It occurred to me that many of the behaviors on this list are due to insecurity (dancing with other beginners, waiting to be asked etc.) That got me to thinking about what callers can do to make sure the beginners have a good experience. So, I've come up with my own list for callers. These items may contain items that some may not agree with. But this may generate some good discussion.
10 things a caller can do to help beginners have a good experience: 1) Prepare a logical program that starts easy and builds. 2) Like a professional dance teacher, warm up muscles slowly. Use dances with 8 count swings (max) early in the evening. Keep the first couple of dances shorter. New and not so new dancers are entering the hall and you want them up and dancing sooner rather than later, 3) Be prepared well enough so that you don't have to use cards. Watch the dancers. Watch the dancers. 4) Encourage everyone to dance with everyone else. When a dance ends, suggest that those who just danced ask those sitting out for the next dance. 5) Demonstrate what smooth dancing looks like (especially if many newbees are skipping). 6) Teach safe dancing - like proper allemandes. If you see dancers dancing out of control take measures to make sure that they don't hurt anyone. 7) If you make a mistake, admit it. Often if something doesn't work, the new dancers think it's because of them. 8) Teach the buzz step swing in the beginning workshop. Teach it well. 9) If a dance has a tricky move, show the dancers how to perform the move with finesse. If the dance has a challenge in the timing department, communicate to the dancers how to be on time. 10) If you call a challenging dance and the new dancers look a bit confused, tell the crowd that that was a very difficult dance and that they handled it very well (this one from Ted Sannella). If the dance was so challenging that sets broke down, tell the dancers that you picked a bad dance (in other words it's you, not them). Tom Hinds [email protected] wrote: > Send Callers mailing list submissions to > [email protected] > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > [email protected] > > You can reach the person managing the list at > [email protected] > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Callers digest..." > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Ten things (Gale T. Wood) > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 11:06:25 -0500 > From: "Gale T. Wood" <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [Callers] Ten things > To: <[email protected]> > Message-ID: > <79c5f2a3dd0551469291f6cd6bf5422e02f...@officemail.robbinsauto.com> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Here Is the list presented by wikipedia: > 1. Dressing Impractically > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Dressing_Impractically> > 2. Skipping the Beginners Workshop > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Skipping_the_Beginners_Workshop> > 3. Waiting to Be Asked > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Waiting_to_Be_Asked> > 4. Sticking to Beginner Friends > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Sticking_to_Beginner_Friends> > 5. Sitting out Dances > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Sitting_out_Dances> > 6. Getting Too Fancy Too Quickly > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Getting_Too_Fancy_Too_Quickly> > 7. Tolerating Bad Behavior from Other Dancers > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Tolerating_Bad_Behavior_from_Other_Dancers> > > 8. Not Asking Questions > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Not_Asking_Questions> > 9. Not Counting > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Not_Counting> > 10. Leaving Too Early > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Leaving_Too_Early> > 11. Expecting Perfection > <http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Ten_Stupid_Things_Beginners_Do_to_Mess_Up_ > Their_Contradance_Experience:Expecting_Perfection> > The other list would pertain to Experienced dancers! > And I do agree with that list....I remember doing all those things when > I was trying to 'compete' with the CDance > clique ... happily I have 'mellowed' with age and experience. Do I still > transgress...sure on occasion I do like to cut loose, but.... > I am having a better time not competing. > Thanks Gale > > > ------------------------------ > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > > End of Callers Digest, Vol 19, Issue 9 > **************************************
