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Back in 1944, when I was 15, a teen club
was started in my home town of Uncasville, CT. There was a square dance caller who had an auction barn, and
was also an auctioneer. A ballroom
dance teacher taught us waltz, polka, and fox trot. In my senior year of high school, my mother pushed me into
taking a teen dance class in Norwich CT consisting of ballroom & square
dancing.
So when I next became a freshman in
Engineering at Univ. of CT in 1946, I joined the Univ. 4-H club under state 4-H
leader Warren Schmidt. I joined
purely because they featured square dance lessons after their meetings (which I
skipped). After all, U-Conn had
started out as an agricultural college.
The state 4-H organization sponsored a state 4-H square dance festival
with callers from all of CT, who submitted in advance their calls written out
so all the 4-H kids in CT could practice them before the festival, which was on
the football field, all marked out with lime in 12-ft squares. All live music, of course.
And it was ALL singing squares. Some visiting couple dances, but many
dances were more active for more people, adapted from the old Quadrilles. Everyone knew how to do the buzz-step
swing, and many swings were longer than 8 beats. At the public dances, nothing was taught: the callers were not good at
teaching. You just dove in and
scrambled around until you “got it”.
Even then, at a dance, the management often told the caller “Don’t do so much teaching! We didn’t
come here to LEARN to dance: we
came here to DANCE!
As soon as I could drive the family car,
a 1929 dodge, I tried to find as many of the regular dances as possible. There was one almost every Friday and
Saturday night at fire houses, Granges, schools, town halls, almost all of them
doing singing squares alternating with ballroom dances. LOTS of teen-agers, but most of the
dances had plenty of older people too, who helped maintain decorum.
I always carried a pocket notebook, to
write down the calls, rewrite them at home, and practice to my own
accompaniment on the piano.
There were no contras being done in any
of CT or RI with one exception: I
got to the public hall in Hadlyme early one night, and there were about 6 older
couples dancing “Opera Reel”. I
knew what it was, but I had only seen it before in a book by Elizabeth
Burchenal, a folk dance leader in NYC, who wrote many books about folk dancing,
and this one was from around 1920, describing contra dancing in one of the
small hill towns of Western MA.
I asked around and found that by then,
(the late ‘40’s) contra dancing was completely dead in RI & CT, except for
this small private group.
Soon I was itching to call to live
people, and one night I went to the Grange Hall in Ekonk, CT (2 chicken farms,
two houses, one grange Hall) where my car-pool buddy told the caller that I
could call, so they ganged up on me and I had to call a tip of 3 singing
squares. Of course, my dances were
from another area, 70 miles away, and different from what the crowd was used
to, but with the same basics, of course, so it turned out OK, although they
weren’t used to doing walk-thru’s.
Later I was asked to teach some teens at
the Lisbon Grange, near Jewett City, so I had to join the Grange. I cobbled up a variable speed turntable
so I could use records, and taught them most everything I knew.
Eventually I ranged as far as
Brattleboro, Keene, and Chesterfield, NH to search for more material, and
discovered contra dancing there. I
got to know Ralph Page, who, though I didn’t know it at the time, had been
spreading contra dancing in New Hampshire and the Boston area, through his
Tuesday night dances at the Boston YWCA, since about 1934, and also to New York
City, California, and even Japan!
Later, I got to call at the U-Conn
festival, and around 1949-50, Al Brundage, who had just started the Hartford
MWSD club, brought an exhibition set or two to show us what MWSD was all
about. They had bright costumes,
lots of “skirt work”, and put on a spectacular performance of flashy dances
such as “Triple Duck”, “Chain the Ladies Through the Star” and “Two Stars in
the Night”. I was just blown away
by this, but Hartford was a LONG ways from home with the narrow roads of that
time.
At the other extreme, one night I visited
Wildwood Park in Dayville, CT, a roller rink on the edge of a lake, where a
caller named Earl Johnston was calling a lively dance to at least 150
teen-agers, with a band led by Ernie Rock: The “Band that Swings the Squares”. Examples: Mañana, Polly Wolly Doodle (La La La), the Jitterbug
Square. These same dances were
being done all over CT, along the CT river, at least up to Vernon, VT.
