Yes, the courtesy turn is a challenge. And, in a right & left thru,
finding your "turner" is a challenge for the women. This is because for
the person on the right, the natural way to turn is away from your
partner. And, for some reason, men often think they don't have to move...
But, for a room of beginners, I think, as said in an earlier email, the
chain is a challenge, as the mere idea of progressing one way or the
other...
~erik Hoffman
On 3/27/2015 8:54 AM, Cheryl Joyal via Callers wrote:
The courtesy turn is the hard part. Sometimes Teaching hat first
works as they practice the movement prior to moving - then have them
walk across and do same turn. Similar for ladies chain although I
think having a dance with R&L b4 chain is my new approach. And
sometimes it just doesn't work with many beginners - so I apologize
for not explaining well and change to an easy backup dance
Cheryl Joyal
630-667-3284
Sent from my iPhone
On Mar 27, 2015, at 8:28 AM, Jacob Nancy Bloom via Callers
<callers@lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
I would absolutely believe that the dancers were completely confounded
by "right and left through". I remember how surprised I was, when I
called my first dance, to discover how much more confusing it was than
a Ladie's Chain. If you are used to both of them, then you tend to
think of them as being similar. If you've never done either, then one
of them has you connected to other people, while the other leaves you
by yourself, trying to figure out which way to turn (and usually
getting it wrong.)
But learning which figures are easier and harder comes quickly.
Learning which dances to call for a given crowd and how to teach them
efficiently is a neverending process!
Jacob
On Fri, Mar 27, 2015 at 10:47 AM, Brooks Hart via Callers
<callers@lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net>> wrote:
So, as the original poster, I am reporting back.
The dance with the solo fiddler was a mixed bag. The music was
very nice, but because I am new to calling, and our dancers are
99% beginners, way too much time was spent on walk-throughs and
teaching. The fiddler sat out for long stretches of time, which
seemed like a waste of his time and the money spent on live music.
I thought I had picked easy dances, but you wouldn't believe how
confounded so many of the people were at "right and left through",
and that falls on me and my lack of experience with teaching and
crowd wrangling.
A special moment for everyone, though, was doing a circle waltz
dance with the fiddler playing, unplugged, in the center of the
circle.
So, thanks again for everyone's input and encouragement,
Brooks
> Date: Fri, 27 Mar 2015 03:50:51 -0700
> To: callers@lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
> Subject: Re: [Callers] Solo fiddler or recorded music?
> From: callers@lists.sharedweight.net
<mailto:callers@lists.sharedweight.net>
>
> [resting up before the CALLERLAB convention, catching up on some
older
> messages]
>
> On Thu, Mar 05, 2015, Neal Schlein via Callers wrote:
> >
> > So, the moral of the story is that if a caller isn't USED to
working with a
> > band, live music isn't necessarily going to result in the best
experience
> > for the dancers.
>
> My experience as a relatively new caller is that it also depends
on the
> caller's experience as a dancer. My hearing makes it a bit
difficult to
> tune into the phrasing of a live band to call at the correct
times, but
> because I've been contra dancing for so many years (almost
exclusively to
> live music) I can roughly manage it -- and I know what it's
supposed to
> sound like.
> --
> Hugs and backrubs -- I break Rule 6 http://rule6.info/
> <*> <*> <*>
> Help a hearing-impaired person: http://rule6.info/hearing.html
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