This almost certainly is not the dance David referred to, but should be of scientific interest https://aptsg.org/Dance/dances.html#Unconsoled
On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 9:12 PM Maia McCormick via Contra Callers < [email protected]> wrote: > > Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a contra with > larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different rates. > Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that > chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop > setting. "Dance with who's coming at you." > > David, I'd love to have this dance for uh, scientific purposes and > certainly not to sow chaos 👀 > > -- > Maia McCormick (she/her) > 917.279.8194 > > > On Wed, Jan 24, 2024 at 10:02 PM David Harding via Contra Callers < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> I've attended several workshops with this theme, led on different >> occasions by Carol Ormand and Jo Mortland. A few of the exercises have >> been described already, including teaching the dance to half of each couple >> and not calling, messing with the music, dancing with pool noodles, and >> dancing to the calling of figures with names as nonsensical as our familiar >> figures are to first time dancers. >> >> A variant on the pool noodle theme used one teddy bear in each square. >> >> One of my favorites is a different approach to the lost dancer >> situation. After the group takes hand four, the caller one dancer from >> each minor set, shuffling around which one. They go to the bottom and make >> new minor sets. This leaves one empty spot in each set occupied by a >> ghost. The teaching and calling proceeds, with the dancers having to find >> their ways through the dance without the orientation of the full set. As >> the dance progresses, sometimes a whole set of four materializes,sometimes >> it's three dancers, sometimes it's only two. This really emphasizes >> awareness of your position in the set. It's also a useful skill when a >> partner or neighbor doesn't show up at the right place and time. >> >> I've danced with a fraction of the dancers in a contra set blindfolded. >> I also remember a simple square that we danced multiple times, increasing >> the number of blindfolded dancers by one each time through. Again, >> positional awareness and communication. >> >> A dance with enforced taking of everyone's less familiar role can help >> build acceptance. >> >> One time we were divided into two sets, one with all gents and the other >> with all ladies. Some gents came away impressed by how violently they were >> being swung around while dancing as robins while some ladies complained >> about the wimpy larks they danced with. And some in both lines enjoyed the >> better matches of forces and energy. >> >> Late in a regular evening dance a caller recently threw in a contra with >> larks and robins progressing in opposite directions or at different rates. >> Although it was announced as a mixer, it was sufficiently unexpected that >> chaos and discomfort ensued. I'd have been happier with that in a workshop >> setting. "Dance with who's coming at you." >> >> >> On 1/24/2024 11:35 AM, Maia McCormick via Contra Callers wrote: >> >> Whoops, I never came back to this, but, some exercises I've >> done/seen/considered: >> - half the room gets the walkthrough and half doesn't, the ones who got >> the walkthrough need to guide the others through the dance NONVERBALLY >> - nonsense dance: substitute all the dance vocab with random words, >> define a few terms for every dancer, call a nonsense dance and the hall has >> to piece together what's what >> - excision dance (requires real tight collab with the band): take a >> simple dance and, once the hall has it, you and the band conspire to just >> drop 8 or 16 counts at a time (or more!) and dancers need to get themselves >> in place for the next move. E.g. if the dance ends with a chain + star and >> starts with a new neighbor, you might call "robins chain... new neighbor >> balance and swing" and the band goes to the top of A1 (i.e. cutting out the >> last 8 beats of B2). Dancers need to know how the dance flows and where >> moves start and end to compensate for missing moves >> - noodly beginners: this one is a Lindsey Dono gem. You've got a bunch of >> friends coming, they're raw beginners, who will volunteer to dance with >> them and get them through the next dance? And the friends in question turn >> out to be... pool noodles. How do dancers accommodate partners who quite >> literally can't do a single thing? >> - esp. in very slanted halls, I've challenged dancers to do a dance with >> lots of movement up/down the line (think 3-33-33) without the sets getting >> bent out of shape. That's it, that's the whole challenge. >> - a good exercise on its own or can be combined with the above: practice >> dropping a full hands-4 out of the set. This is a recovery skill that isn't >> necessarily taught, but if e.g. one dancer has an injury or urgently needs >> to drop out, the thing to do is to remove your entire hands-4 from the set >> (and people can re-enter from the bottom if they still want to dance). I >> ran around with various hats, placing them on people's heads to denote an >> "injury"—that person had to then nonverbally get their hands-4 out of the >> set, and was then licensed to put the "injury" hat on someone else's head. >> (Could also be done with tagging people out.) >> - i've seen some dancers put bandanas on arms/hands/shoulders to >> represent an injury, and folks interacting with them need to notice and be >> cognizant of it/modify around it >> - i wrote my dance Neighbor, Neighbor on the Wall >> <https://contra.maiamccormick.com/dances.html#neighborneighboronthewall> >> for an exercise where the first time meeting this neighbor, you >> communicated a preference or stylistic request about the swing, and the >> second time you met them, you got to enact that preference/request. >> - "practice saying no": normal dance but dancers are encouraged to >> non-verbally say "no thank you" to flourishes/spins/fancy things at least n >> times during the dance. Good practice for communicating and listening for >> non-verbal "no's" >> - beginner detection: randomly assign beginner-like dance flaws to a >> number of the dancers (think "always a beat late", "dizzy", "grips tight >> and moves slow", "always looks in the wrong direction", etc.). Dancers >> without an assigned flaw practice quickly evaluating someone they're >> dancing with and getting a sense of skill level/whether they need extra >> help, and then providing that help. (If you want to "check people's work", >> you could at the end have all the assigned-beginner dances identify >> themselves, and everyone else can see if they clocked folks correctly.) >> >> I've done a lot of workshops like this so I've got a lot of junk to >> suggest, ha. Hope some of this is useful (and that I haven't missed my >> window for suggesting things—apologies for the delay!). Let us know how it >> goes! >> >> Cheers, >> Maia >> >> -- >> Maia McCormick (she/her) >> 917.279.8194 >> >> >> On Wed, Jan 17, 2024 at 1:54 PM Emily Addison via Contra Callers < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hey Folks, >>> >>> Thanks so much to all those who have chimed in on the question I >>> posted. >>> >>> Really neat that people like Richard and Joseph had experienced a >>> similar activity as me. And fascinating discussion about sharing weight >>> John, Joseph and others! I really like the idea that every allemande/swing >>> is a new opportunity for connecting with someone different and figuring out >>> that connection. I think it was Will Mentor that referred to enjoying the >>> little differences in every swing which made me all the more present and >>> noticing what I liked about different people's swings. >>> >>> I'm wondering if there are any other particular fun activities to do >>> with dancers who already know the basics but who want to improve their >>> dancing ability/understanding? >>> >>> :) Emily >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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] >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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] >
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