As a new caller at a new dance series with ~90% new dancers currently, I'll echo many of the suggestions by others (calling easy dances, progressively introducing new moves over the evening, doing a demo in the center for new moves, calling e.g. "one and a half" after the move starts).
Additionally, I'd like to add something that has worked especially well at our dances: focusing primarily on spatial orientation during the beginner lesson. Where are the sides of the set? Up/down the hall? Where is your partner? Where is your neighbor? Noting that fixing mistakes during the dance is part of the experience, so observe and orient yourself throughout the dance. (Having the larks wear a tie or other marker has also helped with orientation.) For teaching specific moves: for swing we've emphasized releasing the left hand early enough, for robins chain reminding that larks have a job too (otherwise the larks often wait passively for the robins and inevitably some forget to facilitate the courtesy turn), for hey we laid tape on the floor to aid in spatial/muscle memory. Cheers, Brian https://contradance.at/ On Sun, Apr 13, 2025 at 7:01 PM 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] >
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