I like to teach a beginners’ session before dances and sometimes have experienced dancers join in to help out. Generally that works out pretty well, but sometimes the experienced dancers want to give their partners advice and demonstrations beyond what I’m teaching. It’s disruptive and I think rude sometimes as well. Lesson time is short enough without distractions. I would rather work with a group of new dancers on my own rather than have experienced dancers teaching twirls and other embellishments that new people don’t really need to know yet. It’s enough to learn 5+ figures and remember their unfamiliar names (chain, allemande, do si do, promenade) without extra, and at this point, unnecessary alternative or additional add-ons.
I’m wondering if anyone has tried inviting intermediate beginners to help out at beginners’ sessions? They have been to maybe 5-10 dances and should be somewhat familiar with basic figures, but still need some refresher training. They should be able to act as models for the new people, provide them some assistance getting through courtesy turns, allemandes, do si dos, etc., and get some additional slow-time dance experience for their own edification. Jim Thaxter Columbia, MO On Tue, Jul 18, 2023 at 2:39 PM Heitzso via Organizers < organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > Chiming in to note a pattern in our area that differs from what some of > these other dances report, which is that at Sautee, Atlanta, and > Gainesville (all NE Georgia) dances it is common for most new dancers to > arrive on time and for there to be about as many experienced dancers that > come early and help out with the beginners' lesson as there are beginners. > In Sautee this Saturday for ContraForce they'll probably have so many > attending the lesson that the lesson circle (at the start of the lesson) > will have trouble fitting around the perimeter of the large old gym, with > some half of those being experienced dancers. > > I don't know why that is (on time, roughly as many experienced coming > early). Cultural pattern? It just tends to happen so I don't think about it. > > Other notes ... re socialize before the dance ... Sautee established > itself over decade(s) as a family friendly dance. For many years they > hosted a pot luck before every dance until the core folks who did most of > the work got exhausted. I don't know their current post-covid pattern, but > pre-covid they still did pot lucks but just for the talent and volunteers > helping setup. > > > -Heitzso > Gainesville, Georgia > > > The idea I have been cogitating on for a while is to somehow change > people's perception of the starting time causing a bit of a cultural > shift. Our dance lesson is at 7:00, dance at 7:30. I would really love it > if we could get the majority of folks to embrace the idea that everyone > come at 7:00. At our last dance we had about 2-3 experienced dancers > participating in the beginners lesson. That's a challenge with about 30 > new students. I imagine new folks could easily feel like "a tribe apart" > with beginners at 7 and everyone else come at 7:30. If we could get the > majority of our experienced dancers to come at 7:00 and help teach the > lesson that would be so grand. > > Have any of you been successful in making that shift? Changing the > attitude to.... "dance starts at 7:00 and we spend the first 30 minutes > welcoming and teaching the beginning dancers because we all know the dance > will be much more fun that way". If we could make that leap, I think > newbies would feel more welcome and likely to return. It's unrealistic to > expect everyone to show up at 7, but I am planning to reach out to several > experienced dancers to see if we can get more of them on the floor for the > lesson. > > Also considering "doors open at 6:30" to give folks time to socialize > before beginning the lesson/dance at 7:00. > > On Mon, Jul 17, 2023 at 4:11 PM Don Veino via Organizers < > organizers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote: > >> A thought on the topic of dance angels... >> >> Would it be helpful to try matching age groups of the beginners and >> angels? Having a shared social reference frame (for lack of a better >> phrase) could help incorporate those dancers more comfortably? I mention >> this as we had a slug of incoming students from an area private school >> arrive at our dance as newcomers and our friendly and helpful older crew >> did the community thing - which was great but slightly put them off. The >> lack of folks in their age group came up in my later conversation with them >> - they had a great time but were looking to mix more with folks of their >> own age. Of course that's a chicken/egg thing (I encouraged them to bring >> more of their friends next time), but... >> >> > _______________________________________________ > Organizers mailing list -- organizers@lists.sharedweight.net > To unsubscribe send an email to organizers-le...@lists.sharedweight.net >
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