Perfect timing, Linda! After reading your post, I used "Do Si Three" at a dance last night. Worked as well as you said it would! It was one of those community center gigs with three or four experienced dancers and the rest just coming out because it's something happening in their community. Very fun evening.
-cynthia -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Linda Leslie Sent: Saturday, May 22, 2010 3:01 PM To: Caller's discussion list Subject: Re: [Callers] Contras for beginners Have a great time, Noah! I, too, have called a large number of dances for groups of total beginners. I find these events to be some of the most satisfying of my calling adventures! I agree wholeheartedly with Chip that ignoring gender roles is very important. It allows you to be more flexible, and avoids the whole "who asks whom?" problem. A dance I use a lot is the following three face three formation. I *don't* talk about ones/twos/ actives/inactives. Rather I mention that the direction the dancers are facing is "home". "Home changes at the ends, but that makes things more fun!" Without much teaching, dancers have actually learned how to progress.....I wrote the dance for just these sorts of occasions. Do Si Three A1 Hands 6 circle left Circle right (make sure you are home!) A2 Ends only do si do your opposite neighbor Middles only do si do your opposite neighbor B1 Ends 2 hand swing (go home!) Middles 2 hand swing B2 Lines of three (hold hands) go forward and back (drop hands) Forward and again and pass through to new neighbors Dancers love this dance for a lot of reasons: they learn it quickly; they love passing through to new neighbors; there is no pressure concerning who your partners happen to be; if the lines are not too long, you can call it until they get back to their original neighbors-- which surprises and delights them; and it is very easy to keep the dancers dancing to the musical phrases. One other thought: especially for a one hour gig, I rarely teach a "contra swing". Dancers can do a 2 hand turn swing without much teaching, and it is a move that can be done by 2 girls, 2 boys, or a mixed gender couple, without any confusion. I also use a lot of longways sets (Le Brandy, Alabama Gal, Boston Tea Party), some Sicilian Circles, and circle mixers. For circle mixers, I invite the dancers to give names to "the person on the left, and the person on the right" if I wish to keep the dance gender role free. School age kids love the opportunity to be involved in this way. My favorite circle mixer is: I Don't Know Why A1 Circle left Circle right A2 Everyone into the center and back Just the dancers on the right (lady position) into the center, turn around to face out Everybody face the person on the left* B1 do si do this new partner 2 hand swing this new partner B2 Promenade *the first time through the dance, I have the dancers face the person they asked to dance, so that they get to do the whole dance with this individual; the next time through, they find new partners. It is wonderful to experience how quickly dancers "get it", and how much fun they have dancing with a new partner each time through. If you would like to have other dances, please get in touch with me, and I will be glad to share some others that work very, very well with groups like yours. warmly, Linda Leslie On May 22, 2010, at 1:14 AM, Chip Hedler wrote: > Seems like I've called a kajillion dances for total beginners, > including > many rowdy, well-lubricated wedding parties, some K-3rd-grade > groups, and > one memorable reception in a gym full of of wound-up Russian high- > school > exchange students, few of whom understood English, and their > American peers, > none of whom had done any American traditional dance before. I > largely agree > with everything that everyone else has said and recommended... > > ...And yet, in more than 75% of these cases I've chosen to include the > contra "Ellen's Green Jig" by Roy Dommett or one of several > variations on it > I've evolved. It takes a little longer to walk through, which I do > at least > twice, but it has never, ever failed (sorry if I'm duplicating some > info I > think I've posted before). I think that's mostly because of the high > level > of connection sustained and the small amount of movement away from > original > places. The walkthrough demands enough attention that it actually > defuses a > lot of that random unfocused adolescent energy. I disregard gender and > improper formation completely for the most challenging situations. > Lots of > practice with such groups has significantly built up my comfort and > confidence, but this dance worked just as well way back when I was > starting > out. If there are others that people can trust to work this well, > please > share them. Here's the original and a couple tweaked versions: > > A1: Dosido below; !s (actives) dosido; > A2: 1s bal, swing > B!: Circle L and R > B2: 2s arch, 1s take a peek; 1s arch, 2s peek; > 2s carry arch over the 1s, who duck, then advance to next > > Insisting that the 2s don't just stand still and let the 1s go > through the > arch prevents the set getting dragged down the hall. > > Variations: > A1: As couples, 1s and 2s dosido; circle L > A2: All bal, swing > B1: Star R, circle R > > A1: Dosido below; circle L > > Depending upon how the group has responded to material such as > others have > suggested, I mix and match the various components above... > > ...And meanwhile: just last summer, I was asked to guest-call at a > MWSD club > retreat in northern Vermont. The saving grace was that my invitation > was set > up through some musicians who had been invited to play at the > retreat during > a break between SD sessions. Having that live music at the right tempo > totally uncoupled the wary "shuffle quickly, then wait" pattern that > characterized the 45 minutes of mixed-ability and advanced level > MWSD done > to recorded SD beats (and genuinely skillful prompting) before we > were on. > We did a Virginia Reel variant, then an Ellen's Green variant, and the > behavior of these mostly 40-plus-year-olds rapidly became almost > identical > to what you often see with high-schoolers: lots of exhausting > skipping and > sashaying through the figures, laughter, and the kind of giddiness > that gets > in the way of hearing the next call. Who'da thunk it? And after it > was all > over they asked where else they could do this sort of thing. > > Chip Hedler > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers _______________________________________________ Callers mailing list [email protected] http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
