speed; you
never know whether the person you've come to has a wrist / shoulder / back/ hip
problem or a dizziness/vertigo problem or is just too tired to go around that fast right
now. You're obliged to pay attention to what the other person is giving you and not
pull them off balance or fling them around, and you should offer only a degree of
tension/connection you can tolerate.
-- Alan
________________________________________
7:52 a.m.
Thus the perils of all language. Because of my personal ways of thinking
(somewhat twisted in physics labs and engineering classes, alas), the words
“weight” and “pressure” have precise mechanical meanings. As they have been
used in some of these examples, they have helped me and others improve
their dancing, as empirically demonstrated on the dance floor. None of my
dance partners would
accuse me of shoving them about, nor would anyone look at the typical
dancer coming out of a George Marshall dance lesson and think they had been
ill taught.
Even so, others of us have had unwelcome results using these same words on
different days with different dancers in different places, because language
is fluid and variable across time and culture.
To me, pressure and weight are things measured in pounds or newtons. If
there is meaningful connection between two objects, such as between the
hands of two dancers, then there *will* be measurable pressure and weight
between them. To understand what I’m getting at, try an allemande with so
little pressure between the hands that a piece of paper would slip out
between them. It would be no different from allemanding a weightless ghost.
To some, “give weight”, is heard as “maintain the sort of connection
through your arms such that your partner can feel that your body is
responding as a whole rather than just your arm.” Successful
communication. To others, “give weight” is heard as “lean or pull on the
other person so they are taking on some of your weight.” Failed
communication; time to clarify your words or try different ones altogether.
When I said push up or push down, I didn’t mean shove or haul with an
intent to move something substantial. I meant, “When you are holding hands
there will be some amount of pressure in the physics sense; if there isn’t
then you aren’t in physical contact at all. Don’t pull towards yourself
like you’re doing curls in the gym, nor push away, nor let them hang
loose. Don’t squeeze either. If you maintain solid but gentle palm to palm
pressure with your elbows bent, it can put the rest of your upper body,
from hand to shoulder to shoulder to hand, in a good amount of gentle
physical tension to keep your whole body involved in the dance.”
It has worked for me. If sometimes I see that’s not what my dancers are
hearing, I’ll try different words.
-jeh
On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 2:28 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I am sorry, but I disagree with anything that says to
put pressure into
connection. Why would you need to push up or down when holding hands in a
circle? Why would you need to pull in an Allemande?
Hold your hand in space in the correct position for the move and support
it there with your own muscles. Then connect with the other people.
That’s all. You don’t need to pull or push in any direction to feel their
hand and work together.
When you start moving all you need to do is use your muscles to keep the
connection the same. For an Allemande what you are fighting is centrifugal
force, not your partner. As you speed up (by using your feet) then you
apply just enough muscle to keep the W shape of your arms. If your hand
moves towards your body you are leaning away or pulling too hard (which,
sadly, at least 80% of contra dancers do!). If your hand moves away from
your body you need to use your muscles to bring it back centrally.
Unfortunately, as I mentioned, it is probably the other dancer pulling too
hard so that you have no chance of keeping the nice W shape unless you pull
even harder and it ends up as arm-wrestling instead of dancing. :-(
All rotations should be a gentle counter-balance.
Exercise: See how fast you can turn in an Allemande while keeping a
perfect W shape with your arms. Always start with no resistance and only
increase it by the minimum amount to keep the hands central against
centrifugal force. Your key objective should be to get around once and a
half in eight steps since Allemande 1.5 is a common move (too common in my
opinion!)
Alan’s example of using a static post instead of a partner works the same
way. See how fast you can go and only use your muscles to keep your arm
shape unchanged. See how fast you can go with as little muscle as possible.
The same principle applies in a circle. Just use your muscles to keep the
circle perfect.
People talk about needing tension. They very rarely tell you how much
tension! The average dancer assumes that they mean a lot of tension. In
fact you should always go for the minimum tension needed to make the move
work. When I run Swing Variations Workshops I always start by getting
people to take a Ballroom-Hold; then I ask each dancer to tell their
partner about any points of pressure that they are feeling and I ask them
to relax. I often get comments on how useful that is; they didn’t realise
that they were pressing/pulling/hanging/etc.
You may find this article useful: Tension Is Your Enemy!
http://modernjive.com/history/tension.html
Although it is about a different dance genre, the basic principles still
apply. It is especially relevant if you want to improve your flourishes,
such as the twirls in a Ladies’ Chain.
Remember, as one great teacher taught me, “it’s not my job to drag your
ass across the floor”. Everyone is responsible for executing the move
themselves – connection just helps.
An early Circle Mixer in an evening is a great way of letting all the new
people experience doing lots of moves with lots of different dancers so
that they can feel what is good and what is not.
Anyway, that’s what I think! I hope some of it helps.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
4:28 a.m.
I am sorry, but I disagree with anything that says to put pressure into connection. Why
would you need to push up or down when holding hands in a circle? Why would you need to
pull in an Allemande?
Hold your hand in space in the correct position for the move and support it there with
your own muscles. Then connect with the other people. That’s all. You don’t need to
pull or push in any direction to feel their hand and work together.
When you start moving all you need to do is use your muscles to keep the connection the
same. For an Allemande what you are fighting is centrifugal force, not your partner. As
you speed up (by using your feet) then you apply just enough muscle to keep the W shape of
your arms. If your hand moves towards your body you are leaning away or pulling too hard
(which, sadly, at least 80% of contra dancers do!). If your hand moves away from your body
you need to use your muscles to bring it back centrally. Unfortunately, as I mentioned,
it is probably the other dancer pulling too hard so that you have no chance of keeping the
nice W shape unless you pull even harder and it ends up as arm-wrestling instead of
dancing. :-(
All rotations should be a gentle counter-balance.
Exercise: See how fast you can turn in an Allemande while keeping a perfect W shape with
your arms. Always start with no resistance and only increase it by the minimum amount to
keep the hands central against centrifugal force. Your key objective should be to get
around once and a half in eight steps since Allemande 1.5 is a common move (too common in
my opinion!)
Alan’s example of using a static post instead of a partner works the same way. See how
fast you can go and only use your muscles to keep your arm shape unchanged. See how fast
you can go with as little muscle as possible.
The same principle applies in a circle. Just use your muscles to keep the circle
perfect.
People talk about needing tension. They very rarely tell you how much tension! The
average dancer assumes that they mean a lot of tension. In fact you should always go for
the minimum tension needed to make the move work. When I run Swing Variations Workshops I
always start by getting people to take a Ballroom-Hold; then I ask each dancer to tell
their partner about any points of pressure that they are feeling and I ask them to relax.
I often get comments on how useful that is; they didn’t realise that they were
pressing/pulling/hanging/etc.
You may find this article useful: Tension Is Your Enemy!
http://modernjive.com/history/tension.html
Although it is about a different dance genre, the basic principles still apply. It is
especially relevant if you want to improve your flourishes, such as the twirls in a
Ladies’ Chain.
Remember, as one great teacher taught me, “it’s not my job to drag your ass across the
floor”. Everyone is responsible for executing the move themselves – connection just
helps.
An early Circle Mixer in an evening is a great way of letting all the new people
experience doing lots of moves with lots of different dancers so that they can feel what
is good and what is not.
Anyway, that’s what I think! I hope some of it helps.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
16 Jan
16 Jan
6:49 p.m.
Please remove me from this mailing list. Thank you.Rod Krehbiel rckrehbiel(a)yahoo.com Sent
from my Galaxy
-------- Original message --------From: John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> Date: 1/16/24 12:25 PM (GMT-06:00) To:
'Shared Weight Contra Callers' <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Re: Workshop activities for helping dancers improve their skills? Hi
Emily, Two of the most important skills to teach are Swings and Allemandes.
They are very frequent and often danced very badly. You can see some of my
teaching notes at http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/AlliesMan.html with links to my
Allemandes and Swings pages for more information. Happy
dancing, John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940
574http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
5:47 p.m.
I’m loving this discussion and analysis.
For yet another perspective, I’ll link to a video of an introductory
session by George Marshall, recorded in 2011. He begins his discussion of
“giving weight” around 5:20. He describes it in terms of *vertical” forces.
If you’re holding hands with someone as in a circle or balance, and if your
hand is the one facing up, you give a bit of upward pressure; if facing
down, an equal amount of downward pressure. I think this is a good insight:
focusing on that can naturally lead to appropriate horizontal connection. I
think this translates to allemande holds: when palms are together, think
about the pressure between the palms rather than the tension in the arms.
The analogy isn’t as direct for other types of contact but it’s something I
think about.
https://youtu.be/14nxFdcaKWA?si=DnYkRqGtynLGUacL
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 2:45 PM Winston, Alan P. via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Over in English dance land, Bruce Hamilton used to
describe the amount of
pulling force as "about a sixpack's worth". (He was talking about the
long-armed English turn rather than the thumbs-up/bent-elbow allemande but
I think it's the same thing.)
More recently he's been taking that the position that the hand *knows* the
right amount of pull/connection; you can find out by putting your cupped
hand around a tetherball post (or some other round pole) and turning around
it with an amount of weight you find satisfactory. The static post
essentially gives you back as much firmness / connection as you put into it
- and it does it without squeezing your hand or trapping your thumb.
It may also be worth pointing out that every allemande is, and every swing
is, a negotiation, where you find a mutually comfortable amount of tension
and of speed; you never know whether the person you've come to has a wrist
/ shoulder / back/ hip problem or a dizziness/vertigo problem or is just
too tired to go around that fast right now. You're obliged to pay
attention to what the other person is giving you and not pull them off
balance or fling them around, and you should offer only a degree of
tension/connection you can tolerate.
