> This is likelier to happen if both partners are new, and likeliest to
happen if all four in that set are new. But that couple that's new will
have that problem repeatedly. When I see that I continue to prompt the
figures, maybe with more emphasis - Ladies CHAIN and COURTESY TURN - and
it
[chiming in late]
On Fri, Jun 21, 2013, Alan Winston wrote:
> On 6/21/2013 3:03 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote:
>>
>>I run into this periodically as well, and haven't found a way to
>>verbally interrupt whatever's going on in their heads. It may be
>>that they're so overloaded that further verbal info
Donna --
I totally agree that we need to rely on and empower experienced dancers
to teach figures. What I'm talking about however is newcomers who
seemed to have learned the figure in the walkthrough losing it after the
dance starts and apparently unable to receive any input from caller or
I love Perry's response.
When I teach a beginners' workshop I try to make the point very clear: If
you end up in the right place facing the right direction, you did it fine.
If you are confused just listen to the dancers around you. They will be
gently and kindly pointing you in the right
Alan,
Thank you for this great question. Situations like this are all too
common. I see this as a problem of integration. The core principle I use
is to remember that:
The caller always takes full responsibility for anything that happens in
the hall.
If first-timers are not integrated with
Jim,
OMG what a great post. You have so hit the nail on the head and presented
it so eloquently.
I believe good dancers who are community oriented (rather than dance gypsy
jaded, as Joelaine so brilliantly points out in her home page post on
gmail) are going to be just fine w/ the caller
On Jun 21, 2013, at 5:03 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote:
On 6/21/2013 4:08 PM, James Saxe wrote:
As callers we can aim both to keep the amount of confusion
low and to set a gracious tone towards whatever confusion
may still arise. (Doing the opposite of both these things
is unfortunately easy: Just
On 6/21/2013 4:08 PM, James Saxe wrote:
As callers we can aim both to keep the amount of confusion
low and to set a gracious tone towards whatever confusion
may still arise. (Doing the opposite of both these things
is unfortunately easy: Just pick inappropriate dances,
teach and call them
On Jun 21, 2013, at 12:52 PM, Alan Winston wrote:
..., a phenomenon I've noticed several times over the years is that
some fraction of people who were in a beginner workshop and who in
the walkthrough of the dance were able to do something like "women
chain to partner, women allemande 1x,
On 6/21/2013 3:03 PM, Kalia Kliban wrote:
I run into this periodically as well, and haven't found a way to
verbally interrupt whatever's going on in their heads. It may be that
they're so overloaded that further verbal info just can't get in. I've
had some success with going onto the floor and
On 6/21/2013 1:44 PM, John Sweeney wrote:
Alan said, "I continue to prompt the figures, maybe with more emphasis -
Ladies CHAIN and COURTESY TURN - and it doesn't seem to make any
difference."
_ If they are having problems then I get them to practice the courtesy
turn: "Ladies, stand beside
On 6/21/2013 12:52 PM, Alan Winston wrote:
My hypothesis is that these are people who are still drinking from the
firehose.
I _love_ this image.
(The first time you come you hear everything important about
contra dancing and probably get exposed to half or more of the common
figures. It's a
My view is to just not sweat it. I realize at the very start that many new
dancers don't have the CPU to process too much stuff - especially if you are
burdening them not only new dance moves but also terminology that they have
never heard before as well. If such moves are not breaking down
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