There are many dancers with "special needs" at most contra dances. When there are individuals with more profound mental, physical, or social disabilities present the primary job of the caller is, as always, to integrate those dancers into the dance community as quickly and as thoroughly as possible. That is not easy and requires an emphasis on the most basic caller skills, such as clear pronunciation, setting up the mike properly, earning and holding the dancers' attention, calling with effective word order, and setting a generous and gracious community tone through programming and by example.
Basically, this is a situation that puts all of your calling skills to the test. Other than that it is not that different from any other open, public contra dance, (as opposed to a camp, festival, or other event that is designed for contra dance enthusiasts). This kind of gig is a great opportunity for any caller to hone their calling skills.
Good luck! *********** At 06:45 AM 1/25/2010, you wrote:
Hi, I am preparing for a public dance series where special needs folks, folks with some learning disabilities, have been present in the past. I have my share of easy dances but I am wondering if any of you have experience with the special needs of special needs dancers. One of these dancers has been described to me as on the autistic spectrum. Do you have experience teaching such dancers? Were there approaches that worked well, or otherwise good teaching that in this situation did not work well? Are there dances you would suggest? Have you found that dances that keep dancers physically connected are any better than those that do so less? Your help in giving as many dancers a good time as possible will be appreciated by all. Thanks, Rickey Holt P.S. The rest of the dancers at this series are already used to easy dances. _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
