This is a big subject. There is a lot we can talk about and debate. It
is indeed easier to call for an experienced crowd than it is for newer
dancers and when you're working with a mixed crowd, it is easier when
they truly mix instead of "clumping" beginners to beginners and
experienced to experienced dancers.
I would challenge the thought that there is much that the caller can do
besides gently encouraging the dancers to mix. In my mind, this is the
responsibility of the organizers and the core group of regulars who come
to the dance series. They do much more to decide how welcoming and
successful they are in integrating newer dancers into the community. If
they're not being aware and saying to their friend "Hey, that new couple
is dancing with each other, let's see if we can break them up." Or
"Sally, this is Bob. Bob, Sally is new tonight and needs a good dance
partner and I thought of you, would you dance with her?" All callers can
do is offer encouragement to do this sort of thing. The organizers and
core group of experienced dancers can set the example for others to
emulate. I disagree that if the dancers are failing to integrate the
newer dancers that this is a failing of the caller.
In my experience, the dancers are attending the dance with a certain
expectation of how the evening is going to be. They expect the caller to
be competent, concise and encouraging. They have a certain amount of
trust and patience that if the caller does something outside of their
expectations or new it will be fun or they will learn something. The
more the caller wastes their time with manipulation and over-teaching,
the less patience they have with it. If you're not careful, you loose
their trust completely and don't get asked to return. More than one or
two walkthroughs, manipulating the sets by moving dancers around,
reminders from the mic to dance with new people are fine if used
sparingly. If used too much will become preachy and lecturing.
Some of the comments that I will use early in the evening, maybe one
every other dance or one per dance if the dancers are not responding. I
don't repeat them if I can help it:
"Find someone who was sitting out to dance with for this next dance"
"Find someone to dance with you've never danced with before"
"If you're new tonight, dance with experienced dancers, and you'll learn
quickly"
"Thank your partner, thank the band and find someone new to dance with"
or if I'm really desperate:
"Who here has been dancing a while and is comfortable dancing with
someone who is new to dancing? Keep your hands up. If you're new and
want some help, go ask one of these people to dance."
I will use mixers in a dance because I feel that they have value in
themselves. It allows the experienced dancers to come in contact with as
many new people as possible. It's a great lesson for the new dancers in
how different each person's dance style is and how to dance with them.
It's also one of the best swing tutorials that I know for beginners who
are only dancing with their friends who are also new. I also think that
it's a great way of opening people's eyes to people they might not have
chosen to dance with before. It's a great way to build community. If I
am dancing and ask a beginner to dance and it turns out to be a mixer,
then I will ask them to dance the next one. Then they get the experience
of the mixer and still get the benefit of dancing with me.
My perspective is that the more the caller says from the microphone,
beyond the minimum needed to lead the dancing, intrudes on the dancer's
enjoyment of the music, the dance and their friend's company. The more
time spent teaching or lecturing or manipulating is less time talking to
friends and dancing to music. I have had people tell me that what they
enjoy most in a caller is how invisible they can be. If all they notice
is the fun of dancing and the great music, then the caller is doing
their job right.
my 2 cents
Chris Weiler
Goffstown, NH
Greg McKenzie wrote:
Integrating newcomers into the dance community is a core skill for
contra dance callers. It is a key metric I use to judge the skill of
a caller because it is one of the most difficult tasks.
Personally, I love dancing with newcomers and put significant personal
energy into partnering with them, particularly in the early part of
the evening. When addressing the issue of integration please consider
how your tactics will affect dancers who take the initiative to
integrate themselves. Mixers, for example, will thwart my efforts
because I will lose the newcomer I have put effort into partnering
with. Some of the more heavy-handed tactics mentioned here can have a
similar effect. They can also send the implicit message that the
caller feels that some experienced dancers are behaving poorly by not
mixing in with newcomers.
A better strategy is to assume that all of the experienced dancers
will support your efforts to integrate newcomers and simply assume
that all newcomers will be matched up with people who have danced at
least one night of contras. The result of this assumption is that you
can eliminate much of the instruction a less experienced caller will
tend to use when confronted by a large percentage of newcomers.
My experience is that when the experienced dancers fail to seek out
and partner with newcomers it is a sign of poor calling, either by the
current caller or by regular callers at the series. It is the
caller's job to make sure that everyone in the hall has a good time
regardless of what the dancer's skill level is, with whom they are
dancing, or where they are located in the hall. If the caller is
successful in doing this job, almost all of the experienced dancers
will quickly learn that dancing with newcomers is as much fun as
dancing with other experienced dancers.
This is a big subject area. There are many subtle tactics and skills
that callers can and must use to accomplish good integration. The key
is to bring all of your calling skills to the task. Calling for a
hall of experienced dancers is an easy gig. A mixed hall is much more
demanding of your knowledge and skill.
Just a thought,
Greg McKenzie
********
At 01:01 PM 1/26/2009, you wrote:
In a small dance I called recently, an enthusiastic but
inexperienced group of young people almost always lined up in a
foursome together. There it worked to walk the contra dances through
twice, then start the dance from the progressed positions where the
foursome was not with each other. Some communities wouldn't like
this, but there I think everyone was also happy with the suggestion
they take whoever they ended up with after a mixer for the next
dance; also, they were happy with a few mixers in various formations.
Another idea I often use when I teach the workshop is to make the
last dance they learn in the workshop the first dance of the evening,
often Becky Hill's Simplicity Swing or a variation of it with a hey
at the end instead of a star and do-si-do. (Is there a name and
author for that dance? Surely I didn't make that one up?) That way,
the new dancers who attended the workshop already know the dance and
it's the experienced dancers who need the walkthrough.
----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerome Grisanti"
<[email protected]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 1:25 PM
Subject: [Callers] Spreading out the "Inexperience"
I recently had the following exchange on a different list with Michael
Shapiro (guitarist with U4):
Michael wrote:
U4 just played the SwingShift weekend in Lexington/Berea. The
caller was
Barbara Groh. She did something that I think most callers should do,
but I
haven't seen before. After the sets were formed and people had done
the hand
four, she then broke up the beginners sets that had formed at the
end of the
lines. She asked then to move forward and intersperse themselves
with the
more advanced dancers (so that they were more toward the beggining
of the
line and the foursomes were not all beginners).
She was also good at letting the music be heard ...
I wrote:
Regarding the caller asking sets to reform in order to spread the
less
experienced dancers throughout the hall, much tact is required.
Generally,
callers strive to avoid calling attention to particular dancers
other than
when asking people to watch a demonstration, but asking people to
change
sets can have the effect of making them feel like there is attention on
them. In addition, newish dancers want to dance with people they
know, even
if those friends may also be newish dancers.
Speaking to the entire crowd, I do encourage experienced dancers
to share
their experience by asking someone they've never met to dance at
least once
in the evening, and praise the community for being so welcoming to
newcomer
dancers. So while I might be thinking "let's break up this clump of
confusion," it would not be good to say something that draws
attention to
"you people right here."
I have asked, off mic, for a set of experienced dancers to offer to
repartner with a set of inexperienced dancers down the line.
To this list, I ask:
I'd be interested in the wording that Barbara Groh used (which I'm
assuming
was quite gentle). I'm also guessing other callers on this list have
developed tactful ways to address this issue.
Thanks,
Jerome
--
Jerome Grisanti
660-528-0858
http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
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