David Millstone wrote: > > * The "basic figures" that one would meet in an evening was much > smaller, so the learning curve wasn't as steep. ...
While there have been additions to what you might see at an evening, there are also things that used to be common that are gone. This decreases what newcomers are likely to encounter in a typical night. Most nights have no squares, which eliminates the formation, the position labeling, "corner", and many figures including "grand right and left", "four ladies chain", and "grand square". No contra corners. No triple minors. Most of these weren't in the self-explanitory category. To me the test is: how good a time would a random person who has never danced before have coming in off the street? Dances in the 1970s did well on this metric, I think dances still do, and I intend to work to keep things this way. Jeff