In 1949 or so, when the Korean “police
action” came around, my mother talked me and my brother into joining the
National Guard so we wouldn’t be drafted.
As it turned out, our unit was activated, and we went to Georgia where I
discovered “Big Circle Dancing”, also known as “Appalachian Running Sets” which the natives called “square
dancing”. (descr Big C.Dancing, visiting cpls)
I hitch-hiked all over Georgia to find it
– asking in stores and on the street, about where any square dancing
could be found. The usual answer
was “Not for YEARS” – not since my Grandfather’s time” but there was
often one taking place every Saturday night in that same town. This would still happen today if you
walked around any North American city!
Then in early 1951, I was sent to Ft
Bliss TX, in El Paso, to Master Gunner School. I soon found out that this was a SQUARE DANCE PARADISE
!!
There was Early Modern Western Square
Dancing 3 nights per week somewhere on the base, dances in town, and also at
the “Square Dance Ranch”, a hall built just for square dancing out on the
highway with callers Harold Newsom and Louie Ratliff. They had women without partners who wanted to take the
classes, and fixed me up with an older partner – but with a car! –
who would pick me up and bring me home, and I took the 6 lessons, and the 6
more optional, where we learned Texas Star, Sally Goodin, San Antonio Rose, The
Jessie Polka, Put your Little Foot, all to live music. We learned basics, of course, but in
order to do the DANCES, not as an end in themselves. This was when “Catch all 8” & “Box the Gnat” were
actually DANCES, rather than BASICS.
I also got to visit Herb Greggerson’s
dance barn, went to one of his SQD weekends in Ruidoso NM, learned some round
dancing. Bob Osgood of Sets In
Order magazine came to one of the festivals, and I got to call a square at one
in NM which was broadcast on radio.
Passes from the post were easy – we only had to sign out, and
later, back in.
One time I tried to see how many nights
in a row I could go dancing, and went for 13 nights in a row when along came a
Sunday when there was no dance.
Meanwhile, my unit was sent to Ft Banks,
in Winthrop, MA to protect Boston from the North Korean Bombers with our
anti-aircraft guns. We had 4
batteries posted around Boston, but we could still go out any night we wanted. So I got a different kind of dance
education: I studied every type of
dancing related to American Square & Contra Dancing. Scottish Country Dancing on Monday
nights, Square and Contra with Ralph Page at the Boston YWCA on Tues, the same
with Charlie Baldwin (original editor of “The New England Caller” magazine),
English Country Dancing, and Irish Ceili Dancing. Then home most weekends, danced and met my first wife at a
SQD, of course.
Back home in the summer of 1952, I was
asked to teach MWSD for a folk dance group who met at the home of the famous
puppeteer Rufus Rose, the creator of “Howdy Doody”. I never got to see Howdy Doody himself, but his “father”
Rufus Rose, was in NYC all week doing the show, while his wife stayed home in
Waterford (near New London) holding folk dance sessions at their home. The classes moved to the Mitchell
College Gym in New London and I was a junior in engineering by then on campus
in Storrs, at Univ of CT. Quite a
drive. I drove every Tues night to
Hartford to take Al Brundage’s beginner class (I had also saved all the notes
from my Texas classes), then taught the same lessons the next night in New
London where the class eventually
formed the Community Square Dance Club, where we did MWSD, some Traditional,
and some Contras too.
And my Professor couldn’t figure out why
I fell asleep in his class. In the midst of all this, I got married, and moved
out of the dorm into an apartment in Willimantic.
In 1954 I graduated from Univ of CT and
moved to Windsor Locks to work at Hamilton Standard as a development test
engineer. WLKS is half way between
Hartford and Springfield, MA. All
this time, MWSD had been growing like crazy in both areas,, but faster in the
Springfield area, with Al Brundage leading it in the Hartford Area, and his
brother, Bob, in the Springfield Area.
We danced at the Hartford SQD club a few
times, and decided to see what was going on in the Springfield Area.
Our first trip was to the Wilbraham SD
club, one of Bob’s first clubs. We
got there about 7:40 PM. The
parking lot was FULL. We walked
into the hall , a large school Gym, and the place was packed with people
already forming squares even though the dance wouldn’t start for another 15
minutes. We found there were
already many active clubs in the area, all off-shoots of Bob’s original club,
and Bob was leaving his job at U-Mass around that time to go back to South
Western CT. His classes were being
taken over by other newer callers, notably Willie Jenkins, who continued
teaching classes for many years for many clubs.
