I am with you on leaving out the allemande entirely, John. Works out so much better for some groups to simply “face Partner, grand right & Left”. Linda
On Feb 7, 2017, at 4:53 AM, John Sweeney via Callers <[email protected]> wrote: > Meg said, "I have better luck teaching that to beginners if I teach the grand > right and left first and *then* add the allemande left, rather than teach it > in the sequence it's presented in the dance." > > The same advice was given by Lloyd Shaw in "Cowboy Dances" in 1939: > "It is so simple that it may seem labored to teach it in two parts in this > way. But I have found, especially with a large crowd, that it saves a lot of > confusion and innumerable collisions. Starting with the simple Grand right > and left gets their directions established and the men get in the habit of > always going right and the ladies always going left with a serpentine, > touching alternate hands. Once this is established it is easy to add the > preliminary left hook of the Allemande, and the trick is done. But try to > teach the two manoeuvers at the same time to a large crowd and you will have > them all running off wildly in all directions, and the stampede will be hard > to check." > > Nothing changes! :-) > > For beginner groups, especially one night stands, I don't add the Allemande > at all. > > Happy dancing, > John > > John Sweeney, Dancer, England [email protected] 01233 625 362 > http://www.contrafusion.co.uk for Dancing in Kent > > > _______________________________________________ > Callers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sharedweight.net/listinfo.cgi/callers-sharedweight.net