-- Alan
________________________________________
From: Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 12:49 PM
To: John Sweeney
Cc: 'Shared Weight Contra Callers'
Subject: [Callers] Re: Workshop activities for helping dancers improve
their skills?
Hi John et al - I am really glad to have this topic come up here, because
we've been turning our attention to it recently in our Halifax group.
We had unthinkingly been telling people to lean back/rely on each other in
the intro, to teach the concept of a strong connection (we would teach it
using an allemande). This was language that went back well over a decade
to our previous caller, and we never questioned it.
But I did see a discussion on this listserv e on "giving weight" at some
point in the last year, and realized that this "leaning back" was not an
optimal way to describe it.
We do have a number of dancers in our group who still have "limp noodle"
phenomenon, along with many new dancers each month, so we are trying to
think - how can we better and more clearly teach this concept?
I reviewed and am going to try your "slight sit" method to see how it
works for the group.
That said, I am not sure that that method on its own teaches giving weight
- it teaches how not to pull too hard - but if I can do a slight sit
without falling over on my own, then I could also do this same slight sit
while having the lightest hand touch to someone else. This would not meet
my definition of "giving weight".
In trying to break down/analyze the feeling of giving weight with a friend
of mine (let's start with something simple like a one-handed connection
through an allemande), I decided that in actual fact, it means pulling on
each other's hands. Feel free to disagree with me, but after going into
and out of the position like, 20 times in a row and each of us trying to
describe what we were doing when it felt right, we both agreed we were both
applying a light but constant "pulling pressure" on the other person, via
the hand connection.
But - and this was key - we found that we were each pulling by a special
"magic amount" that is hard to quantify. If we don't pull at all - we get
the limp noodle effect. If we pull too hard, it feels like some sort of
unpleasant arm-wrestle-ish thing.
So last dance, I did try teaching it this way - we had all dancers join
hand with a partner, assume allemande position, and try the following
sequence:
- not pulling on each other at all,
- pulling super hard like they were doing an arm wrestle,
- and then finding that happy medium, magic amount of "pull".
It seemed to work!
Looking at your page on "connection" John, this seems to line up with the
idea of "Go for equal and opposite tension, just enough to feel each other,
but not enough to move the hands from mid-way between you."
I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on my addition of the concept
of "a little bit of pulling" or "tugging". Because this idea of
"equal and
opposite tension" is a little vague for the uninitiated. How do you create
this tension, exactly? "Now create tension" is not a very specific
instruction for how the body must act, in order to produce the desired
effect.
Then me and my friend started analyzing more involved figures like swing
and courtesy turn.
My analysis was that in these two-hands-connected figures, one hand
provides a slight pushing force while the other provides a slight pulling
force.
In the swing, (we swing with an elbow connection instead of a shoulder
blade connection), the hands connected at the elbows pull in towards
oneself a little.
at the same time, the hands in the ballroom hold push against each other a
little.
In the courtesy turn, the two hands that are hooked behind the ravens'
back provide a little pull towards each other (ie the fingers of each
dancer pull in towards the dancer's own elbow), while the hands joined in
front push off each other a little.
Thoughts on this way of seeing "giving weight" ?
:D
I'm just experimenting with it at the moment so I would love to have input.
Kat K in Halifax
John Sweeney via Contra Callers<mailto:
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 2:47 PM
Hi Joseph,
“Giving weight” is a highly technical term stolen from other
more complex dance genres. It is too easily misunderstood. People
actually expect you to take some of their weight! They lean; they hang;
they pull; etc. Please don’t! :-)
I absolutely do NOT want any of your weight! (I have enough
of my own!).
People use the term without explaining this.
“Giving weight” means controlling your centre of gravity so
that you are connected to your partner. It is much better to talk about
connection. (See also http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#connection
). (More about weight in the Swing here:
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#swinging ).
You can see a video of me demonstrating “giving weight” at
https://youtu.be/Uvbp5HiCiBo?si=akxwoMu2fbUupsBm&t=137
The exercise that I show there is one you can get dancers to
try. Make them do a slight sit by themself without falling over. Then take
two hands with your partner and both do a slight sit. Then let go. I you
fall over you were pulling too hard!
The continual yanking by people who are throwing their
weight around can cause injury, including repetitive strain injury if it is
a constant factor of their dancing.
People use far too many muscles when they are dancing. We
had a new dancer today and I was showing him how to do a Roll Away. He
started pulling me hard with his connected hand and kept pulling strongly.
I explained that his initial pull – just moving his hand gently a few
inches then relaxing – was enough. Having initiated the Roll-Away the
other dancer will complete it by themself. He tried that and saw how
easily we both completed the move without any effort.
I hope that helps.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com<mailtolto:
john(a)modernjive.com> 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
From: Joseph Erhard-Hudson <josephatthecoop(a)gmail.com><mailtolt;mailto:
josephatthecoop(a)gmail.com>
Sent: 16 January 2024 19:12
To: John Sweeney <john@modernjive.com><mailto:john@modernjive.com>
Cc: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re:
Workshop activities for helping dancers improve
their skills?