I was soon asked to start classes for the
Enfield CT Lions club which became the Enfield Square Dance Club, and I started
looking for a barn to convert for dancing, like the Bay Path Barn, or Al
Brundage’s barn, or Howard Hogue’s “Square Acres” in East Bridgewater, MA. I found an abandoned horse barn
formerly belonging to the Hazard Powder Company in Hazardville (part of
Enfield). Every window was broken, even window frames, the roof leaked like a
sieve, and between June and October of 1959, with the help of members of my
Enfield SQD club, and other clubs too, we had our first dance there in the fall
of ’59. Later I sold my house and
moved into an apartment upstairs in the barn. The Enfield club met there, and soon I had their classes,
other classes of my own besides, and two new clubs formed, the Powder Mill
Puffers and the Powder Keg Squares.
(They were a “PhD” level club – I was the first to award a “PhD”
degree to square dancers!).
Some time before, Al Brundage had formed
the CT Callers’ Assn (of which I eventually became VP, then President). Earl
Johnston had joined the CT Assn. to learn how to do MWSD, and by then was
calling full time. He had the West
Springfield, Chicopee, Manchester CT, and Vernon CT clubs. I was also teaching lessons for
sometimes four other clubs, and guest calling at others.
This growth continued without letting up
until in 1965, there were 65 active clubs and 45 callers on the Springfield
area calendar, and perhaps 40 on the Hartford calendar, which included all of
CT.
Earl Johnston called a meeting at my barn
to form the Springfield Area Callers Assn mainly for the purpose of trying to
get us all to switch from the “up-hand” or “arm-wrestling” grip to the forearm
grip. People from his clubs,
coming back from dances in CA, the National SQD convention, etc, were INSISTING
that we change. Big
Controversy. Some clubs even
folded because of this. Somewhat connected to this was the “Men with hairy,
sweaty arms” problem which was worse with the forearm grip. So a national law was passed that no
matter how hot it was, all men had to always wear long-sleeved shirts. We did
adopt the forearm grip, but the
traditional square and contra dancers still use the old hand-grip.
Lessons had increased over that period,
1950 – 1965, from 6+6, to 12, to 14, then to 21, and 30, then to 30 + 10
more workshops to try to prepare people to be able to dance in their own
clubs. There were HUGE beginner
classes. One caller remarked at
the callers’ meeting that he had told his club (Holyoke) “Don’t even call me
unless you have at least 10 squares of beginners signed up”. I ran the very first SUNDAY night class
(blue laws in MA at the time didn’t allow that) and got 20 squares of
beginners!
But in the fall of 1965, things were
beginning to happen to this wonderful movement. I was calling to about 24 squares in Pittsfield one night,
and suddenly noticed that in that whole crowd, there were only about 3 couples
who were around 40 or younger! The
rest seemed to be in their sixties.
Not a BAD thing, but unsettling.
What was going to happen if this kept up? One caller , just back from a tour out west, was reported to
have said at his dance, after about half the crowd had walked out at
intermission “Now that the OLD folks have gone home, maybe we can do some REAL
dancing!!”. That fall, a drop in
attendance was noted, and beginners were getting harder to find. Some clubs started combining to get
even one or two squares together.
At one club, which was barely making it already, they had a 5-minute
election of club officers before the dance. The president’s acceptance speech was, “I don’t mind taking
this job, because there’s nothing to do anyway! No work involved!”
In 1966, seeing the problem getting
worse, I wrote a book, “Let’s Create Old Tyme Square Dancing” offering a 12
lesson course and a program of lower level dancing. Then in 1969, Bob Osgood, voicing the same concerns, came
out with “The Basic Program of
American Square Dancing” which had much the same ideas, using 50 basics.
Much later, in 1986, Callerlab, mentioning the very same problems that
Bob Osgood had noticed in 1969, developed the Community Dance Program (CDP) with 24 basics,
and 6 to 8 lessons. The CDP
program is now in the hands of a
committee headed by Cal Campbell.
