14 Apr
2019
14 Apr
'19
2:52 p.m.
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening of dances for an
outing. I know the basics of working with the visually impaired but does anyone have any
suggestions for dances, how to handle the directional aspect, or any other ideas to make
it a successful experience. I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a
"seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle
14 Apr
14 Apr
3:12 p.m.
For several years we had a wonderful lady dance with us who was totally blind (could not
even tell light or dark)- here are a few things I learned from her
She always danced in a line next to a wall - the reflections off the wall gave her as good
a sense of direction as the rest of us.
Use dances where you stay connected to other dancers. With her experience she did well on
dosido and hey - but down the outside alone was not possible.
You will have a problem any time dancers need to make new connections - like ladies chain,
allemand, etc - someone has to be able to find the impaired dancer's hand.
She would not dance squares - too much uncertainty and dancers who are lost made it
impossible for her to recover(in a contra you get past it quickly so only one time thru is
challenging).
As I said - this dancer was totally blind (but so good that those who did not know her
often did not figure it out). She also clapped at times when not connected to hear what
was around her.
It sounds like your dancers will have various degrees of impairment, so some of this may
not be as important.
Hope this helps some - while challenging - this should be very rewarding and fun.
Mac McKeeverSt Louis
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:53:33 PM CDT, Helle Hill via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening of dances for an
outing. I know the basics of working with the visually impaired but does anyone have any
suggestions for dances, how to handle the directional aspect, or any other ideas to make
it a successful experience. I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a
"seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle _______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
7:42 p.m.
(Technical note, I Mac's response, but not Helle's original post?)
I don't have extensive experience calling for visually impaired dancers. I
have occasionally had an experienced blind dancer on the floor, but never a
sizable percentage. But this is conjecture on my part; please trust your
own judgement.
It sounds like you're calling for a bunch of folks who don't regularly
dance? In which case, I'd recommend (as with most one-off gigs), not
focusing on 'duple improper contras' and just get folks moving to music.
Something as simple as a snake dance may be a good kick-off. It's not
overly simplifying for them, that's often a dance that gets used at
community dances.
It may be worth talking to the sound person ahead of time to see if a clear
"head of the hall" can be established sonicly. Some gigs will put up more
than one row of speakers or such to blanket the sound, but giving an audio
clue about direction may be useful.
If you're shooting for hands-four contras, I wonder if some of the pass
through progressions of simple contra dances could be re-worked to have a
roll-away instead? For instance,
A1:
long lines
neighbor swing, end facing down the hall
A2
Down four in line, turn as couples, come back
B1
Circle left three places, partner swing
B2
Circle left three places,
balance the ring, gents roll neighbor lady away with a half sashay
As two-swing contras go, that's a relatively simple. Everyone is always
holding on to at least one other person. But you've still got changes of
direction and knowing your orientation when you end the swing.
But even that is more complicated than I would run for most community
dances when most people aren't regular dancers. Even if you have one
"seeing" partner in each pair, if you're not separating sets out by
"this
set has seeing gents role; that set has seeing ladies role" then if you do
a neighbor swing, you'll end up with couples that don't have a "seeing"
person.
Good luck! And please do let us know how it goes, and what you figure out.
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 4:21 PM Mac Mckeever via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
For several years we had a wonderful lady dance with
us who was totally
blind (could not even tell light or dark)- here are a few things I learned
from her
She always danced in a line next to a wall - the reflections off the wall
gave her as good a sense of direction as the rest of us.
Use dances where you stay connected to other dancers. With her experience
she did well on dosido and hey - but down the outside alone was not
possible.
You will have a problem any time dancers need to make new connections -
like ladies chain, allemand, etc - someone has to be able to find the
impaired dancer's hand.
She would not dance squares - too much uncertainty and dancers who are
lost made it impossible for her to recover(in a contra you get past it
quickly so only one time thru is challenging).
As I said - this dancer was totally blind (but so good that those who did
not know her often did not figure it out). She also clapped at times when
not connected to hear what was around her.
It sounds like your dancers will have various degrees of impairment, so
some of this may not be as important.
Hope this helps some - while challenging - this should be very rewarding
and fun.
Mac McKeever
St Louis
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:53:33 PM CDT, Helle Hill via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening
of dances for an outing. I know the basics of working with the visually
impaired but does anyone have any suggestions for dances, how to handle the
directional aspect, or any other ideas to make it a successful experience.
I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a "seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
8:38 p.m.
Thank you so far for all your responses. I have learned a lot already. I just reread my
original email and realize that I forgot to mention that most of the visually impaired are
elementary, middle, and high school students so traditional dance may work well.
Someone mentioned a Snake dance and I actually thought of starting with that.
Thank you again. I look forward to reading more responses and suggestions.
Helle
From: Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com>
To: Shared Weight Callers' Listserv <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
Cc: Helle Hill <hellehill(a)yahoo.com>om>; Mac Mckeever <macmck(a)ymail.com>
Sent: Sunday, April 14, 2019 6:42 PM
Subject: Re: [Callers] Calling for the visually impaired
(Technical note, I Mac's response, but not Helle's original post?)
I don't have extensive experience calling for visually impaired dancers. I have
occasionally had an experienced blind dancer on the floor, but never a sizable percentage.
But this is conjecture on my part; please trust your own judgement.
It sounds like you're calling for a bunch of folks who don't regularly dance? In
which case, I'd recommend (as with most one-off gigs), not focusing on 'duple
improper contras' and just get folks moving to music. Something as simple as a snake
dance may be a good kick-off. It's not overly simplifying for them, that's often a
dance that gets used at community dances.
It may be worth talking to the sound person ahead of time to see if a clear "head of
the hall" can be established sonicly. Some gigs will put up more than one row of
speakers or such to blanket the sound, but giving an audio clue about direction may be
useful.
If you're shooting for hands-four contras, I wonder if some of the pass through
progressions of simple contra dances could be re-worked to have a roll-away instead? For
instance, A1: long lines neighbor swing, end facing down the hallA2Down four in line, turn
as couples, come backB1Circle left three places, partner swingB2Circle left three
places,balance the ring, gents roll neighbor lady away with a half sashay
As two-swing contras go, that's a relatively simple. Everyone is always holding on to
at least one other person. But you've still got changes of direction and knowing your
orientation when you end the swing.
But even that is more complicated than I would run for most community dances when most
people aren't regular dancers. Even if you have one "seeing" partner in each
pair, if you're not separating sets out by "this set has seeing gents role; that
set has seeing ladies role" then if you do a neighbor swing, you'll end up with
couples that don't have a "seeing" person.
Good luck! And please do let us know how it goes, and what you figure out.
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 4:21 PM Mac Mckeever via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
For several years we had a wonderful lady dance with us who was totally blind (could not
even tell light or dark)- here are a few things I learned from her
She always danced in a line next to a wall - the reflections off the wall gave her as good
a sense of direction as the rest of us.
Use dances where you stay connected to other dancers. With her experience she did well on
dosido and hey - but down the outside alone was not possible.
You will have a problem any time dancers need to make new connections - like ladies chain,
allemand, etc - someone has to be able to find the impaired dancer's hand.
She would not dance squares - too much uncertainty and dancers who are lost made it
impossible for her to recover(in a contra you get past it quickly so only one time thru is
challenging).
As I said - this dancer was totally blind (but so good that those who did not know her
often did not figure it out). She also clapped at times when not connected to hear what
was around her.
It sounds like your dancers will have various degrees of impairment, so some of this may
not be as important.
Hope this helps some - while challenging - this should be very rewarding and fun.
Mac McKeeverSt Louis
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:53:33 PM CDT, Helle Hill via Callers
<callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening of dances for an
outing. I know the basics of working with the visually impaired but does anyone have any
suggestions for dances, how to handle the directional aspect, or any other ideas to make
it a successful experience. I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a
"seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle _______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com
9:25 p.m.
You didn't mention in what context you work wth kids who are visually
impaired -- are you a classroom teacher, orientation & mobility specialist,
some other type of therapist? I'm a (relatively recent) O&M specialist
and have twice done workshops at a dance weekend that I co-taught with a
visually impaired dancer, where we looked at the techniques that he used
for staying oriented. Lots of them would be great to work on with kids
from an Orientation & Mobility perspective too. In a nutshell, the skills
included
- sound localization (keeping track of where the sound of the band /
music is coming from
- developing a sense of how far you get in how many steps (this was
particularly in contra lines) -- eg: 8 counts/steps is about 1x around; 6
is about 3/4;
- In a disconnected move like a hey or dosido, he would use a slightly
stylised upper and lower protective technique, with one hand palm out
around head level and one hand palm towards him around waist level, using
that as both bumpers and feelers to detect when he was passing someone, and
to keep from walking into something
If it would be useful, I'd be glad to talk about some of the other things,
and also O&M techniques that I could see being applied to traditional dance
-- when I was doing these workshops I had just started my O&M program, and
there are a number of things I would probably do differently.
One possible idea is teaching some of those disconnected moves by using the
narrow passages human guide technique -- with the guide's arm behind their
back (more or less the same position used for the ladies role in a courtesy
turn) and the VI person holding onto the guide's wrist (and therefore right
behind the guide).
In any event, I have a lot of thoughts on this, as you might be able to
tell. Glad to elaborate further either on or off list.
Jack
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 9:38 PM Helle Hill via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Thank you so far for all your responses. I have
learned a lot already. I
just reread my original email and realize that I forgot to mention that
most of the visually impaired are elementary, middle, and high school
students so traditional dance may work well.
Someone mentioned a Snake dance and I actually thought of starting with
that.
Thank you again. I look forward to reading more responses and suggestions.
Helle
------------------------------
*From:* Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com>
*To:* Shared Weight Callers' Listserv <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
*Cc:* Helle Hill <hellehill(a)yahoo.com>om>; Mac Mckeever <macmck(a)ymail.com>
*Sent:* Sunday, April 14, 2019 6:42 PM
*Subject:* Re: [Callers] Calling for the visually impaired
(Technical note, I Mac's response, but not Helle's original post?)
I don't have extensive experience calling for visually impaired dancers. I
have occasionally had an experienced blind dancer on the floor, but never a
sizable percentage. But this is conjecture on my part; please trust your
own judgement.
It sounds like you're calling for a bunch of folks who don't regularly
dance? In which case, I'd recommend (as with most one-off gigs), not
focusing on 'duple improper contras' and just get folks moving to music.
Something as simple as a snake dance may be a good kick-off. It's not
overly simplifying for them, that's often a dance that gets used at
community dances.
It may be worth talking to the sound person ahead of time to see if a
clear "head of the hall" can be established sonicly. Some gigs will put up
more than one row of speakers or such to blanket the sound, but giving an
audio clue about direction may be useful.
If you're shooting for hands-four contras, I wonder if some of the pass
through progressions of simple contra dances could be re-worked to have a
roll-away instead? For instance,
A1:
long lines
neighbor swing, end facing down the hall
A2
Down four in line, turn as couples, come back
B1
Circle left three places, partner swing
B2
Circle left three places,
balance the ring, gents roll neighbor lady away with a half sashay
As two-swing contras go, that's a relatively simple. Everyone is always
holding on to at least one other person. But you've still got changes of
direction and knowing your orientation when you end the swing.
But even that is more complicated than I would run for most community
dances when most people aren't regular dancers. Even if you have one
"seeing" partner in each pair, if you're not separating sets out by
"this
set has seeing gents role; that set has seeing ladies role" then if you do
a neighbor swing, you'll end up with couples that don't have a
"seeing"
person.
Good luck! And please do let us know how it goes, and what you figure out.
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 4:21 PM Mac Mckeever via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
For several years we had a wonderful lady dance with us who was totally
blind (could not even tell light or dark)- here are a few things I learned
from her
She always danced in a line next to a wall - the reflections off the wall
gave her as good a sense of direction as the rest of us.
Use dances where you stay connected to other dancers. With her experience
she did well on dosido and hey - but down the outside alone was not
possible.
You will have a problem any time dancers need to make new connections -
like ladies chain, allemand, etc - someone has to be able to find the
impaired dancer's hand.
She would not dance squares - too much uncertainty and dancers who are
lost made it impossible for her to recover(in a contra you get past it
quickly so only one time thru is challenging).
As I said - this dancer was totally blind (but so good that those who did
not know her often did not figure it out). She also clapped at times when
not connected to hear what was around her.
It sounds like your dancers will have various degrees of impairment, so
some of this may not be as important.
Hope this helps some - while challenging - this should be very rewarding
and fun.
Mac McKeever
St Louis
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:53:33 PM CDT, Helle Hill via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening
of dances for an outing. I know the basics of working with the visually
impaired but does anyone have any suggestions for dances, how to handle the
directional aspect, or any other ideas to make it a successful experience.
I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a "seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
15 Apr
15 Apr
9:50 a.m.
Helle,
I echo calls for connected dances, and to put aside the impulse to call
duple minor dances.
Consider as well that many experienced dancers, despite a desire to be
helpful, may not actually be particularly helpful. This is because the
skills involved in being helpful are both subtle and also rarely addressed
or taught. (This is about all helpfulness, not specifically about helping
visually impaired dancers).
Given this, people are willing to be very helpful if given a few simple and
concrete instructions: how to orient people as you make connections and as
you leave connections (on to the next), how to remember the sequence easily
so you can focus on the interactions, how to recover. And perhaps most
important, an attitude that focuses on fun, welcoming and connection rather
than "getting it perfect." These skills are general, but there are likely
specific needs in the context of the dance you describe.