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give
weight"! Keep your arms firm but elastic.
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm
connection (at least that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so long, I’m
hoping you can say more about what you’re asking them to do, or perhaps not
to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions, but to help me understand
the diversity of the ways callers conceive and convey the hallmarks of good
dancing technique.
Joseph
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 10:25 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net<mailtolto:
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
_______________________________________________
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<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net>
Joseph Erhard-Hudson via Contra Callers<mailto:
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 2:11 PM
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give
weight"! Keep your arms firm but elastic.
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm
connection (at least that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so long, I’m
hoping you can say more about what you’re asking them to do, or perhaps not
to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions, but to help me understand
the diversity of the ways callers conceive and convey the hallmarks of good
dancing technique.
Joseph
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net>
John Sweeney via Contra Callers<mailto:
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 1:25 PM
Hi Emily,
Two of the most important skills to teach are Swings and
Allemandes. They are very frequent and often danced very badly.
You can see some of my teaching notes at
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/AlliesMan.html with links to my
Allemandes and Swings pages for more information.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com<mailtolto:
john(a)modernjive.com> 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net>
Emily Addison via Contra Callers<mailto:
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 11:49 AM
Hi fellow contra callers :)
I am wondering if any of you have little activities/exercises that you use
to help dancers improve their knowledge/skills of contra dance?
I know there's lots of opinions on whether this is even necessary or
should be offered. However, I have a few situations where I've got dancers
who are keen to improve their skills and I'd like to have various fun ways
of doing so.
I'd love to hear your ideas!
One activity I remember from mannnnny years ago in Ottawa was led by Adina
Gordon. She had us form up in contra lines and then she would say 1-2
(maybe 3?) figures. We weren't to dance the figure... instead, simply go
to the spot where we would end up after the figure(s). I remember this as
being a lot of fun and a great learning experience.
I also remember from that same session something about sending some
dancers out of the room and teaching the dance to others and then doing the
dance. (I don't remember the details.)
Thoughts?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa ON
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_______________________________________________
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To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
4:44 p.m.
Over in English dance land, Bruce Hamilton used to describe the amount of pulling force as
"about a sixpack's worth". (He was talking about the long-armed English
turn rather than the thumbs-up/bent-elbow allemande but I think it's the same thing.)
More recently he's been taking that the position that the hand *knows* the right
amount of pull/connection; you can find out by putting your cupped hand around a
tetherball post (or some other round pole) and turning around it with an amount of weight
you find satisfactory. The static post essentially gives you back as much firmness /
connection as you put into it - and it does it without squeezing your hand or trapping
your thumb.
It may also be worth pointing out that every allemande is, and every swing is, a
negotiation, where you find a mutually comfortable amount of tension and of speed; you
never know whether the person you've come to has a wrist / shoulder / back/ hip
problem or a dizziness/vertigo problem or is just too tired to go around that fast right
now. You're obliged to pay attention to what the other person is giving you and not
pull them off balance or fling them around, and you should offer only a degree of
tension/connection you can tolerate.
-- Alan
________________________________________
From: Katherine Kitching via Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Tuesday, January 16, 2024 12:49 PM
To: John Sweeney
Cc: 'Shared Weight Contra Callers'
Subject: [Callers] Re: Workshop activities for helping dancers improve their skills?
Hi John et al - I am really glad to have this topic come up here, because we've been
turning our attention to it recently in our Halifax group.
We had unthinkingly been telling people to lean back/rely on each other in the intro, to
teach the concept of a strong connection (we would teach it using an allemande). This was
language that went back well over a decade to our previous caller, and we never questioned
it.
But I did see a discussion on this listserv e on "giving weight" at some point
in the last year, and realized that this "leaning back" was not an optimal way
to describe it.
We do have a number of dancers in our group who still have "limp noodle"
phenomenon, along with many new dancers each month, so we are trying to think - how can we
better and more clearly teach this concept?
I reviewed and am going to try your "slight sit" method to see how it works for
the group.
That said, I am not sure that that method on its own teaches giving weight - it teaches
how not to pull too hard - but if I can do a slight sit without falling over on my own,
then I could also do this same slight sit while having the lightest hand touch to someone
else. This would not meet my definition of "giving weight".
In trying to break down/analyze the feeling of giving weight with a friend of mine
(let's start with something simple like a one-handed connection through an allemande),
I decided that in actual fact, it means pulling on each other's hands. Feel free to
disagree with me, but after going into and out of the position like, 20 times in a row and
each of us trying to describe what we were doing when it felt right, we both agreed we
were both applying a light but constant "pulling pressure" on the other person,
via the hand connection.
But - and this was key - we found that we were each pulling by a special "magic
amount" that is hard to quantify. If we don't pull at all - we get the limp
noodle effect. If we pull too hard, it feels like some sort of unpleasant
arm-wrestle-ish thing.
