Jim, OMG what a great post. You have so hit the nail on the head and presented it so eloquently.
I believe good dancers who are community oriented (rather than dance gypsy jaded, as Joelaine so brilliantly points out in her home page post on gmail) are going to be just fine w/ the caller choosing appropriate dances for the crowd. Just 2 days ago I called a relatively new dance series that vacillates between mostly experienced one month to having a large group of first timers showing up the next. This Wed. there were a number of first timers who were retirement age and beyond. I could have kissed all the experienced people for their patience, understanding, and having a great time even though the first half of the program was pretty tame compared to usual. I'm happy to say, the new people were having a blast and wanted to do it again. Phew!! Paul PS I called several dances that night that have sat unused in my file for several years. > I think we can keep two things in mind at the same time: > > (1) Dancing with the feeling that you know what you're > doing is usually more fun that milling around with > a feeling of confusion. Things like choosing > dances appropriate to the crowd, teaching clearly, > and building dancer's skill can be good because > they add to the fun. > > (2) What's even less fun than milling around in confusion > is milling around in confusion and feeling that the > caller and/or the other dancers are upset about it. > Stuff about dance skills and "doing it right" > shouldn't take precedence over fun. > > As callers we can aim both to keep the amount of confusion > low and to set a gracious tone towards whatever confusion > may still arise. (Doing the opposite of both these things > is unfortunately easy: Just pick inappropriate dances, > teach and call them poorly, and then bark at the dancers > when the inevitable confusion arises.) > > --Jim > > > ______________________________**_________________ > Callers mailing list > call...@sharedweight.net > http://www.sharedweight.net/**mailman/listinfo/callers<http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers> >
