[Organizers] Re: teaching new dancers, age and music genre

I acknowledge that there are many ways to teach and value the tradition of contra dancing. I'm pushing the edges a touch here, but felt, given the recent discussion re large % of beginners and how do you pull in and keep younger dancers, that these two data points may be helpful. Back in 2019 I was asked to run sound, provide canned music, and call contras at a wedding. The bride had gone to a nearby college and was part of a cohort of students who came to my dance for awhile. At the wedding reception I had an hour to teach and call contra dances to some 45-50 dancers, 85% of whom had never danced contra. I set the rule for myself of almost no "teaching" and lots of dancing to music. I came up with a 16 count dance, a 24 count dance, a 32 count dance on up to the full 64. The dances built on one another. They all progressed. I had a small rectangular space so two tight lines. I don't recall if I used improper or Beckett as the basic alignment. I had several "contemporary/hot" contra music tunes lined up, e.g. Perpetual eMotion's Flying Tent. So a few minutes to explain line and progression then a simple dance with music that progressed. (e.g. ??? if I used improper maybe circle left 4 places, balance, pass through for 16 count dance, add in do-si-do for a 24, ... this probably isn't what I did but you get the idea) It worked well. The *high energy music* was enjoyed by the wedding crowd and *they never stood still for more than a few minutes* before dancing to some juicy music. A local women's university had studied integration in the south and how simple dances, such as the Virginia Reel, were used to socialize the northern white folks into the Southern African American integration movement community leaders. I was asked to teach and call the Virginia Reel, outdoors, to some 800 college students. While the students were assembling, which took awhile, I played Perpetual eMotion over the sound system. That juiced the students. You could see it in how they walked with a bounce in their step, in how animated their faces were, etc. But when it came time for me to actually teach and call the Virginia Reel I was told to pull back to old time string band music. I did as I was told and the music shift from high energy to old time sucked the energy completely out of the students. I called, and they reluctantly danced, the Virginia Reel and then went back to their classes. ___ This Sunday the Neverland Ramblers are playing in my town with two out of town callers. The Neverland Ramblers are composed of a keyboard player, a classically trained violinist, and a been-playing-in-rock-bands-forever lead (and follow, but easily throws out riffs based on the chord structure) guitarist. The violinist plays in numerous symphonies, has about 50 students that she teaches, and, besides the contra dance band, is in two cover bands, one easy listening and the other raucous. I enjoy her and the guitarist launching into Psycho Killer. I just got permission to call a 12 bar blues contra (several are out there and I've adapted a few AABB contras over to 12 bar blues format). ... This will be good. CAUTION most contra bands can't play 12 bar blues without rocketing past 120 BPM because they're used to playing so many notes in a bar. So this paragraph is about pulling in pop/blues music but also I want to flag that a 12 bar contra is easier to remember than a 16 bar contra so easier to dance by a beginner. Related, I'm thinking of how top weekend bands often have fun pop/other-genre inserts. Perpetual eMotion's Eleanor Rigby Playing with Fyre's Sweet Dreams Giant Robot's Hall of the Mountain King or everything Emily Rush plays when calling RushFest. etc. Heitzso Gainesville, Georgia _______________________________________________ Organizers mailing list -- organizers(a)lists.sharedweight.net To unsubscribe send an email to organizers-leave(a)lists.sharedweight.net