I highly recommend the Bruce Hamilton article "When You're Not the Caller,"
which addresses these issues:
https://colinhume.com/denotcal.htm
Best of luck, hope your group has a great time!
Jerome
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, Helle Hill via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Thank you so far for all your responses. I have
learned a lot already. I
just reread my original email and realize that I forgot to mention that
most of the visually impaired are elementary, middle, and high school
students so traditional dance may work well.
Someone mentioned a Snake dance and I actually thought of starting with
that.
Thank you again. I look forward to reading more responses and suggestions.
Helle
------------------------------
*From:* Luke Donforth <luke.donev(a)gmail.com>
*To:* Shared Weight Callers' Listserv <callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net>
*Cc:* Helle Hill <hellehill(a)yahoo.com>om>; Mac Mckeever <macmck(a)ymail.com>
*Sent:* Sunday, April 14, 2019 6:42 PM
*Subject:* Re: [Callers] Calling for the visually impaired
(Technical note, I Mac's response, but not Helle's original post?)
I don't have extensive experience calling for visually impaired dancers. I
have occasionally had an experienced blind dancer on the floor, but never a
sizable percentage. But this is conjecture on my part; please trust your
own judgement.
It sounds like you're calling for a bunch of folks who don't regularly
dance? In which case, I'd recommend (as with most one-off gigs), not
focusing on 'duple improper contras' and just get folks moving to music.
Something as simple as a snake dance may be a good kick-off. It's not
overly simplifying for them, that's often a dance that gets used at
community dances.
It may be worth talking to the sound person ahead of time to see if a
clear "head of the hall" can be established sonicly. Some gigs will put up
more than one row of speakers or such to blanket the sound, but giving an
audio clue about direction may be useful.
If you're shooting for hands-four contras, I wonder if some of the pass
through progressions of simple contra dances could be re-worked to have a
roll-away instead? For instance,
A1:
long lines
neighbor swing, end facing down the hall
A2
Down four in line, turn as couples, come back
B1
Circle left three places, partner swing
B2
Circle left three places,
balance the ring, gents roll neighbor lady away with a half sashay
As two-swing contras go, that's a relatively simple. Everyone is always
holding on to at least one other person. But you've still got changes of
direction and knowing your orientation when you end the swing.
But even that is more complicated than I would run for most community
dances when most people aren't regular dancers. Even if you have one
"seeing" partner in each pair, if you're not separating sets out by
"this
set has seeing gents role; that set has seeing ladies role" then if you do
a neighbor swing, you'll end up with couples that don't have a
"seeing"
person.
Good luck! And please do let us know how it goes, and what you figure out.
On Sun, Apr 14, 2019 at 4:21 PM Mac Mckeever via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
For several years we had a wonderful lady dance with us who was totally
blind (could not even tell light or dark)- here are a few things I learned
from her
She always danced in a line next to a wall - the reflections off the wall
gave her as good a sense of direction as the rest of us.
Use dances where you stay connected to other dancers. With her experience
she did well on dosido and hey - but down the outside alone was not
possible.
You will have a problem any time dancers need to make new connections -
like ladies chain, allemand, etc - someone has to be able to find the
impaired dancer's hand.
She would not dance squares - too much uncertainty and dancers who are
lost made it impossible for her to recover(in a contra you get past it
quickly so only one time thru is challenging).
As I said - this dancer was totally blind (but so good that those who did
not know her often did not figure it out). She also clapped at times when
not connected to hear what was around her.
It sounds like your dancers will have various degrees of impairment, so
some of this may not be as important.
Hope this helps some - while challenging - this should be very rewarding
and fun.
Mac McKeever
St Louis
On Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:53:33 PM CDT, Helle Hill via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
I work with the visually impaired and have been asked to call an evening
of dances for an outing. I know the basics of working with the visually
impaired but does anyone have any suggestions for dances, how to handle the
directional aspect, or any other ideas to make it a successful experience.
I hope that each visually impaired dancer will have a "seeing" partner.
Thank you so much in advance.
Helle
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
_______________________________________________
List Name: Callers mailing list
List Address: Callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net
Archives: https://www.mail-archive.com/callers@lists.sharedweight.net/
--
Luke Donforth
Luke.Donforth(a)gmail.com <Luke.Donev(a)gmail.com>
--
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
"Whatever you do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius and power
and magic in it." --Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
1848
days inactive
1849
days old
contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net
5 comments
5 participants
participants (5)
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Helle Hill -
Jack Mitchell -
Jerome Grisanti -
Luke Donforth -
Mac Mckeever