I have the dancers think of a time when they were descending some steps and someone offered them a hand to steady themselves. You don't give all of your weight to the person offering their hand. You share the weight, giving just enough to allow some stability as you make your own way down. And then I ask them to think about themselves offering their hand to steady someone else who is descending the steps. If you're too aggressive about it, you could throw the person off balance and send them toppling down. If you don't offer enough support, you're not really helping. And then I apply that analogy to "helping" each other through the moves of a contra dance by the gentle support of shared weight. BrooksMérida, México

In my separate beginners’ workshops, I have people take allemande hold, and then move around as fast as they comfortably can (“faster than you ever would in a dance”), paying attention to what that feels like in their hands and arms. I then have them do it again, starting fast and then slowing down a lot (slower than in a dance), keeping that same feeling in their hands/arms. Then I’ll have them do a 2-hand turn with that same feeling (my workshops most often combine contra & English), and then a circle of 4. I talk about the circle 4 being the most boring move in contra when it’s done without weight, and pointing out that it has quite a nice feeling when everyone is giving weight. (That’s also where I explain grapevining—why it’s done in MWSD (giving weight isn’t part of their style, so grapevine makes it a more interesting figure), and why it’s a bad thing to do in contra (because it makes it so much harder to give weight).) Giving weight is the first thing I teach in a beginners’ session, partly to emphasize how important it is, and partly because it gives me the opportunity to point out everywhere else where you do it, including just a little like in a courtesy turn. Read Weaver Jamaica Plain, MA http://lcfd.org