Beth said, Yes, I agree completely - and that's what I did. By saying I began with a "hash circle dance" I meant something very similar to your method: we did circle L, R, into the middle w/ a shout, do-si-dos w/N & P, plus allemande and swing, with variations. And they were into it. But still, a few dances later, once the dancers had been walked through a dance and also done it a couple of times to the music, one line got off & it was clear that they weren't hearing my prompts (due to sound glitches), or weren't heeding them if they did hear them. Their excitement fed their cheerful chattering, so that was overall an okay thing - after all, who wants a deathly silent barn dance? (Yeah, Beth, I'm with you about the 'tude!) So I didn't know what to do besides keep calling and go over there to physically prompt some big group moves like "head gent leads gents single file around the line of ladies now" as well, which I did. Their being off, plus talking a lot, plus the sound weakness is what made me think that it would have been a good idea, when I taught the next one, to overtly mention the importance of continuing to listen to the caller. (I don't know, though, as I didn't think of that till the dance was over.) Would you do something else in this case? Writing this after musing over your commentary, I think now maybe I should have initially hash-called more over the music in real time. I did it fully w/o music and a couple of times through with, but didn't do it long up to tempo, so maybe some of the dancers got the idea that once the music started, they were on their own. Hm. Thoughts, ideas, more strategies welcome. These little things can really affect a dance! David M. then brought up the shrewd strategy of not letting ONS dancers sit down (meaning they might stay away forever). Again, I agree - I've experienced that too, and am totally on board with the plan to continually "dance for 45 minutes before they cut the cake". Yet in this case, even though I held that intent (albeit with two planned halves as the organizers wanted 1.5 hours of dancing), a couple of times the dads bolted for the cool drinks in the kitchen as soon as a dance stopped! So I just let it go with their flow, then called them back for another dance after a little while when their faces seemed less red again. :-> And they came. Their daughters did need to earn their badges, after all. Given that behavior, would you do something different? If so, what? Beth, also thanks for the tip about Marian Rose's books. Tina