21 Jun
2015
21 Jun
'15
4:36 p.m.
I do spend a lot of time on the swing in a beginners' workshop..
What I cover is how to get started, how to finish facing the correct
direction with the lady on the right, how long a swing lasts, not to face
your partner directly so both of you can WALK forward while you go around
(no side-slipping needed), and finally some hints about avoiding
dizziness. In my opinion these are the factors a new dancer needs to have
an enjoyable swing and an enjoyable evening.
Sure the buzz step is fun, but it's not very important! When Tom says
"Why not go for the gold?" my answer is because the new dancers are
typically feeling overwhelmed. Anything that they don't absolutely need to
know to have a good time, and to make the dance work, is extra noise that
detracts from the teaching and make them more likely to melt down and walk
away from the dance because it's "just too complicated!"
Another point I try to mention several time is "there are lots of
embellishments to these moves. You will see people twirling. You will see
people doing funny steps. You do NOT have to do any of these things until
you feel like you are ready. Stay in your own comfort zone. Women, in
particular, the men you are dancing with are going to try to lead you into
some of these embellishments. It's OK to smile and say "no thanks". You
are here to have fun and not to win style points,"
Also when you ARE ready for some of the fancy moves you will find
experienced dancers will be glad to help you learn them. You don't need a
caller to help you learn a good buzz step. You need a good partner, so
make a point of dancing with good partners (they want to dance with you.)
You can find the good dancers by looking for people having a good time.
Their partners are the good dancers.
Dale
On Sun, Jun 21, 2015 at 10:53 AM, Tom Hinds via Callers <
callers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Thank you for letting me know about the date of my
computer.
On Jun 21, 2015, at 10:51 AM, Aahz Maruch via Callers wrote:
--
Turn Observation into Data. Turn Data into Information
<http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Information>. Turn Information into
Knowledge. Turn Knowledge into Wisdom. Turn Wisdom into Beauty. Turn Beauty
into Love .
With Ladies Chain, two dancers change places. If
they fail to execute
that part, it's likely that the progression will get affected. That's
probably not going to happen with a swing that ends up with the dancers
sashayed or otherwise in the wrong place.
Aajz, I'm glad you pointed out that you're not calling much. There are
some other situations you might not have observed yet. How about:
-the combination, swing neighbor, right and left through. Let's assume a
caller spends a great deal of time teaching the right and left through but
little time on a swing. If the dancers end the swing sashayed what happens
just before the right and left through? Confusion maybe?
-there's a neighbor swing at the end of the tune. The beginning of the
dance starts with an allemande or swing or some other move with a new
neighbor. How confusing is it for the beginners (and frustrating for the
others) when they end the swing wrong?
I teach my beginning callers this: If you don't get the newbies to
correctly end a swing, the caller, the newbies and everyone else will be
frustrated at various points during the evening.
T
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