I usually teach it from the mic as: "at the end of this move, you will have swapped places with your [neighbor, partner etc.]; point to where you're going to end up. Cool. Now, shake right hands with your [neighbor, partner etc.]. Lift your joined arms; robins go under the arch, larks walk forward to their left, and you end up in each other's place!"Pointing out the no-gripping rule is excellent, and I find it often helps cement things to do/teach the move twice; once for positions and who ends up where, and once for the finer points of stuff like that. So if I were to do this without a demo, I might say:"Okay, now reset yourselves, because I want to show you one more thing about this move. Can everyone curl their fingers, with your thumb attached at the side (show on stage), sort of like a lego figurine's hand? This is the hand position we want during a move like this, so no one's hand gets pinched and everyone has free movement. Try that box the gnat to swap again, and think about having Lego hands; you can hook hands with your [neighbor, partner etc.] to make that arch and send the robin under it without gripping or restricting movement."I don't tend to specify grip stuff when teaching from the mic with a sufficient volume of experienced dancers in the room, but that's how I might do it--and of course, zero shame in a demo, that might get your point across better!Cheers,Maia--Maia McCormick (she/her)917.279.8194_______________________________________________On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 3:31 PM Tepfer, Seth via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:_______________________________________________Here are the words from the fabulous Becky Hill from the late 1990s.Box the Gnat (4)A couple takes right hands, making an arch. The woman walks underneath the arch, while the man walks around the woman, exchanging places to face the opposite direction from where they started.
Seth Tepfer (he, him, his)Software Engineering, Emory Primate Center
From: Emily Addison via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2025 3:11 PM
To: Sivier, Jonathan E <jsivier@illinois.edu>
Cc: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [External] [Callers] Re: Teaching Box the Gnat / Swat the FleaTotally agreed. I love demos and I think that BtheG is a perfect place for it.I'm just wondering if I could get away without doing a demo in a large room of all beginners with the right verbal instructions. Orrrrr.... is BtheG just too weird??? ;)
I'm also generally wondering if folks feel they have better language to help dancers move their bodies through BtheG :)
Emily
On Fri, Oct 17, 2025 at 2:51 PM Sivier, Jonathan E via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net> wrote:
_______________________________________________I don't have a good set of words for teaching this sort of move, but I'd like to encourage you to include a demo. You don't necessarily have to be the one doing it. Get a couple of dancers who can do the move, or teach it to them in advance, and have them do the demo. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and I think the same is true of a demo. Given that different people learn in different ways some will respond to your verbal instructions just fine, others won't and will be better served by seeing the move in action.
Jonathan
From: Emily Addison via Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Sent: Friday, October 17, 2025 1:44 PM
To: Shared Weight Contra Callers <contracallers@lists.sharedweight.net>
Subject: [Callers] Teaching Box the Gnat / Swat the FleaHi Folks!
I'm wondering if you have tricks to teach Box the Gnat and Swat the Flea to a whole room of dancers who have not done it before. (In this case, it's happening in an otherwise very simple scatter mixer but I can imagine almost no one will know the figure.)
The wording I've figured out is below.I feel like it's wordy but it's also a hard move to pick up because it's kind of weird what's actually happening. :)
Ideally, I'd love to be able to teach this without a demo but I feel like I'm stuck with the demo. (If you have talk BtheG to a big room of non-dancers without a demo, I'd love to hear your strategies).
Anyway - open to any and all feedback.
Thanks!Emily in Ottawa
DEMO BoxTGnat from a hands 4
With your P - join R hands in loose handshake hold – no thumbs!
Goal is to trad places with your P so you end up in the spot there are right now.
BUT Lark/Robin will be doing different things to get there!
But little tug to start & raise joined hands.
Larks: you walk past your P into your P place. (could feel like behind/outside of the circle)
Robins: you WALK under your joined hands, turning in to face ctr of circle & keep turning until face P . You have stepped into THEIR place. Have them drill StF and BtG over and over before starting the rest of the dance.
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