The dance I like for introducing the ladies chain, if I have a band that will work with me on tempo, is *Carpet Vectors *by Robert Cromartie. The tempo has to stay on the slow side so that the circles left and right are not rushed. The sequence is a circle left and chain to your partner, then circle right and chain back to your neighbor. http://dancevideos.childgrove.org/contra/contra-modern/344-carpet-vectors-by-robert-cromarties-duple-improper
Bob Green On Mon, Aug 22, 2016 at 10:18 AM, Luke Donforth via Callers < callers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Hello all, > > I've been thinking about glossary dances, and building vocabulary for new > dancers. I'm curious what your favorite dance is for teaching a ladies > chain for a crowd of mostly new dancers? Or if you don't have a specific > dance, what do you look for in a dance to make the chain as accessible as > possible? > > Just a chain over? Or a full chain over and back? > Chain to neighbor? Chain to partner? > What move best precedes the chain to set it up? > What move best follows the chain that still helps new dancers succeed? > Other factors you consider? > > I don't have a go-to favorite, but I'll walk through some of the things I > think about: > > I very seldom call a dance with a full chain. Experienced dancers don't > whoop and holler over them, and for new dancers, I'd worry the confusion > would snowball. > > Programatically, in a hall with a reasonable mix of new and experienced > dancers, I shoot for the first chain to be to neighbor so that the new > dancers can feel it with different experienced dancers; rather than new > dancers (who will partner up and clump, no matter how many helpful dance > angels you have) continually chaining to each other. If I were trying to > teach a chain to ALL new dancers... well, I doubt I'd teach a chain to > completely new dancers... but if I were, I'd probably go to partner. > > For moves, while I love the chain->left hand star transition; I'm not > convinced it's the best for teaching the chain. It often goes B2 > chain->star, find new neighbor; and the new neighbor from a left hand star > is non-trivial for new dancers. Possibly a dance where the chain->star > wasn't followed by the progression would work, but it's such a great > progression when they're ready for it; I don't see many of those dances. > chain->star->left allemande maybe? I do like long lines either before or > after the chain as a set-up; but not on both ends. I'm not sure which side > of the chain the lines help more. The Trip to ___ dances that end with > chains and start with women walking in to long wavy lines flow well, but I > don't know that they're the best for teaching chains, since the long wavy > line is another new piece. > > Anyway, just some of my thoughts (started by the other thread about simple > glossary dances). I look forward to hearing what others on Shared Weight > have to say about the dances they use to teach chains (and I certainly > won't be offended if folks tangent off into gent's chains; just start a new > thread ;-) > > Take care, > > > -- > Luke Donforth > luke.donfo...@gmail.com <luke.do...@gmail.com> > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > Callers@lists.sharedweight.net > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net > >