Well, that is a real problem, I think you should address this as soon as
possible before things get out of hand.
One of the frustrating things I sometimes experience as a caller is to
see a pair of novice dancers in a contra line that consists of other
dancers without much more experience. When the less experienced dancers
are interacting with more seasoned dancers there's no problem, and they
are improving their skills by dancing with those more experienced
dancers, which of course is how contra dancing is supposed to work. But
when you've got a lot of novice dancers dancing in the same line they
don't really provide that kind of assist, and often just confuse each
other, resulting in the painful experience (for me) of standing on the
stage and watching an entire contra line practically fall apart.
Meanwhile the line closer to me, which invariably consists of more
experienced dancers, is doing just fine. I live in southern New Mexico,
where contra dancing isn't something that most people have grown up
with, so this experience is not uncommon for me.
Now, in my opinion it's these novice dancers that we as a community must
embrace and make welcome. At the end of the evening I try to make sure
to personally thank those dancers for showing up, staying the entire
evening (instead of getting frustrated and leaving at the break), and I
encourage them to come to the next dance. Probably the main reason I
continued coming to contra dances myself when I first started was the
welcoming environment. Nobody *ever* made me feel like I was screwing
things up.
There's always that temptation in situations like this to offer
additional training for novices, sometimes as a separate group. I've had
members of our dance community suggest, for example, that we provide
separate lessons for novice guys on proper swinging technique. As
tempting as that idea may be I think it should be resisted, or the whole
welcoming spirit of contra dancing will be lost. Providing extra lessons
for people who "just aren't getting it" so they "don't muck it up for
everyone else" may sound good in theory, but going down that path will
just drive new dancers away, similar to what has happened to square
dancing in the past few decades.
Oh, sorry, you asked for advice. Does your group have some kind of board
of directors? If so, perhaps you could make it clear to this fellow that
the board feels they owe whoever's calling the courtesy of doing the
newcomers instruction, regardless of how effective it is, and it would
be rude to interject with additional instruction. I agree with you that
considerable harm can be done to your community if this situation isn't
dealt with promptly.
Lewis Land
On 10/24/2012 6:06 PM, Ben wrote:
Okay, I need some other perspectives on this. Last year we had a new couple
move to our area, and start attending our local contra dance. They had
danced "somewhere else" for several years, and the gentleman had obviously
been involved in some of the dance organizing duties in their last location
(web site upkeep, etc).
First impressions were positive - he came to the dances for a few months and
offered some worthwhile feedback, while also actually offering to take some
action. He suggested we offer a waltz "lesson" for a few minutes before we
have the first waltz, and he offered to "teach" the waltz, anytime and every
time. So far, we have taken him up on this and it does seem to have
encouraged more people to get up and waltz, which was the point. The
emerging problem (I see..) is that he now wants to insert himself in the
"contra dance lesson" before the dance, which we ask the caller of the
evening to conduct. Several times over the last year, after I have done
"the teach," (where I don't focus on new dancers learning moves, I focus on
making them comfortable and getting them moving to music) Mr. Know It All
has told me that several people "just weren't getting it" and he has offered
to take them into a separate room to give them "more training" so that they
"don't muck it up for everyone else." (Yes, these were his exact words). I
have consistently declined his offers, as tactfully as I could. At our last
dance, though, he had obviously made contact with the caller before hand,
as he was taking the microphone during the teach and offering his "two cents
worth" on contra dance set management, formations, etc. I don't think
anyone died in the train wreck, but I see trouble ahead. (Didn't John
Fogerty sing a song about this.??)
