7 Aug
2025
7 Aug
'25
12:24 a.m.
As Randy Pausch said, if there's an elephant in the room, introduce it.
That normalizes the situation and reduces social tension and confusion. It
maximizes the help you'll get from your experienced dancers. I'd also try
to set the newbies' expectations that this might not work out so
easily, but that's ok and they're wanted. This is long because it's a
script...
"Hey, we've got some new folks who just joined us. Welcome! Try to spread
yourselves out among us so we can all help you out. You'll get this
quickest if you partner with experienced dancers for the first few dances,
and dance with the one you brought later, but it's up to you. If you came
with someone special and you're most comfortable dancing together, that's
ok, too. Also, some folks really benefit from the workshop we give before
the dances, so if you find jumping in is a little too much right now,
please give us another try at 7pm before the next dance, and enjoy the
live music and company as long as you like today. We really want you
here! Would a few experienced dancers raise their hands and dance
with these fine folks?"
In our group this leads to cheering, and sets the expectation on both sides
that people are going to be giving help. One or more experienced couples
will split up and invite a newbie into their group or dance as a couple
with a newbie couple. YMMV on this. The first 90 minutes of our dance is
designated newbie dancing and we frequently split ourselves up to get with
newbies. Conversely, the last 90 minutes is "loose the hounds". If your
dancers expect to be challenged from the start, you may need a different
script.
Then...
"Folks, I'm going to walk this one through a little thoroughly, which
should help anyone who is new tonight. Experienced dancers, please stay
with me and don't get ahead or give extra advice, but do work with the new
dancers to help them get it. And please, let's not chatter. Your
investment of patience will bear fruit shortly!" [Again, setting
expectations, being inviting to everyone, trying to get them to see the
benefit of creating the best learning environment.]
Then, ditch whatever dance you were planning, and call Midwest Folklore,
Airpants, Easy Peasy, etc., something with a low piece count, connected,
simple figures, simple progression, recovery moves. And yeah, teach the
swing. Oof, that takes time. Or, have them do a two-hands-across or elbow
swing. The important thing there will be remembering to exit on the same
side as they entered. If necessary, progress twice at the start, as was
mentioned.
Something similar just happened to us last Friday. TWENTY new dancers came
as a group, an entire social club. We knew some of them and had been
encouraging them to come for some months, but we had no idea they were
coming that day, and our dance is usually only 20-25 people. And, it was
caller Sam Sharpless's second night of calling, ever. They did come for
the workshop, and Sam did great with them, there, but still, some of them
were...going to take a few evenings of dance before walking on the beat
made sense to them. Sam and the gang really stepped up! Sam blew up the
first half of his program and called super-easy dances. All the
experienced dancers danced with newbies. We joked with our 4th
timers, asking them how it felt to be one of the most experienced in the
room. Sam gave some careful and very encouraging walkthroughs. It worked,
even with often 3 newbies per minor set. The best news is, this group said
a few days later that they're coming back next week!
--jh--
On Wed, Aug 6, 2025 at 10:43 AM Perry Shafran via Contra Callers <
contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Hi, everyone,
This happens more often than you'd think. My solutions are thus:
First, I do not like demanding new couples split up right away. I know
that technically that would be effective to help people out. But
ostensibly, these people came to the dance to dance with the people they
came with. Thus instead of making it a demand, I say I "highly suggest"
that people dance with experienced dancers. But I really want them to have
them have the ability to choose their own partners. Thus, I allow them to
dance with each other if they would prefer. You *may* want to split up
hands four, though, since a couple will not be able to dance with the other
couple that's their friends right away. And arrange them so they are not
spit out right away after 1 or 2 turns.
A more in-depth walk through for the first dance is warranted. Have a
dance with a neighbor swing before a partner swing, so they can get an
experienced dancer guiding them. If you do have a chain, have people chain
to their neighbor for that guidance as well.
And quite honestly, allow them to sink or swim after that. It'll never be
perfect no matter how hard you try, and they aren't going to "get it"
right
away. Allow them to move, bop, have swings that are not smooth. In fact,
please advise the experienced dancers to show them how it's done, but ask
them not to spend oodles of time trying to perfect the swing in the middle
of a walk through. That takes forever and makes the swing look way more
difficult as move than it ought to be, and it delays the whole dance
unnecessarily.
Above all, instill confidence in the new dancers that this is fun, you can
do it, and as long as you're having fun you're OK. Anything to make the
dancers feel that they need extra help has the potential for them to think
that they don't belong there or aren't good enough to dance with the
experienced crowd.
Truthfully, I recall the days where many callers have suggested that
"lessons make people believe the dance is hard" and believed that dancing
should be so easy that anyone can walk in and dance and no lesson is
needed. We as a dance community have made dancing a little more difficult
than that (and truthfully, it's not all *that* easy for a lot of people who
have never done this before to figure out), so allow some grace and allow
for mistakes. Like, I think it took me a good 6 months of contra dancing
before I really "got it" when I was starting.
Perry Shafran
On Tuesday, August 5, 2025 at 12:08:11 PM EDT, Gregory Frock via Contra
Callers <contracallers(a)lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
Dear Colleagues,
Here's the scenario: You are finishing up a new dancers' lesson, and will
be starting the dance in a few minutes. In walks a significant number (say
6+) of newbies, all friends who want to dance together. Besides the two
most common solutions, lower the difficulty and insist they NOT do the
first couple of dances together, does anyone have an additional
creative/elegant solution, enhancement actions to make the basics more
effective, or important issues for consideration that are commonly missed?
Greg
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