Re: [Organizers] starting a new dance series

We did some analysis of swings some time ago, considering a typical contra dance evening, with modern contra dances and their bias towards swings. We estimated that there was about 106 minutes of dancing, and that about 26% of it was swinging! As a dancer you spend nearly THIRTY MINUTES of the evening swinging! To let first-timers flounder without help on their swinging seems extremely unfair to me. And while we have some excellent swingers who can teach a swing well, we also have dancers who are not so good, have strange ideas, and are the most likely to teach a first-timer while the caller is teaching the dance. So if there are only a few first-timers I will teach them the swing individually before the first dance. But if that isn't possible, if I am aware of any first-timers being present, then I always teach the swing when we get to it in the first dance. It only takes a few seconds and can make an incredible difference to the first-timer's experience. There is also always the hope that some of the more experienced dancers will pick up some of the tips and improve their swinging. Happy dancing, John John Sweeney, Dancer, England john(a)modernjive.com 01233 625 362 http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent