Beginning Classes Yet Again
Abo...@aol.com
From: abo...@aol.com
From: abo...@aol.com
Re: Beginning Contra Classes
Date: 7/26/94
Date: 7/26/94
I've read with interest the discussion of beginning classes for new
contra dancers. Here is the
New Mexico version. In the fall of 1992 I convinced our Albuquerque morning
paper to do a feature
article on the New Mexico Folk Music and Dance Society and contra dancing.
They did it up right!
Full front page feature, color photos, good interviews. The article also
mentioned a six-week series of
classes in beginning contra dance offered by me and Donna Bauer once a week
($15 for members, $20
for nonmembers) starting a few weeks hence.
Response was OVERWHELMING! Probably forty students were lined up
around the building
to get into the class; others had already pre-registered. We had enough
money to have live music for
the last five classes, and we used "angels" (experienced dancers) who got in
free as teachers' aides.
We had over 70 students and a dozen angels.
We covered a few moves each week (learning to balance by having a big
circle and basically
doing the can-can to get the rhythm, etc.), would then do 4 or so dances
using the moves, then would
go eat cheap food nearby afterwards. It became a "hump week" activity, held
on Wed. eve from 5:45
til 7:15 pm. Almost everyone who took the class and served as angels had a
blast AND the
attendance at our twice-monthly dances almost doubled.
So I certainly favor beginning classes done with thought, styling,
enthusiasm. The new
dancers loved the stress-free environment and opportunity to dance and learn.
The angels loved
helping new people learn more quickly and the opportunity to dance for free
each week. We had
numerous complain that they missed the classes after they ended. I think it
was a win-win situation
for all, strengthening our overall dance community. We are tentatively
planning another series the
winter of 1995 (if the Albuquerque Dance Committee approves it).
Merri Rudd, Albuquerque caller and dancer