On 3/9/2016 6:48 AM, Tony Parkes tony@hands4.com [trad-dance-callers] wrote:
> When I was a very young and unseasoned caller, I fell in love with
> contras and tried to include them in my one-nighters. In order to get a
> majority of people to understand the progression, I had to make the
> walkthrough longer than the dance. It didn’t help that I was using
> dances like Haymakers’ Jig, which has a ladies chain and needs a decent
> swing to avoid falling flat. People were giving up and sitting down
> before the music stopped. After a year or two I gave up on using contras
> with groups of all first-timers.
>
> At one-nighters these days I always do a Sicilian circle as the second
> dance of the evening, usually the first figure of Ed Durlacher’s Sanita
> Hill Circle: circles, do-si-dos, stars, forward & back and pass through.

I've had some difficulties getting ONS dancers into position for
Sicilian circles, especially if there's alcohol at the event. My usual
strategy has been to get everyone into a big circle with their partner,
then scoot quickly around the circle moving the couples so they're face
to face. There tends to be a fair bit of driftage and wandering,
though, and often by the time i get round the circle the first folks
have fallen out of place or other couples have drifted in and need to be
corralled. Nonetheless, Sicilians seem like a really good way to
approach progressive longways dances for a ONS group. I'd welcome any
proven strategies for forming the circle. Perhaps avoiding those winery
party gigs...:>)

Kalia in the wine country, CA