Hi all, Thank you to those who wrote back with input as to my leadership-presentation-dance-teaching idea last week. I have rewritten the dance to "Bare to the Bone," and am offering the new draft. Please note that I am supposed to do this 'presentation' tomorrow (Wednesday) evening. (I'll probably let you know how it went after that.)
Some of the valuable suggestions included: make the formation a circle, DON'T do a cloverleaf turn, don't call it ECD when neither the moves or the tune are characteristic, and try to make it a nice-feeling dance even despite that I have almost no time to teach or dance it. To that last effect, I have expanded the choreographed section to make use of both the verse and the chorus (as A and B music, each 8 bars of 4/4). And I have expanded my ambition to running the whole thing (A and B) through three times. Specifically: ***** "Bare to the Bone" Lark-Aeryn Speyer, 2009 Circle MIXER A (verse) 1-2 Circle L 3-4 Circle R, face partner 5-6 set R, L to partner *twice* 7-8 2-hand turn partner, face the center B (chorus) 1-4 forward & back (into the center) *twice*, face partner 5-6 4 changes grand chain (2 counts each), beginning R to partner 7-8 meet NEW partner (the 5th person) with a 2-hand turn, face center ***** And here's what I am thinking as the "teaching points": A) identify your partner and your direction (the way you'll be facing during grand chain) B) start the music and circle L, R, to practice moving to the music C) teach "set R, L" while all are facing in, then turn to pt and practice it again (note that you and your partner move opposite directions) D) and E) with music, 2-hand turn and fwd & back (in & out) F) face your partner (your direction), teach pull-by grand chain, emphasize you are always moving the same directiona round the circle and emphasize counting ***** I think I can do this. Thanks again for the input. Lark On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 10:59 PM, Lark-Aeryn Speyer <[email protected]>wrote: > Hi group, > Weird situation: I am supposed to put together a five-minute presentation > on myself as a leader for a "Leadership & Organizational Behavior" graduate > class, and I just think that perhaps the way to go is to create a VERY > SIMPLE English Country dance set to my favorite song--and teach it to my > classmates. > > Most of you don't know me, but I'll nonetheless spare you with explanations > as to exactly how weird this is. And, yes, I realize, too, that it may not > be an optimal ECD introduction for my classmates, but I hope it will be > beautiful in some degree, and moving, and indeed an expression of the kind > of leadership I am trying to develop (yes, I'm a budding caller). > > In addition, the favorite song, Carrie Newcomer's "Bare to the Bone" > (see http://carrienewcomer.com/chords/age_of_possibility_chords.pdf > <http://carrienewcomer.com/sheet_music/Bare_to_the_Bone_sheet_music.pdf> > and > http://carrienewcomer.com/sheet_music/Bare_to_the_Bone_sheet_music.pdf) > expresses everything I want to be as a person. > > -- There is no conceivable beauty of blossom so beautiful as words,--none so graceful, none so perfumed. It is possible to dream of combinations of syllables so delicious that all the dawning and decay of summer cannot rival their perfection, nor winter's stainless white and azure match their purity and their charm. --Thomas Wentworth Higginson
