Hi everyone - I wanted to thank you all for the super helpful information, tips, dances and videos you shared with me earlier this month. Our groups's introduction to Ocean Waves / Short Wavy Lines earlier in April went super well, and everyone had a great time. For those who are interested in our "beginner-friendly Halifax method*" of contra, I'm including the two introductory dances I used for SWLs .... According to our method, these dances did not have swings in them. * I've included the details of our method of structuring a dance at the end of this email :) TWO NO-SWING DANCES WITH SHORT WAVY LINES Composed by Kat Kitching but perhaps they already exist, I did not check extensively :) I do not have any interesting names for these dances, I just title them in a way that helps me remember what's in them... Balance-y dance with wave - In Short Wavy Lines (neighbours right shoulder to right shoulder), balance the wave to the right, to the left, and to the right - then push off each other's hands to form a circle with everyone in their home place (8) - Circle left - Circle right - Do si do neighbour ------ - Balance the ring 2 times - Do si do partner - 2-hand balance with your partner 2 times (veering slightly to the left the first time, to the right the second time) - 2-hand balance once with your neighbour, and tug by the right shoulder into a wave with new neighbours ------ ------ ------  ------ Dance with wave and down the hall Prior to this dance, get partners to discuss what they'd like to do for their "Free choice" figure together... - In Short Wavy Lines (neighbours right shoulder to right shoulder), balance the wave right then left, then right-hand-allemande half way around with your neighbour to reform the wave with neighbours having switched places - Balance the wave again right then left, and right-hand-allemande halfway around again, to come back to where you started - Push off your fellow dancers into a circle with everyone in their home place (2); circle left once all the way around back to home (10), balance the ring one time and snap open (2s splitting and going to the outside of the line) into short lines facing down the hall (4) ---- - Down the hall, turn alone - Come on back, bend line to face partner - Free choice figure across, with partner (I suggested do si do or 2x box the gnat) - 2 hand balance with N one time, then step towards each other again, then push off their hands and turn 180 to form new wave with next neighbours... * Halifax Contra's beginner-friendly dance evening sequence In our method, we spend the first 2/3 of the evening slowly building everyone's skills from scratch. We always follow this sequence: - Spiral dance - Simple circle mixer - Simple contra dance in a Sicilian circle (no swings) - Set up in short contra lines and practice doing random things with neighbours and partners while frequently progressing the lines until everyone's comfortable (using many short lines so everyone gets plenty of practice being ejected and moving up and down the lines) - band plays some silly music. - Teach the next dance, reform in fewer, longer lines, and do a contra dance without swings or anything that puts people out of home place. (Lots of balancing, allemands, do-si-dos, circles and stars, LLFB etc) - Teach our "feature figure" for the evening - which may be a swing, a hey, ocean wave, ravens' chain, larks chain, petronellas or something else. - Lead a dance with this figure but no other "advanced" figures from the above list. ("Advanced" being a relative term, in our case!). Ensure they come back to home place before progressing. - Lead another dance with this figure (and no other "advanced" figures), but this time have them progress during the dance. - Then for the final 45 min of the evening, announce we are moving on to the "advanced" portion of the evening. From this point on, we clearly delineate 1 or more lines as "advanced", and another 1 or more lines as "I have no idea what I'm doing but I'll give it a try!". - From this point on, we do almost no teaching, only one quick walkthrough of each dance, and run the dances longer.  Now the dances may contain any combination of "advanced figures" and all contain swings. - Those who feel (at least reasonably) confident in what they are doing dance in the "advanced" line... - Those who feel confused or hesitant or want a lower pressure situation dance in the "I have no idea but I'll give it a try" line. - People are encouraged to move from one line to the other during the dance-- downgrading if they are too confused in the "advanced" line, or upgrading if they have nailed it and wish to progress to the "advanced" line.