Easy English Country dances?
Richard Sauvain
Anyone have recommendations for easy dances that work well in such a situation? I will have live music.
Richard
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Name: Richard Sauvain | Xerox Webster Research Center
Email: Sau...@wrc.xerox.com | Mail Stop 128-27E
Phone: (716) 422-3379 | 800 Phillips Road
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Toby Koosman
>I have, with some trepidation, agreed to lead English Country dancing at a
>wedding later this month. Most of the guests will have no country dance
>experience at all, but the bride is English which may help.
>
>Anyone have recommendations for easy dances that work well in such a
>situation? I will have live music.
Our standby for inexperienced dancers has always been Sellinger's Round. Upon
a Summer's Day is suitable also. Dead easy longways dances shouldn't be hard
to come by either. (But stay away from triple time rhythms.) Try Indian
Queen.
Toby Koosman koo...@utkvx.utk.edu
University of Tennessee
Knoxville, Tennessee USA
Dan Pearl
>I have, with some trepidation, agreed to lead English Country dancing...
>Anyone have recommendations for easy dances that work well.
Halfe Hannikin(sp?)
Childgrove
The Wood Duck (Fried Herman) [If they can do an 8-bar waltz]
Zephyrs and Flora
Double Lead Through
Nottingham Swing
Hole in the Wall [an exception to the warning about 3/2 time signature]
Morcambe Bay (Pat Shaw)
Black Nag (may want to simplify it with "Shaw" siding)
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Dan Pearl ** Stratus Computer, Inc. ** pe...@spectacle.sw.stratus.com
Bruce Hamilton
In article <1993Aug3.1...@spectrum.xerox.com> sau...@wrc.xerox.com
(Richard Sauvain) writes:
> Anyone have recommendations for easy dances that work well [at a
> wedding]?
Dan's and Toby's lists are good, though the quick circular hey in Indian
Queen sometimes feels a little threatening to dancers, and the hey-for-3 in
Black Nag can be a tar baby for the caller. I always admired May Gadd's
"Oh, you just weave in and out, you see". Other good dances:
First of April
The Rose Tree
Cumberland Square
Foula Reel
Bonnets So Blue
Progressive Gay Gordons
Friday Night Special (take out the progression)
Circassian Circle
Bruce Hamilton
hami...@hplabs.hp.com
Alan Winston
Juice of Barley
The Dressed Ship
Come, Let's Be Merry (triple time, but no big problem)
Watch out for Black Nag. It can be hard to convey the hey for three to a
completely innocent audience. (If anyone has a fast and effective way to
teach the hey, I'd like to hear about it.)
-- Alan
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Alan Winston --- WIN...@SSRL750.BITNET or WIN...@SSRL01.SLAC.STANFORD.EDU
Disclaimer: I speak only for myself, not SLAC or SSRL Phone: 415/926-3056
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Toby Koosman
>Watch out for Black Nag. It can be hard to convey the hey for three to a
>completely innocent audience. (If anyone has a fast and effective way to
>teach the hey, I'd like to hear about it.)
Depends on how many shills you have handy. We've found you can teach it
fast by getting three knowledgeable dancers to stand behind the three
innocents and steer them by the shoulders.
I'd be reluctant to try Black Nag on a wedding bunch, who aren't there
primarily to learn dancing. For an ordinary green dance crowd it's worth
the trouble to teach--they'll probably have enough fun doing it not to
mind spending the time.
Dan Pearl
>Watch out for Black Nag. It can be hard to convey the hey for three to a
>completely innocent audience.
I'd say the best way to teach this is by demonstration. Maybe the most
bulletproof presentation would be to just walk the figure on the floor
all by yourself and say "you'll be dancing on the track of a large 8 on the
floor."
Then take the place of a #1 dancer, and slowly, guide the others through
the hey. "We start by passing right shoulders. As you loop right to
follow my track, WE [#1 and #3] pass LEFT shoulders at the bottom. You
[#2 and #3] pass right at the top, and WE pass LEFT at the bottom (and so
on). " Use sweeping arm motions to help direct traffic.
"Now let's do it up to speed. Ready, GO! Pass RIGHT at the top and LEFT
at the foot. RIGHT at the top, and LEFT at the foot. RIGHT at the top,
and LEFT at the foot, and we're DONE!"
"Now everyone try it. Top's face down, others face up. Ready to pass
right at the top. Ready, Go! RIGHT at the top, and LEFT at the foot, etc."
Observe and correct the possible problems:
- Turning on a dime instead of looping. "Remember you're on a figure 8 with
b-i-g loops"
- Passing wrong shoulders: "Remember: RIGHT at the TOP and LEFT at the FOOT".
- Backing up: "Just follow your nose!"
Jim Saxe
dances to use at a wedding.
I've only been the main dance leader at one wedding, and my charter
wasn't particularly for ECD, but I recall that "Haste to the Wedding"
worked well.
When I was preparing, I asked around for advice. Here are a couple
tips I got about dancing at weddings that seem worth passing along:
* Remember that inexperienced dancers tend to tire faster than
experienced dancers. This point is particulary important
at weddings, where a fair number of those present may be
a generation or two older than the newlyweds. Run the
dances shorter than you would for an experienced group so that
those who wish will have opportunities to sit down without
disrupting their sets. Don't let the band run away with the
tempos (you said you have live music, but didn't say whether
they were at experienced at playing for ECD). Beware of dances
that call for high-energy movements like slipping or step-hops.
* Enlist the help of the wedding couple in getting people up for
the first dance, so that you don't get stuck with a bunch of
folks who all want to watch the first few dances instead of
dancing (if you can even get their attention at all). At the
wedding I called for we started with the newlyweds leading a
grand march. We snaked through the various areas where people
were socializing, picking up couples as we went, and eventually
lead everyone into a big circle ready to start the first dance.
Another technique would be to start by getting everyone circling
around the wedding couple and then do various easy figures
like cirle left, circle right, forward and back, just the men or
just the ladies forward and back, etc. Eventually you could
include something that gets them into couples (e.g., from
concentric circles of men and women promenading single file in
opposite directions, every gent swing--whatever they think that
means--the nearest lady) and then go into a simple mixer.
I hope this helps.
--Jim Saxe
Meyer Billmers
writes:
>I have, with some trepidation, agreed to lead English Country dancing
at a wedding later this month. Most >of the guests will have no country
dance experience at all, but the bride is English which may help.
>Anyone have recommendations for easy dances that work well in such a
situation? I will have live music.
Well, I'm not all that much of an English dance expert, but here
are a few random ideas.
The first and one of the easiest English dances I ever learned was Hole
in the Wall. Lovely music, and you will have little or no trouble
getting people through it.
Somewhat more interesting but with concommitant challenges for you
might be Bare Necessities, which is nice but the final figure,
a half-gypsy, might be tough to explain, and Jack's Maggot, which
is also easy except for the idea of a hay-for-three.
Good luck, and let us know how it goes.
Richard Wexelblat
: In <1993Aug3.1...@spectrum.xerox.com>, Richard Sauvain
: writes:
The likelyhood of successfully teaching Bare Necessities or anything
with a Hey to an entire room full of beginners is close to Nil and
will probably turn them off to English dancing forever.
--
--Dick Wexelblat (rwexe...@acm.org)
Dan Pearl
>The likelyhood of successfully teaching Bare Necessities or anything
>with a Hey to an entire room full of beginners is close to Nil and
>will probably turn them off to English dancing forever.
I agree that Bare Necessities is likely a little too stylistically-demanding
for beginners to enjoy. I think the hey is another matter.
Once you "get the idea" in a hey for 3, hey for 4, or even "grand square",
it becomes relatively easy. I've taught grand square to groups of newcomers
in about 2 minutes, and they get an enormous feeling of accomplishment
from just walking through the figure! But you, as a dance leader, have to
do some preparation: You need to PLAN your words VERY carefully.
Maybe if you were planning on a hey for 3, you could PREPARE by teaching
a couple of dancers how to do it for a demonstration later on. The hey
is one of those things that can really benefit from a prior demonstration.
Assuming you have prepared the demo people in advance, I'd say you could
teach a hey to a large horde of newcomers in about a minute. And they'd
be thrilled with their own accomplishment.
So I'd do:
Initial demonstration (10 seconds)
Pointed demonstration (15 seconds)
Everyone try in slow motion (20 seconds)
Try again skipping (10 seconds)
I think it's doable, but ONLY if you PREPARE.
Melissa Ynes Shaner
What about Take a Dance?
- Melissa
Kamesh Ramakrishna
a hey-for-3 is to have them do it with hands. It's not clear that
purity pays off when getting random non-dancers to do an English dance,
so if they do it with hands all the time, it should be just peachy.
So the instructions for the top couple might be:
Give right hands to the first person you meet left to the next, turn around
and wait, then give left to the person you meet and right to the next and
turn around to face your partner and heave a sigh of relief.
Cheers,
-- Kamesh
Richard Wexelblat
: Maybe if you were planning on a hey for 3, you could PREPARE by teaching
: a couple of dancers how to do it for a demonstration later on. The hey
: is one of those things that can really benefit from a prior demonstration.
: Assuming you have prepared the demo people in advance, I'd say you could
: teach a hey to a large horde of newcomers in about a minute. And they'd
: be thrilled with their own accomplishment.
: So I'd do:
: Initial demonstration (10 seconds)
: Pointed demonstration (15 seconds)
: Everyone try in slow motion (20 seconds)
: Try again skipping (10 seconds)
: I think it's doable, but ONLY if you PREPARE.
Dan, I agree fully if you're in a dance class or workshop context, but
I stand firm that what you do at a wedding party dance is quite
different from what you ought to try at a dance dance.
--
--Dick Wexelblat (rwexe...@acm.org)
Soon to be elsewhere -- stay tuned for new address.
John Chambers
> In article <23qprl...@dmsoproto.ida.org> r...@ida.org (Richard Wexelblat) writes:
> >The likelyhood of successfully teaching Bare Necessities or anything
> >with a Hey to an entire room full of beginners is close to Nil and
> >will probably turn them off to English dancing forever.
>
> I agree that Bare Necessities is likely a little too stylistically-demanding
> for beginners to enjoy. I think the hey is another matter.
>
>
> I think it's doable, but ONLY if you PREPARE.
There's one thing that I've seen a few callers do that seems to help a
lot in solving one of the two basic problems that beginners have with
a hey/reel. This is the problem of the novice who zips around the turn
and dashes across the middle of the "8" without waiting for the others
to get into place. When this happens, some callers will emphasize that
you shouldn't cross through the middle until there are two people
there to pass *between*. It's pretty impressive to see how quickly
this gets things going.
Then there's the other problem of the novice who turns the wrong way
at the top of the "8" and heads off into another set. So far, I
haven't seen any reliable way to fix this one. (If they think an "8"
has 3 or 4 loops, it's probably hopeless, and you should maybe go on
to another dance. ;-)
--
If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure.
-- Dan Quayle
David Pritchard
>Then there's the other problem of the novice who turns the wrong way
>at the top of the "8" and heads off into another set. So far, I
>haven't seen any reliable way to fix this one. (If they think an "8"
>has 3 or 4 loops, it's probably hopeless, and you should maybe go on
>to another dance. ;-)
Heys involving N people have N-1 loops. Some dancers, particularly
those from the US, insist on throwing twirls into it - giving N+1
(or more) loops. This is one way to kill beginners stone dead.
A local caller (who usually aims his calling at the lowest common
denominator) insists on calling a hey a figure-8. This kills the
experts who know that a figure-8 is something different.
When dancing with beginners I tend to make my loops LARGE, then whichever
way they try to go I still miss them on the correct side.
--
Dr David J. Pritchard
Electronics and Computer Science tel (+44 703) 592722
University of Southampton fax (+44 703) 593045
Southampton SO9 5NH