So last dance, I did try teaching it this way - we had all dancers join hand with a
partner, assume allemande position, and try the following sequence:
- not pulling on each other at all,
- pulling super hard like they were doing an arm wrestle,
- and then finding that happy medium, magic amount of "pull".
It seemed to work!
Looking at your page on "connection" John, this seems to line up with the idea
of "Go for equal and opposite tension, just enough to feel each other, but not enough
to move the hands from mid-way between you."
I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on my addition of the concept of
"a little bit of pulling" or "tugging". Because this idea of
"equal and opposite tension" is a little vague for the uninitiated. How do you
create this tension, exactly? "Now create tension" is not a very specific
instruction for how the body must act, in order to produce the desired effect.
Then me and my friend started analyzing more involved figures like swing and courtesy
turn.
My analysis was that in these two-hands-connected figures, one hand provides a slight
pushing force while the other provides a slight pulling force.
In the swing, (we swing with an elbow connection instead of a shoulder blade connection),
the hands connected at the elbows pull in towards oneself a little.
at the same time, the hands in the ballroom hold push against each other a little.
In the courtesy turn, the two hands that are hooked behind the ravens' back provide a
little pull towards each other (ie the fingers of each dancer pull in towards the
dancer's own elbow), while the hands joined in front push off each other a little.
Thoughts on this way of seeing "giving weight" ?
:D
I'm just experimenting with it at the moment so I would love to have input.
Kat K in Halifax
John Sweeney via Contra Callers<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 2:47 PM
Hi Joseph,
“Giving weight” is a highly technical term stolen from other more complex
dance genres. It is too easily misunderstood. People actually expect you to take some of
their weight! They lean; they hang; they pull; etc. Please don’t! :-)
I absolutely do NOT want any of your weight! (I have enough of my own!).
People use the term without explaining this.
“Giving weight” means controlling your centre of gravity so that you are
connected to your partner. It is much better to talk about connection. (See also
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#connection ). (More about weight in the Swing here:
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#swinging ).
You can see a video of me demonstrating “giving weight” at
https://youtu.be/Uvbp5HiCiBo?si=akxwoMu2fbUupsBm&t=137
The exercise that I show there is one you can get dancers to try. Make them
do a slight sit by themself without falling over. Then take two hands with your partner
and both do a slight sit. Then let go. I you fall over you were pulling too hard!
The continual yanking by people who are throwing their weight around can
cause injury, including repetitive strain injury if it is a constant factor of their
dancing.
People use far too many muscles when they are dancing. We had a new dancer
today and I was showing him how to do a Roll Away. He started pulling me hard with his
connected hand and kept pulling strongly. I explained that his initial pull – just moving
his hand gently a few inches then relaxing – was enough. Having initiated the Roll-Away
the other dancer will complete it by themself. He tried that and saw how easily we both
completed the move without any effort.
I hope that helps.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john@modernjive.com<mailto:john@modernjive.com>
01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
From: Joseph Erhard-Hudson
<josephatthecoop@gmail.com><mailto:josephatthecoop@gmail.com>
Sent: 16 January 2024 19:12
To: John Sweeney <john@modernjive.com><mailto:john@modernjive.com>
Cc: Shared Weight Contra Callers
<contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net><mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re: Workshop activities for helping dancers improve their skills?
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give weight"!
Keep your arms firm but elastic.
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm connection (at least
that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so long, I’m hoping you can say more about what
you’re asking them to do, or perhaps not to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions,
but to help me understand the diversity of the ways callers conceive and convey the
hallmarks of good dancing technique.
Joseph
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 10:25 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>>
wrote:
_______________________________________________
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contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To unsubscribe send an email to
contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net>
Joseph Erhard-Hudson via Contra
Callers<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 2:11 PM
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give weight"!
Keep your arms firm but elastic.
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm connection (at least
that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so long, I’m hoping you can say more about what
you’re asking them to do, or perhaps not to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions,
but to help me understand the diversity of the ways callers conceive and convey the
hallmarks of good dancing technique.
Joseph
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list --
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To unsubscribe send an email to
contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net>
John Sweeney via Contra Callers<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 1:25 PM
Hi Emily,
Two of the most important skills to teach are Swings and Allemandes. They
are very frequent and often danced very badly.
You can see some of my teaching notes at
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/AlliesMan.html with links to my Allemandes and Swings
pages for more information.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john@modernjive.com<mailto:john@modernjive.com>
01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
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Emily Addison via Contra Callers<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 11:49 AM
Hi fellow contra callers :)
I am wondering if any of you have little activities/exercises that you use to help dancers
improve their knowledge/skills of contra dance?
I know there's lots of opinions on whether this is even necessary or should be
offered. However, I have a few situations where I've got dancers who are keen to
improve their skills and I'd like to have various fun ways of doing so.
I'd love to hear your ideas!
