Category: Teaching

Selecting dances

4/3/2016

A lot of what I do as a dance instructor has to do with preparation. As I spend time figuring out who I'll be working with, I think about their skills, the reason for the dance/why they are there, how much time we'll have together... there are several things to think about.

My spring 2016 class got underway last week. Best compliment ever: more than one person commented on how much they liked the dances I selected this term. Yay! Without fail, I always think I've put together a great assortment of dances -- because I obsess over it, make endless changes until the plan is exactly what I think it should be. But to have a dancer - and more than one! - say that they like the selection of dances, well - music to my ears. Thank you!!

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The cross over is evolving...

8/4/2015

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"Line up for a contra dance"... "Repair your square"... I had an opportunity to say these things when calling a contra dance for square dancers last month, and when calling a square dance for contra dancers this month.
Last month at a regularly scheduled dance of the local modern Western square dance club Saints-N-Aints (of which I am a member in good standing), I called the contra dance "Al's Safeway Produce" written by Robert Cromartie. Pictures above, I had six willing couples who braved a new experience. They did a great job, and they were good sports! I wanted their first exposure to contra dancing to be fun. For the full experience, I invited local band Cultural Ecology to play for this dance.

Imagine a band schlepping their instruments, setting up, tuning up and playing O-N-E dance! I appreciated their enthusiasm for sharing live music with the square dancers, who only infrequently dance to live music.
Interestingly, during the walk through, the top eight dancers turned themselves into a square formation after the first two calls. What?! No squares in this dance! I was fascinated to watch that transformation.
It was challenging for them to grok the contra formation, and the progression of couple #1 dancing with the next neighbors down the hall and couple #2 dancing with new neighbors up the hall. But I saw many smiles, and full effort!

This month at Contra on the Coast (a weekend contra dance event), I called the traditional southern square "Take a Little Peek". Because traditional square dances have few moves, the contra dancers caught on very easily. They had a good time, and I was encouraged enough to consider calling another square!
One similarity I noticed is that at each of these two dances, there were one or two people "on strike" who wouldn't even give it a try. Earlier in the day at one of these events, I had a woman annoyingly ask me why do squares and contras have to be together? She announced they are two very different things, and she had no intention of doing the other. Okay, but it seems like everyone else had a lot of fun.

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Community Learning Night

5/6/2015

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I recently had the distinct pleasure of participating in the Marshfield Community Learning Night. The theme of the night was The Civil War - there were various stations set up around the gymnasium. My friends Jenn and Don provided wonderful music on fiddle and guitar for our dancing station in the dance room near the gym. The purpose of the evening was to invite students and their families to attend this hands-on learning experience, having them rotate among the various stations throughout the night. We had no idea what to expect in terms of who would show up, what age range, how many people would be willing to dance.

Our first customers arrived - a middle school-aged boy and his mom.The boy repeatedly protested, "I don't know how to dance." I took that as a challenge. I remarked that I had just seen him walk into the room, and that's all the skills he would need. We circled up three, took turns allemanding and elbow swinging each other, back to circling, two making a bridge for the third to go under... Soon a couple of others joined us, and I lead them in a variation of Cumberland Reel. One dance was enough for this young man, although he did remark that it was fun.

Another small cluster of students and parents arrived. I lead them in Galopede. They left. More arrived. We did Witch's Reel. The next group learned Tunnel Contra. The music was lively and invigorating. I wondered if some of the people there had ever danced to live music before. The response was overwhelmingly positive. People danced and had fun. In the largest group, we had a family of home schooled kids, a veteran, another family with kids, and a young woman new to contra dancing who stayed around to make sure there were enough partners so everyone could dance. I'd like to see participatory dancing be more integrated into people's lives, rather than something to be exposed to at a special event. Some day, instead of hearing, "that was more fun that I thought it would be", I hope to hear more comments like, "That was so much fun -- just like it always is!"

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Big waves ahead...

2/20/2015

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One thing I've learned as a contra dance caller is that in order to have a successful event, I need to be flexible when programming an evening of dancing. I've read callers' blogs and have had many late-night chats with visiting callers - I've heard it many times. In my head, I understand that it is not only okay, but advisable to be able to change gears in mid stream. Last weekend's contra dance gave me an opportunity to practice this skill, and hopefully not only ingrain it in my head, but also in my heart.

