It is interesting to read all these comments on circling, teaching, and
timing.
When I first started contra dancing, in 1980, it was extremely common,
in my neck of the woods (California, more specifically, Santa Barbara),
for the caller to take a few moments once or twice during the course of
the dance to teach a styling point. At that time, we dancers honored and
listened and learned. I don't know when it got to the point where a
caller stopped being enough of an "expert" to no longer get that
respect. Perhaps it was about the same time squares went out of fashion,
and only smooth, equal contras became the norm.
It's interesting to think that, when we did unequal dances, and triple
minors, and squares, and there was a wider variety of dances at the
contras I went to, there was a lot more to learn, and needing the
expertise of the teacher was greater. Now, though, as many have pointed
out, some points of style have gotten lost -- and just letting
"experienced" dancers do the teaching is not bringing these points back.
Let's take this item that's been discussed Circle left 3/4 and pass through.
Well, let's start with allemande: I learned from my caller/teacher (in
the course of regular evening dances...) that one could adjust the
timing of an allemande by getting closer or farther from your allemande
partner. We did dances that required once around in 8 beats. No problem:
let your arms unbend a bit, give good weight, and it's a joyous
connection. Need to get around 1-1/2 in 8 beats? No Problem, bend arms a
bit more and it's easy. Twice around in 8, as in Hull's Victory? Easy --
and Rollickin'! -- just make it close.
Same is true of circles. There are dances where it's all the way around
in 8, then 3/4ths around in 8. Change the timing by the circumference of
the circle. Do we teach this? No. And there are times when it's 3/4ths
around in 6, and pass through for 2. It's easy if we give weight in a
circle and make the adjustment to the diameter. But it's rarely pointed
out. As a matter of fact, weight in circles is actually very rare these
days, and that gratifying sense of connection has gone under some rock
somewhere. And this does not get taught from the floor. Not sure what to
do because:
If one does take a couple minutes to make a particular styling point,
many "experienced dancers" don't listen, or worse, act like the teacher
is saying something stupid and dramatically do the opposite of the
suggestion. I've had this happen to me. So, this is a long diatribe of
not sure what we should do, but I think thinking about how to present
styling -- especially when it comes to safety -- no gripping, smooth
connection, symmetrical allemandes, etc. is important -- and not
effectively taught from the floor unless you know all your helpers are
on the same page.
erik hoffman
oakland, ca
On 2/11/2014 4:12 PM, Maia McCormick wrote:
I agree that the caller trying to teach too much verbally gets pointless
very quickly. There are definitely pointers that callers can give that will
help dancers a bunch, but they should be given quickly and succinctly,
and/or shown through demonstration ("try the allemande the angry,
competitive way! Now try a noodle-arm allemande. Okay, now try it a way
that feels better to both of you.") It's distressingly easy for a caller to
make him/herself tune-out-able.
Along the lines of what Jonathan said, I'd be wary of even bringing up
"beats" to dancers at all. A lot of dancers aren't necessarily even
familiar with that terminology, or at least don't think of dancing in terms
of beats/phrase length, so to make a passing mention to the number of beats
something takes may be MORE confusing than not mentioning it all. Instead,
I would go with something like "the circle left is faster than you think!"
or "make sure you pass through in time to balance your next neighbor!" (and
then be really precise with calling the balance so it lines up directly
with the big beat--dancers on the whole tend to FEEL the beat 10x better
than they intellectually understand it).
On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 6:09 PM, Greg McKenzie <[email protected]> wrote:
Donna wrote:
Personally I prefer that the "regular dancers" do not verbally "teach"
the
new dancers.
I agree wholeheartedly and would not suggest that the regulars speak at all
during a walk-through.
The only exception to that might be when a caller is doing such a poor job
that confusion is spreading wildly through the hall. Sometimes it is
necessary to clarify something when the caller makes a serious error and
does not realize it. Otherwise some dancers may think that the confusion
is *their *fault. That would be bad.
The vast majority of the teaching that takes place in the dance hall is
non-verbal. As the only person in the hall with a microphone it is very
important that the caller realize that fact. Talking on mike is often much
more disruptive than talking in the dance line.
- Greg McKenzie
West Coast, USA
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