But none of these solutions have even been taken seriously by the clubs
nor the callers. Both were only
interested in the newer basics and how to lift the level to what was being done
in the MWSD clubs. Many couldn’t
even see that there WAS a problem, because the larger clubs were doing OK.
By 1974, attendance had continued to
drop,. and it was getting harder for just ONE club to get a class together
without combining with other clubs.
However, in the greater New England area, it was still on the upswing
until perhaps the mid- eighties.
I started exploring contra dancing from New Haven to Norwich, VT, and in
the Boston Area and found that there was a revival going on. In many places, under Ralph Page’s
influence in the New Hampshire and
Boston Area, with “regular” people ,but in other areas, such as New
Hampshire. CT, the CT River
Valley (know as the “Pioneer
Valley” in MA) and also the Boston
area, influenced by Dudley Laufman, and helped by the hippie and Folk Music
fad, attracting younger folks with no shoes, no bras, no using deodorant, tank
tops, extreme casual dress - but people learning by doing, and having a
BALL! My Enfield MWSD Club had
moved out of my barn to a local school where they continued to decline. My Powder Mill Puffers, Powder Keg
Squares and the Teen club had folded.
I was let go by 3 clubs whose classes I had taught for a long time
because I wasn’t putting enough pressure on the beginners to learn all the
latest new basics that they had to know to dance with their clubs. I was wasting valuable time with fun singing
squares and sometimes even tried to teach them a contra during class time. As a club caller, too, I was not as
enthusiastic about the new “basics” as I should have been. I remember when “Load the Boat” came
out - I really didn’t want to hear about it when my dancers came back to tell
me about it!
So it was impossible to get any of the
club dancers interested in Contra dancing, as it had been with the traditional
square dancers years before.
We were all – my kids and I –
active in Fifing and Drumming – always popular in CT – and I was a
fife teacher in the Nathan Hale Fifes & Drums. We did Rev. War re-enactments, mock battles, overnight Rev.
war style camping in authentic uniforms, playing authentic tunes of the
period. Someone found that in Revolutionary
times –the late 1700’s
– they did a lot of dancing.
Everywhere George Washington went it seemed they would throw a Ball in
his honor. There were actual
records of which dances they did with directions hidden in the archives of many
large libraries. The Boston Public
Library was one of them. We
decided to form a dance demonstration group with costumes, who could dance and
demonstrate these dances at the coming bicentennial celebrations of 1976. With the research of two mature ladies
of the corps, who were able to access these old records where the ordinary
library client wouldn’t even be
allowed in the room with them, we produced a book “24 American Country Dances
of the Revolutionary Era” named after yearly editions of similar books published
in England all during the 1700’s.
These form the documented
history of American Square and Contra Dancing.
From this beginning, I was able to form a
band, “The Fifer’s Delight”, with my son playing fife & flute, my playing
accordion and calling, a fiddler, and a piano player whom I had taught. Along
with that, “Country Dance in CT” was formed, which today sponsors the “NOMAD”
festival, and dances were started in Northampton, South Amherst, (by Dudley
Laufman, who was responsible for much of the modern contra dance revival) there
were soon weekly dances in Hartford, one every Sat. night in South Amherst,
twice monthly at my barn. I had
left engineering in 1961 to try to make a living calling dances, but had turned
to teaching high school physics two years later, for financial reasons. I also started making fifes and flutes
as a hobby, which eventually turned into a full time job.
Since then, contra dancing has grown
steadily, especially in the Boston area, then spreading out to all of the USA
including AK and HI. We are
supported by two main organizations namely, NEFFA ( the New England Folk
Festival Assn) and the American Version of the CDSS (Country Dance & Song
Society) which has members everywhere in Canada, the U K , Denmark, Belgium, Holland, (all doing American Style Contra
Dancing to calls in English!)
England, the USA, an international directory of groups with contacts so
that you can find contra dancing in every major city, in every state, and even overseas..