Our dance season runs from Sept through May. The Feb dance is mid year. My program was designed to help dancers in my community build on the moves that they'd been exposed to previously in the dance season, and help cement those moves into their repertoire. My first hint of the storm to come was during the beginners' lesson. Who were all these people I'd never seen before in my life?! Because it was Valentine's Day, I had expected a low turnout that night. But the room was teeming with people ready to dance! And after all, isn't that what all of our advertising efforts are intended to do?

As is typical for our contra dance, we had all ages and all levels of ability. This is actually one of things I boast about when describing our dance community. I think it's great! But it is not for the caller who is faint of heart. It takes more teaching than calling to work with a group of first-time dancers. Of the 52 attendees that night, only 8 were members of the local folk society. Many of our experienced dancers were out of town at a dance festival or enjoying a Valentine's evening that didn't involve contra dancing. I was facing a roomful of beginners.

It wasn't the first time I'd ever announced, "New program!", while discarding the lineup of dances I'd chosen (and practiced!) for that night. I reached into my trusty treasure box of calling cards and pulled out all of the dances from the category "one night stand". We do-si-do'ed, and did a circle mixer... We had enough people to do Intersection Reel, an X-shaped dance in which all four couples from the outermost parts of the X sashay through X to the opposite side. My friend Eric requests this dance every time I call, and we had enough people that night to do it.

But as the evening went on and some people left, we had fewer new dancers. Slowly, I introduced dances from the program I intended to share with them. Before the night was over, they were doing heys, balancing wavy lines and doing Rory O'More spins! I wanted to teach contra corners and hoped to introduce the chestnut dance Chorus Jig, but we didn't get to it, and I'll have to save that for another night.

The next time I need to change gears at the beginning of the evening with a "new program", I hope to remember this weekend's dance. Rather than considering the new program as a personal failure in planning poorly, as a fallback plan, a plan B, or a remedial plan, I want to regard a new, impromptu program simply as the more appropriate plan... a helpful vehicle that can guide dancers through the evening's dance successfully.

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We were just working on our mazurka...

1/17/2015

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One of my favorite dances from last year's Stockton Dance Camp was Pletený a circle dance from the Czech Republic, as presented by Jitka Bonušová. This dance symbolizes the traditional girls’ pastime of weaving wreaths of flowers picked in the meadows in spring. It can be danced by girls or women only or by couples in a big circle. I'm teaching it in my class this session as couples in a big circle. The first part of the dance has a grand right and left done in a moderate tempo waltz step. In the second part of the dance, the music changes and the steps are performed to a mazurka. Like the waltz, a mazurka is done in a triple meter, but it is has a lively tempo.
I have a new dancer in my class this session. It's her first time folk dancing, and I'm so very excited to have her in class! I called her earlier this week to talk about something totally not related to dance - coincidentally, I called her about flowers. She said, "we were just working on our mazurka. I can do it to the right, but then when we turn around and do it to the left..." Well, that presented a difficulty. So she and her partner were working on it. At home. In the middle of any ordinary day.
Admittedly, I put together a CD of all the music we do in class and make copies for everyone who signs up for the session. But imagine my delight to call a dancer at home, and hear that she had just been working on a dance. A highlight of my week.

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Stockton Teachers

7/26/2014

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The caliber of teaching at Stockton is incredible. The Serbian teacher is Bata Marčetić. Watching his feet is mesmerizing! He is like an artist who uses his feet to make brush strokes. So precise and light! Each of the teachers is remarkable. They teach a 55-minute class twice daily. They each participate in an end-of-the-day review. Each teacher takes a turn presenting an hour-long cultural assembly - there is a different one each day. They participate in the after party. Each class is physically demanding to me -- all of the dances are mentally demanding, as well.

One thing that I noticed in both Bata's class and Jitka (pronounced Yit-ka) Bonušová’s class is that each of these teachers interjects discussion about style just as prominently as they do explaining footwork. Style is not an after thought - it is just as integral to the dance as the steps.

Jitka is the teacher from the Czech Republic - her partner injured himself a few weeks ago, but she came alone and is doing a fabulous job teaching couple dances. It is her third trip to the United States teaching dances of her country. Over dinner one evening, she told me that she also teaches contra dancing at home. She said it is very popular. (So is country line dancing, but she doesn't like that style of dancing.) In a session of "Dances of all Ages", Jitka shared some beginning level dances that she teaches to children. They were so cute. Jitka is anxious that her English is not fluent, but when she is teaching there is NO misunderstanding about what it is she is instructing us to do. I've learned about having a strong presence from watching her teach.

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Selecting dances

The cross over is evolving...

Community Learning Night

Big waves ahead...

We were just working on our mazurka...

Stockton Teachers

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