What I've tried once is, instead of "you figure it out," ask dancers to put a hand, any hand, on the other person's shoulder blade. This might require a short demonstration, but the idea is this: once you've got the connection with two dancers, each with one hand on the other's shoulder blade, they've got the most important elements to a swing and can figure out what to do with the other hand later.
When I tried demonstrating this (again, only once, and it worked OK but not sure if it's replicable), I simply showed the three possible results: one person with right hand on left shoulder blade, other person with left on right shoulder blade leads to a standard ballroom-position swing; both people with right hands on left shoulder blades leads to the swing I described above (or a swing with the left hands grasped at waist level, which some people seem to like); and both people with left hands on right shoulder blades, which is weird and atypical but works fine. As long as they have that connection started, they can figure out what to do with the other hands while in the process of swinging. On Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 6:49 PM, Ryan Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > "What works well is if the more experienced dancer takes the less > familiar position. Just position your hands to indicate that you're > ok taking the less customary role, and if the other person is faster > to do so, go with that instead." > > Jeff > > I'd like to look at this issue as a caller, rather than a dancer: > > When calling such a dance we, as callers, should not assume that for every > pairing at least one of the two has danced the other role. "The more > experienced of you should take the less customary role" is not useful > advice to 2 people who just started today. > > I dislike the idea of telling the dancers "you figure it out." We should > probably teach a symmetric swing so there can be a default amongst those > dancers who don't yet have a collection of alternate swings and experience > dancing both roles. Dancers with a certain level and type of experience > will, of course, make something up regardless of what we tell them. > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers > -- David Casserly (cell) 781 258-2761