One activity I remember from mannnnny years ago in Ottawa was led by Adina Gordon. She
had us form up in contra lines and then she would say 1-2 (maybe 3?) figures. We
weren't to dance the figure... instead, simply go to the spot where we would end up
after the figure(s). I remember this as being a lot of fun and a great learning
experience.
I also remember from that same session something about sending some dancers out of the
room and teaching the dance to others and then doing the dance. (I don't remember the
details.)
Thoughts?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa ON
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2:49 p.m.
Hi John et al - I am really glad to have this topic come up here,
because we've been turning our attention to it recently in our Halifax
group.
We had unthinkingly been telling people to lean back/rely on each other
in the intro, to teach the concept of a strong connection (we would
teach it using an allemande). This was language that went back well
over a decade to our previous caller, and we never questioned it.
But I did see a discussion on this listserv e on "giving weight" at some
point in the last year, and realized that this "leaning back" was not an
optimal way to describe it.
We do have a number of dancers in our group who still have "limp noodle"
phenomenon, along with many new dancers each month, so we are trying to
think - how can we better and more clearly teach this concept?
I reviewed and am going to try your "slight sit" method to see how it
works for the group.
That said, I am not sure that that method on its own teaches giving
weight - it teaches how not to pull too hard - but if I can do a slight
sit without falling over on my own, then I could also do this same
slight sit while having the lightest hand touch to someone else. This
would not meet my definition of "giving weight".
In trying to break down/analyze the feeling of giving weight with a
friend of mine (let's start with something simple like a one-handed
connection through an allemande), I decided that in actual fact, it
means pulling on each other's hands. Feel free to disagree with me, but
after going into and out of the position like, 20 times in a row and
each of us trying to describe what we were doing when it felt right, we
both agreed we were both applying a light but constant "pulling
pressure" on the other person, via the hand connection.
But - and this was key - we found that we were each pulling by a special
"magic amount" that is hard to quantify. If we don't pull at all - we
get the limp noodle effect. If we pull too hard, it feels like some
sort of unpleasant arm-wrestle-ish thing.
So last dance, I did try teaching it this way - we had all dancers join
hand with a partner, assume allemande position, and try the following
sequence:
- not pulling on each other at all,
- pulling super hard like they were doing an arm wrestle,
- and then finding that happy medium, magic amount of "pull".
It seemed to work!
Looking at your page on "connection" John, this seems to line up with
the idea of "Go for equal and opposite tension, just enough to feel each
other, but not enough to move the hands from mid-way between you."
I'm interested in hearing people's thoughts on my addition of the
concept of "a little bit of pulling" or "tugging". Because this idea
of
"equal and opposite tension" is a little vague for the uninitiated. How
do you create this tension, exactly? "Now create tension" is not a very
specific instruction for how the body must act, in order to produce the
desired effect.
Then me and my friend started analyzing more involved figures like swing
and courtesy turn.
My analysis was that in these two-hands-connected figures, one hand
provides a slight pushing force while the other provides a slight
pulling force.
In the swing, (we swing with an elbow connection instead of a shoulder
blade connection), the hands connected at the elbows pull in towards
oneself a little.
at the same time, the hands in the ballroom hold push against each other
a little.
In the courtesy turn, the two hands that are hooked behind the ravens'
back provide a little pull towards each other (ie the fingers of each
dancer pull in towards the dancer's own elbow), while the hands joined
in front push off each other a little.
Thoughts on this way of seeing "giving weight" ?
:D
I'm just experimenting with it at the moment so I would love to have input.
Kat K in Halifax
John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 2:47 PM
Hi Joseph,
“Giving weight” is a highly technical term stolen from other more
complex dance genres. It is too easily misunderstood. People
actually expect you to take some of their weight! They lean; they
hang; they pull; etc. Please don’t! :-)
I absolutely do NOT want any of your weight! (I have enough of my own!).
People use the term without explaining this.
“Giving weight” means controlling your centre of gravity so that you
are connected to your partner. It is much better to talk about
connection. (See also
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#connection ). (More about
weight in the Swing here:
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#swinging ).
You can see a video of me demonstrating “giving weight” at
https://youtu.be/Uvbp5HiCiBo?si=akxwoMu2fbUupsBm&t=137
The exercise that I show there is one you can get dancers to try. Make
them do a slight sit by themself without falling over. Then take two
hands with your partner and both do a slight sit. Then let go. I you
fall over you were pulling too hard!
The continual yanking by people who are throwing their weight around
can cause injury, including repetitive strain injury if it is a
constant factor of their dancing.
People use far too many muscles when they are dancing. We had a new
dancer today and I was showing him how to do a Roll Away. He started
pulling me hard with his connected hand and kept pulling strongly. I
explained that his initial pull – just moving his hand gently a few
inches then relaxing – was enough. Having initiated the Roll-Away the
other dancer will complete it by themself. He tried that and saw how
easily we both completed the move without any effort.
