Hi Judy I called a couple of contras at a square dance festival here in Australia, and found that I needed to keep calling all the way through, as they were used to calls being varied through the dance, so would stop dancing if I faded out the calling. This may not be common to all codes of square dancing. cheersJeanette Jeanette Mill Contra dance caller, musician, workshop facilitatorCanberra, AustraliaPhone: +61 (0)449 686 077 Email: jeanette_mill(a)yahoo.com.au Skype: jeanette.mill   "The piano - 88 little mistakes waiting to happen"Kate Barnes   On Wednesday, 19 July 2017, 12:28, Judy Greenhill via Callers &lt;callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: <!--#yiv9539423143 _filtered #yiv9539423143 {font-family:Calibri;panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}#yiv9539423143 #yiv9539423143 p.yiv9539423143MsoNormal, #yiv9539423143 li.yiv9539423143MsoNormal, #yiv9539423143 div.yiv9539423143MsoNormal {margin:0in;margin-bottom:.0001pt;font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri", "sans-serif";}#yiv9539423143 a:link, #yiv9539423143 span.yiv9539423143MsoHyperlink {color:blue;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv9539423143 a:visited, #yiv9539423143 span.yiv9539423143MsoHyperlinkFollowed {color:purple;text-decoration:underline;}#yiv9539423143 span.yiv9539423143EmailStyle17 {font-family:"Calibri", "sans-serif";color:windowtext;}#yiv9539423143 .yiv9539423143MsoChpDefault {font-family:"Calibri", "sans-serif";} _filtered #yiv9539423143 {margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}#yiv9539423143 div.yiv9539423143WordSection1 {}-->Hi everyone,I have undertaken to teach some modern square dancers how to contra dance, and I’m wondering if anyone has experience with this and has any dances to recommend? I’m a square dancer myself but most of my contra repertoire is for modern contra dancers- 2 swings, lots of Balance and swing, etc. I’d like more dances with MWSD moves in them and possibly without any, or only 1, swing, and they don’t need to have a partner swing. The dancers I am teaching are all either plus or advanced, so they will tire pretty quickly of the usual simple glossary contras I would normally do in a teaching situation. They can do the moves; it’s the formation that is new to them.  Thanks,Judy   | | Virus-free. www.avast.com | _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net

On Tue, Jul 18, 2017, Judy Greenhill via Callers wrote: We've talked about my background in the past, but as a reminder for context: I've been dancing both contra and Plus for more than three decades, with a fair amount of MWSD calling experience for four years and limited contra calling experience. My perception is that MWSD-focused people dislike the repetition of contra much more than than what you're describing as "tiring of glossary moves" -- you'd get just as much complaint if you did a repeating series of Spin Chain & Exchange the Gears, Slide Thru, Load the Boat, Relay the Deucey, SC&EtG. I also observe that a large number of even young, fit, expert square dancers struggle with the music-focused nature of contra, moving to the beat and the phrase. "Sawing off the corners" is a new concept to them (particularly in the context of repetitious flowing movement), along with Read's comment about shared weight and just generally teaching them contra styling. So my take is that you should focus on exactly what makes contra different from square dancing, with good music and lots of swings. Clark Baker (using Lisa Greenleaf recordings) tries doing something similar to what you're trying to do at CALLERLAB and while I'd rather have some contra than none, it really doesn't feel like contra to me (we usually get about one-third to half experienced contra dancers, I can tell instantly who does contra other places). Putting it another way, if they can't enjoy what makes contra different from square dancing, why bother? -- Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/ <*> <*> <*> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html

Judy, Dick Leger published an LP of contras written by Roger Whynot. The LP was aimed at square dancers and included Flutter Wheel and Sweep 1/4 More. Perhaps I will be able to find it later and post some dances. I called contras at the New England Square and Round Dance Convention this year and the dancers enjoyed contras that I also call at modern contra dances, Keep the progressions simple, and keep the swings short. Peace, Rich Stafford, CT On Tue, Jul 18, 2017 at 10:28 PM, Judy Greenhill via Callers < callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net&gt; wrote: