[Callers] Folk Festival - Easy Contra dances to teach Beginners

[Jen Morgan]

Not necessarily.  I called a contra dance in the ceilidh tent at a UK folk
festival with few if any experienced contra dancers.  I made a list of very
basic figures and chose only dances with those figures in.  I think I used
either only right and left throughs, or only ladies chains, but not both
(can't remember which sorry!)  No work outside minor set, I preferred eight
bar figures to four bar figures (over and back etc).  Lots of line of four
lead down sort of dances.  Lots of the easier chestnuts.

And I delivered the explanation of how to line up, how to know if you're a
one or two, how the progression works etc, before *every* *single*
*dance*.  It worked and the dancers had a great time.

Hope it goes well!
Jen


On 24 July 2018 at 15:53, Mac Mckeever via Callers <
callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:

> I stay away from contras unless you have a good number of experienced
> dancers to hold things together.  There are lots of dances that are more
> self correcting and don't have the complexity that progression creates.
> Virginia Reel works good with beginners
>
> Mac McKeever
>
> On Tuesday, July 24, 2018, 9:48:59 AM CDT, Lorraine Sutton via Callers <
> callers at lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
>
>
> Hello All,
>
> I am calling a 2 hour Intro to Contra dance ....at an Ontario Canada
> Festival. ( more a music focus than a dance focus, at this festival)
>
> I would appreciate hearing from you as to contra dances ( lws proper
> & Improper) that you have found successful with very novice dancers and why
> you think those dances work for beginners.(I love Larry Jennings definition
> of easy vs complicated )
>
> I do plan on doing some non progressive lws as well as a both a circle and
> a Sicilian  circle in the program mix , to get the concept of progression.
>
> Thanks so much.
>
> Lorraine Sutton  ( lorrainesutton7 at gmail.com )
>
>
> ...
>
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