I hope that helps.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
*From:*Joseph Erhard-Hudson <josephatthecoop(a)gmail.com>
*Sent:* 16 January 2024 19:12
*To:* John Sweeney <john(a)modernjive.com>
*Cc:* Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
*Subject:* Re: [Callers] Re: Workshop activities for helping dancers
improve their skills?
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
/Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give
weight"! Keep your arms firm but elastic./
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm
connection (at least that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so
long, I’m hoping you can say more about what you’re asking them to do,
or perhaps not to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions, but
to help me understand the diversity of the ways callers conceive and
convey the hallmarks of good dancing technique.
Joseph
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 10:25 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
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Joseph Erhard-Hudson via Contra Callers
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 2:11 PM
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
/Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give
weight"! Keep your arms firm but elastic./
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm
connection (at least that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so
long, I’m hoping you can say more about what you’re asking them to do,
or perhaps not to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions, but
to help me understand the diversity of the ways callers conceive and
convey the hallmarks of good dancing technique.
Joseph
_______________________________________________
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To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 1:25 PM
Hi Emily,
Two of the most important skills to teach are Swings and Allemandes.
They are very frequent and often danced very badly.
You can see some of my teaching notes at
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/AlliesMan.html with links to my
Allemandes and Swings pages for more information.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 &
07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Emily Addison via Contra Callers
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Tuesday, January 16, 2024 11:49 AM
Hi fellow contra callers :)
I am wondering if any of you have little activities/exercises that you
use to help dancers improve their knowledge/skills of contra dance?
I know there's lots of opinions on whether this is even necessary or
should be offered. However, I have a few situations where I've got
dancers who are keen to improve their skills and I'd like to have
various fun ways of doing so.
I'd love to hear your ideas!
One activity I remember from mannnnny years ago in Ottawa was led by
Adina Gordon. She had us form up in contra lines and then she would
say 1-2 (maybe 3?) figures. We weren't to dance the figure...
instead, simply go to the spot where we would end up after the
figure(s). I remember this as being a lot of fun and a great learning
experience.
I also remember from that same session something about sending some
dancers out of the room and teaching the dance to others and then
doing the dance. (I don't remember the details.)
Thoughts?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa ON
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
1:47 p.m.
Hi Joseph,
“Giving weight” is a highly technical term stolen from other more complex
dance genres. It is too easily misunderstood. People actually expect you to take some of
their weight! They lean; they hang; they pull; etc. Please don’t! :-)
I absolutely do NOT want any of your weight! (I have enough of my own!).
People use the term without explaining this.
“Giving weight” means controlling your centre of gravity so that you are
connected to your partner. It is much better to talk about connection. (See also
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#connection ). (More about weight in the Swing here:
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Contra.html#swinging ).
You can see a video of me demonstrating “giving weight” at
https://youtu.be/Uvbp5HiCiBo?si=akxwoMu2fbUupsBm
<https://youtu.be/Uvbp5HiCiBo?si=akxwoMu2fbUupsBm&t=137> &t=137
The exercise that I show there is one you can get dancers to try. Make them
do a slight sit by themself without falling over. Then take two hands with your partner
and both do a slight sit. Then let go. I you fall over you were pulling too hard!
The continual yanking by people who are throwing their weight around can
cause injury, including repetitive strain injury if it is a constant factor of their
dancing.
People use far too many muscles when they are dancing. We had a new dancer
today and I was showing him how to do a Roll Away. He started pulling me hard with his
connected hand and kept pulling strongly. I explained that his initial pull – just moving
his hand gently a few inches then relaxing – was enough. Having initiated the Roll-Away
the other dancer will complete it by themself. He tried that and saw how easily we both
completed the move without any effort.
I hope that helps.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
From: Joseph Erhard-Hudson <josephatthecoop(a)gmail.com>
Sent: 16 January 2024 19:12
To: John Sweeney <john(a)modernjive.com>
Cc: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: Re: [Callers] Re: Workshop activities for helping dancers improve their skills?
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give weight"!
Keep your arms firm but elastic.
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm connection (at least
that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so long, I’m hoping you can say more about what
you’re asking them to do, or perhaps not to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions,
but to help me understand the diversity of the ways callers conceive and convey the
hallmarks of good dancing technique.
Joseph
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 10:25 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers
<contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> > wrote:
Hi Emily,
Two of the most important skills to teach are Swings and Allemandes. They
are very frequent and often danced very badly.
You can see some of my teaching notes at
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/AlliesMan.html with links to my Allemandes and Swings
pages for more information.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com <mailto:john@modernjive.com>
01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:contracallers-leave@lists.sharedweight.net>
1:11 p.m.
John,
Thanks for sharing your teaching notes with us.
