Does your dance group offer lessons before the actual dancing begins? We offer a half hour lesson (though many folks arrive late and miss some stuff) at the beginning of the dance to teach basic moves.
For a lesson I've found that starting with very simple moves (walking to the beat, circle, allemande, do-si-do, etc.) and progressing to more involved moves (swing, courtesy turn, right/left through, chain, etc.) helps. If I know I'll have lots of beginners I choose dances that are very simple to start, then add only one new move with each successive dance. I encourage experienced dancers to partner with beginners so they may learn quicker. As to using 4 beats per call: you don't have to get all the words out before the move begins. For example, with a circle left 3 places you can start on beat 7 and say, "Circle left," wait for a beat, then say, "3 places." They'll hear the "what to do" and start that, then they will have the head space to hear "how far." I agree with Mac that you may be trying to teach dances that are just too hard for the crowd to have success. Also, if you can practice calling with a small group of experienced dancers, say at a house party, you'll get the practice you need in a much less stressful environment. Best of luck to you. -Amy Wimmer Seattle On Sun, Apr 13, 2025, 10:56 AM Mac Mckeever via Contra Callers < [email protected]> wrote: > You might be getting way to difficult for the crowd you describe. Having > half experienced dancers is about the threshold for doing duple minor > contras. > > I like to stick to dances that are harder to mess up. Circles, some > simple squares, scatter mixers, grand march, Virginia Reel, etc. Missing a > progression in a contra can break down the whole set. > > You mentioned chains - I find courtesy turns are one of the hardest things > for beginners to figure out. I'd avoid them. > > I have called many evenings without doing any contras. In groups with > lots of beginners - I build up to them and then carefully introduce some > with very easy progressions and where ending a swing on the correct side is > not all that important > > Mac McKeever > > > > > > > On Sunday, April 13, 2025 at 12:01:40 PM CDT, Taco van Ieperen via Contra > Callers <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > > Hi All, > > I've been thinking a lot about calling for beginner dancers. I've seen big > changes in the last few years where our dances now often have more than 50% > newcomers. > > As a relatively new caller. I have some observations and ideas, and I'd > love perspective from people who are more experienced. > > Walkthroughs: > > With experienced dancers, you can do an efficient walkthrough and teach a > figure in the context of the dance. With beginners, I've seen walkthroughs > fall apart because by the time you've explained a move and dealt with the > group that has gotten all scrambled, the dancers have completely forgotten > where they are in the walkthrough and where they started the dance. This is > leading me towards the idea of isolating new figures *before* the > walkthrough: If it's the first time doing a move, teach the move first, and > then do the walkthrough that includes this move. "This dance has a new > figure called a Robin's Chain. It works like this.... <chain stuff>. That > looks great. Now let's learn the dance...." > > Also, with experienced dancers, people "get it" during the dance, so you > can do two walkthroughs and even if some people are confused ii will > straighten itself out. With new dancers it feels much more important that > everyone succeed in the walkthroughs because confusion can get worse > instead of better. But at some point you can't keep doing walkthroughs. My > gut instinct is that if I teach the figures before and can't explain the > dance in two walkthroughs then I need to get better at walkthroughs or > teach easier dances. > > Thoughts? > > Caller Style: > > I really like making each call four counts as it provides > predictable rhythm to the calling: > > 1,2,3,4, WITH your | PARTner | BALance and | SWING > > For some calls I can give the destination location, or the destination > person: > "Robins, Chain, Across the, Set" > "Neighbor, Dosido, to NEW, Neighbor" > vs > "Robins, Chain, To your, Partner" > "Neighbor, DoSido, Once and a, half" > > To your partner seems more clear, but I can also see that having two > different people in the call could create confusion. Does one format work > better in your experience? > > Related, I find the most annoying figures to call are 1.5 figures. There's > just no way to say > "New Neighbor Allemande Left Once and a Half" in four beats. Also, > beginners struggle parsing 1.5x as trading places, especially across the > set. > > It seems like a lot of callers drop the Allemande and just shorten it to > "Left" or "Right". Which probably is fine after two clear walkthroughs. > > So, which do you prefer? Do you have other ideas? > Robins, Allemande, Left, Across > Robins, Left, to Trade, places > Robins, Left, Once, and a Half > Robins, Left, to Your, Partner > Robins, Do si, do, across > > Anyway, just thinking aloud and curious what other peoples thoughts are. > > Taco > > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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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