Recovery time. Al's Safeway has none.
Look for dances with swings over 8 beats, long lines, "0 moves" where dancers wind up in the same spot. On Tue, Mar 14, 2023, 12:43 AM Joe Harrington via Contra Callers < [email protected]> wrote: > I've been calling less than a year, so I'm still learning. One problem I > have is that, when looking at a written-out dance, I'm consistently > underestimating the difficulty for newbies. My group is about 50% newbies > every week, and it isn't large, usually about 20 dancers at peak. Last > week, I thought Al's Safeway Produce would be accessible, as it has just > allemande, swing, circle, long lines, and star. But, the star-to-star > progression was more than they could do, because the stars were poorly > synchronized and we're gender-neutral, so people didn't realize whether the > people coming at them were the right ones to dance with or not, and stars > quickly started having the wrong members and the wrong number of members. > (I should have given up after six walkthroughs, I didn't, and that's > another lesson learned.) > > So, I'm looking for a better set of rules to identify an easy dance than > the set I'm currently using, which is basically: glossary moves only, > mostly connected moves, and enough recovery moves (long swings, etc.). A > recent thread generated a list of such dances, which has been useful. But, > I'm going through lists of dances people like (like the ones posted on this > list, the CDNY list that Bob Isaacs compiled, and others posted online) and > looking for ones I can call to my group, especially early in the night. > What would you add to this list of rules that, if satisfied, indicate a > dance is likely easy-peasy? > > Easy-Peasy Dances Suitable for New Dancers Right Out of the Lesson... > > Have only very basic moves found in most dances, or at most one more that > is simple to teach. > Have mostly connected moves. > Have at least two moves where dancers can recover from recent mistakes > (e.g., balance and swing). > Don't spin too much (at most one 16-count swing, better none). > Are improper or possibly Beckett (if the dance is quite simple). > Keep the dancers within their minor set until the progression. > Have a simple progression. > Have a progression where the neighbors are likely to be there. > Have a progression that recovers easily if messed up (e.g., followed by > recovery move). > Progress at the end of the dance. > > What else to add? > > Thanks, > > --jh-- > Joe Harrington > Organizer, Greater Orlando Contra Dance > Faculty Advisor, Contra Knights, the UCF contra dancing club > contraknights.org > FB, Ig: Contra Knights > [email protected] > > _______________________________________________ > Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >
_______________________________________________ Contra Callers mailing list -- [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected]