I’m intrigued by one paragraph in particular:
*Connect and relax. Be responsible for your own weight! Don't "Give
weight"! Keep your arms firm but elastic.*
Since “give weight” has been customary parlance for maintaining firm
connection (at least that’s how I’ve always understood it) for so long, I’m
hoping you can say more about what you’re asking them to do, or perhaps not
to do. This is not to cast doubt on your notions, but to help me understand
the diversity of the ways callers conceive and convey the hallmarks of good
dancing technique.
Joseph
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 10:25 AM John Sweeney via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi Emily,
Two of the most important skills to teach are Swings and
Allemandes. They are very frequent and often danced very badly.
You can see some of my teaching notes at
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/AlliesMan.html with links to my
Allemandes and Swings pages for more information.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802
940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
12:25 p.m.
Hi Emily,
Two of the most important skills to teach are Swings and Allemandes. They
are very frequent and often danced very badly.
You can see some of my teaching notes at
http://contrafusion.co.uk/Dances/AlliesMan.html with links to my Allemandes and Swings
pages for more information.
Happy dancing,
John
John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 & 07802 940 574
http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent
11:42 a.m.
Years ago Marlin Powell did that last exercise at Chehalis Dance Camp in
B.C., Canada. It was really fun. I was one of those left in the hall
learning the dance. It was a fun challenge to use our silent communication
skills with those who had not been taught. That's the only thing I remember
from that camp.
-Amy
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024, 9:27 AM Joseph Erhard-Hudson via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
For the latter exercise, Sarah VanNorstrand led same
sort of thing last
June at Lady of the Lake.
She had us take hands four and cross over (duple improper), then sent one
entire side of the set out of the room. She taught the dance to the
remaining folks while we were gone. I’m not sure whether she had them dance
with ghosts, or compacted them to teach and then distributed them out
again, or something else. Regardless, once they had mastered it she brought
everyone back in, had us rejoin our places, then the band started with no
further walk-through. We were bound to silence, using only gestures and eye
contact for those in the know to teach the ignorant. It was a basic
vocabulary sequence of course. With everyone primed to communicate and be
attentive we danced it pretty much error free.
-Joseph
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 8:49 AM Emily Addison via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi fellow contra callers :)
I am wondering if any of you have little activities/exercises that you
use to help dancers improve their knowledge/skills of contra dance?
I know there's lots of opinions on whether this is even necessary or
should be offered. However, I have a few situations where I've got dancers
who are keen to improve their skills and I'd like to have various fun ways
of doing so.
I'd love to hear your ideas!
One activity I remember from mannnnny years ago in Ottawa was led by
Adina Gordon. She had us form up in contra lines and then she would say
1-2 (maybe 3?) figures. We weren't to dance the figure... instead, simply
go to the spot where we would end up after the figure(s). I remember this
as being a lot of fun and a great learning experience.
I also remember from that same session something about sending some
dancers out of the room and teaching the dance to others and then doing the
dance. (I don't remember the details.)
Thoughts?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa ON
_______________________________________________
Contra Callers mailing list -- contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
To unsubscribe send an email to
contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
_______________________________________________
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11:26 a.m.
For the latter exercise, Sarah VanNorstrand led same sort of thing last
June at Lady of the Lake.
She had us take hands four and cross over (duple improper), then sent one
entire side of the set out of the room. She taught the dance to the
remaining folks while we were gone. I’m not sure whether she had them dance
with ghosts, or compacted them to teach and then distributed them out
again, or something else. Regardless, once they had mastered it she brought
everyone back in, had us rejoin our places, then the band started with no
further walk-through. We were bound to silence, using only gestures and eye
contact for those in the know to teach the ignorant. It was a basic
vocabulary sequence of course. With everyone primed to communicate and be
attentive we danced it pretty much error free.
-Joseph
On Tue, Jan 16, 2024 at 8:49 AM Emily Addison via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi fellow contra callers :)
I am wondering if any of you have little activities/exercises that you use
to help dancers improve their knowledge/skills of contra dance?
I know there's lots of opinions on whether this is even necessary or
should be offered. However, I have a few situations where I've got dancers
who are keen to improve their skills and I'd like to have various fun ways
of doing so.
I'd love to hear your ideas!
One activity I remember from mannnnny years ago in Ottawa was led by Adina
Gordon. She had us form up in contra lines and then she would say 1-2
(maybe 3?) figures. We weren't to dance the figure... instead, simply go
to the spot where we would end up after the figure(s). I remember this as
being a lot of fun and a great learning experience.
I also remember from that same session something about sending some
dancers out of the room and teaching the dance to others and then doing the
dance. (I don't remember the details.)
Thoughts?
Any advice/ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
Emily in Ottawa ON
_______________________________________________
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To unsubscribe send an email to contracallers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net
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22 comments
14 participants
participants (14)
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Amy Wimmer -
David Harding -
Dorcas Hand -
Emily Addison -
John Sweeney -
Joseph Erhard-Hudson -
Katherine Kitching -
Ken Panton -
Maia McCormick -
Michael Dyck -
rckrehbiel -
Read Weaver -
sjapartments＠gmail.com -
Winston, Alan P.