My suggestion in situations like this is to not do contras. Or, at the hardest, do Sherry Nevin's "Family Contra"*.

When you do not have support of experienced dancers, certain learned behaviors (leave lady on right, cross over at top and bottom, concept of progression) are very challenging. I speak from experience; having a program of mostly contras - even easy ones - ends up being frustrating for the caller and the new dancers.

I strongly recommend an evening of Barn Dances such as Galopede, Patty Cake Polka, La Bastrange, Monkey in the Middle, and the like.

1) the walk thrus are short

2) everyone will end up being successful

3) people are moving to music, you are calling - they will have no idea it is not 'contra dancing'

Here is a link to a Dancing for Non Dancers handout that is woefully out of date but still useful.

Also, look at Thomas Green Barn Dance website; an fabulous resource.

Title: Family Contra

Author: Sherry Nevins

Formation: duple minor, proper or improper, doesn't matter

A1: Balance 2x, Circle Left

A2: Balance 2x, Circle Right

B1: Neighbor DSD; Partner DSD

B2: As couple DSD once and a half to progress

Seth Tepfer

Director of Administrative Computing

Oxford College
770-784-8487
seth.tepfer@emory.edu

Use AskIT for fastest response: Oxford.emory.edu/AskIT

From: Callers <callers-bounces@lists.sharedweight.net> on behalf of Claire Takemori via Callers <callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Wednesday, May 31, 2017 9:41 PM
To: Shared_Weight_Callers
Subject: [Callers] Calling at Free Folk Festival

Hi everyone.
I’m looking for advice. I’m calling a FFF next Sat and live in SF Bay Area, where the average person has never heard of contra dance. I got advice from Alan Winston, who called the contra dance a couple years ago when it was a 2 day event and the contra was Sunday evening. Now it’s a 1 day festival and the contra is Sat 630-10pm. The other dance that evening is Blues/Fusion, which I expect will have a HUGE crowd. There is also a contra dance about 30 minutes South of the venue and a waltz evening 30 minutes East, so I’m not confident that a bunch of experienced contra dancers will show up. I’m sure some will, as many are also musicians who will be volunteering that day.

I have several very easy contras (low piece count, connected, easy single progression, stays in minor set, etc) and plan to slip in brief reminders during each walk through (since new dancers can join at any time in the 3.5 hours). I’m sharing the contra calling with one person, and there is a caller for a couple squares, and a caller of 3/4 time contras. I don’t know how the eve will be broken down yet, but I’m likely to call 2-3 contras in each half.

It’s in a high school gym, so I know to keep calls short and clear due to acoustics.
I’m wondering about offering a 20 minute lesson before the dance???

Thanks for any advice about free folk festivals (assuming there won’t be a lot of experienced dancer ringers). I’m just back from FolkLife and NEFFA and they are full of experienced contra dancers……

Claire Takemori (SF Bay Area)
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