Interesting question about the evolution of "difficulty levels" along with the evolution of one's calling abilities. The evolution of how I judge difficulty levels has gone through three phases to date. Author-derived: First, I simply went with the difficulty level as assigned by the author. After all, who better than the author to know how difficult a dance is. And who am I, as new caller, to over-ride their opinion on the matter. Dancer-derived: As I started to understand the dances better and started to develop some calling skills, I devised a 1-5 rating based mostly on my perception whether a new dancer could handle the dance. I spent a lot of time trying to judge between a 2 and a 3 and whether to include a 4 in any given program and figured I'd rarely call a 5 because our community has a number of wonderful, experienced dancers, but we also get a number of new people at our dances. Caller-derived: As my calling skills, and more importantly, my teaching skills, have evolved, I now use a simple "Easier" and "Harder" designation. Many of the dances I had previously labeled as more difficult have become easier (for me and the dancers) as my teaching skills improved. I've reclassified some Harder dances as Easier, such a few with a contra corners, but where the rest of the dance is straightforward and the flow of the dance makes the contra corners easier to teach and to perform. I've also reclassified some Easier dances to Harder because although they may consist of easier moves, they may have a high piece count or some geographical or other nuances that may present challenges for a newer dancer. Looking forward to hearing from others on this topic. Mark Hillegonds cell: 734-756-8441 email: mhillegonds(a)comcast.net blog: www.defriction.com -----Original Message----- From: callers-bounces(a)sharedweight.net [mailto:callers-bounces@sharedweight.net] On Behalf Of Michael Fuerst Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2013 4:14 PM To: Shared Weight callers Subject: [Callers] Evolving Calling Skill In the discussion of  "How to devise a program"  Kalia wrote: "Have you found that your concept of the difficulty levels for any given dance has evolved or changed as your calling skills and style have grown and changed over the years?  I've certainly noticed a change with English dances I had tagged as "easy" or "hard" early on in my calling career. " What are the specific skills one gains with calling experience? How should/could these skills be passed along to beginning callers to expedite their development?   Michael Fuerst      802 N Broadway      Urbana IL 61801       217-239-5844 Links to photos of many of my drawings and paintings are at www.ArtComesFuerst.com _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)sharedweight.net http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers