Thanks very much everyone for all the dance suggestions. I look forward to trying them out!
And thanks to John Sweeney for suggesting the Forearm Swing <https://contrafusion.co.uk/SwingWorkshop.html#Linked>, we'll give it a shot. Rick On Thu, Sep 26, 2024 at 9:33 AM Rick Mohr <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi all, > > Here in Philly we're restarting our Teen Barn Dance > <https://teenbarndance.net/>, which had a great four-year run before the > pandemic. (Here's the story <https://rickmohr.net/Contra/TeenDance/Story/> > if you're interested.) > > I love calling for the teens, and have been surprised to find that the > best dances for them don't overlap much with either my contra repertoire or > my barn dance repertoire. I've written up some of our favorite dances > <https://rickmohr.net/Contra/TeenDance/Dances/>, and I'm looking for > more! Specifically: > > 1) Barn dances that are slightly harder / more interesting than a typical > barn dance crowd can handle > > 2) Contra dances that are partner-role-free, and have no swing or just a > neighbor swing. > > Role-free dances are great because people can line up anywhere, there's > less anxiety about partnering, and there are no role terms to choose or > explain. And swings don't seem to have the same draw for teens as they do > for adult contra dancers -- they're intimate, and awkward to master. This > time around we're trying cross-hand rather than ballroom swings. These > goals rule out many contras (no chains for example), but contras have such > a rich figure palette that I think there's room for plenty of good ones. > > Do you know any good dances in those categories? If so I'd love to see > them, and I hope you like ours. > > Rick > > PS - I'd also encourage you to consider starting a teen dance! Ours has > been fantastic fun, and some of the teens from the first time around are > now pillars of our adult dance community. Happy to talk with anybody who's > interested. > >
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