These days, I’m calling what could be
called a “Community Dance Program” but is really just a continuation of the
traditional program which has been going on all along, “underground” as far as
the MWSD people know, once a month in Goshen, MA (check schedule) doing guest
calling at various contra dance groups, a few one-night-stands, and reviving
the dances at my own barn in Hazardville, CT. The next dance there , and in Goshen MA, will be in October. I have a new CD out with 12 of my
favorite singing squares and usually give calling workshops at the Dance Flurry
Festival, and get to call at the Falcon Ridge Festival in July. In between calling jobs, I dance almost
every Friday and Saturday nights at the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA,
where the crowd is about 25 years younger, on average, than the more laid-back
Boston crowd, and just FULL of enthusiasm. Now the Boston area too has a large teen-age attendance at
the Cambridge Thursday night dance.
. Some high school age,
more college age, lots of 20 – 30 year olds, and everything up to age
80. Attendance is increasing
steadily. I hope you can visit
this scene sometime!!
A “thinning out of motivation to
recruit”? Most of the clubs
especially at first, were formed by existing groups of some type, such as
church couples’ clubs, PTA’s, Service Organizations, Lions” clubs. A group of people who somehow were
motivated to sponsor a beginner class as a fund-raising project for their
organization. They had the
leverage to convince other members, most of whom they knew personally already,
that they owed it to their organization to come to the class to support this
new fund-raising project, to have some fun with people of their own type, and
to recruit outsiders to help too. By say the next year, after a club had been
formed, it was time to recruit another class. But almost everyone in the
original organization had already tried to recruit everyone they knew, so it
was up to the “second generation” to start recruiting all THEIR friends. Each year, the newer dancers were
farther apart from the core group, acquaintance wise and in loyalty to the
groups original purpose. Also, a
lot of them were taking the dancing for granted. Maybe they didn’t NEED a new class – they were having
enough fun already. People in the
whole area, by 1965, who would be able and open for square dancing had largely
been already recruited.
It was rather exclusive. You had to be
married (singles clubs came later), or at least come as a couple, white, of a
certain age, not tied down with small kids, and sign up for many weeks of
lessons.
Many people had so much fun that they
went dancing 2, 3, even 5 times per week!
Naturally, these were the couples who knew the most about dancing, they
were the club workers, so they naturally became the club officers, who hired
the callers. They were also the
ones who got tired of doing the same old dances, in the same old way. The ones
who got really excited when a visiting caller taught them a new “basic”, like
“square thru” which was a good one,
VERY useful - and “Load the Boat”, which I think was maybe the start of
going too far with what you might call a “WOWIE!!” basic. So the callers had to
keep those “3 sets in the front row” happy - mostly with brand-new calls which
became basics – and they also had to impress folks at the other clubs
where they guest-called. Lots of
callers’ note services helped this process to escalate.
Neither the club officers nor the callers
cared too much about the “three sets in the back row” who couldn’t keep up, or
the twice-a-month club dancers who missed all the new calls (“Now that the old
folks have gone home, maybe we can do some REAL dancing!”) Callers could not be allowed to waste
precious class time with fun stuff.
Bear Down! Bring them up to
Club Level! Drill! Drill! Drill!. But by
the time the lessons were over, many new basics had already been added, so the
class STILL wasn’t ready! OK, so
increase the number of lessons to 21, 30, 35, and add 10 summer workshops. THEN you’ll be ready to dance with us
in the Fall! (about a year from
when they started!). But even then,
club members were not patient with the people who couldn’t keep up. Attitude of many club members was “If I
didn’t learn at least one exciting, new basic, I didn’t have fun at that
dance!” Of course, that new basic
usually became part of the repertoire of basic calls that every club dancer had
to know.
Over the past 15 years (1950 –
1965) the “drop-outs” had increased in number, so that by 1965, there was quite
a large “reservoir” of them in the area.
A number larger than the total of people actually dancing. Few noticed or were concerned, because
they were having so much fun. The
whole theme of the dancing was the CHALLENGE. If I’m not being CHALLENGED, it’s
no fun!
SURVEY: IN 1966, I took a survey of the results of several different
classes. At the classes, there
were few drop-outs. But at the
first real club dance after they graduated, only about 50% of them would show up. Less as time went on until after a
whole year, most classes would have only 10% of the graduates still
dancing. The other 90% perhaps
couldn’t dance frequently enough to keep up, and if they tried to dance less
frequently, or took time off for good reasons, they couldn’t come back without
a refresher course.
But most people thought that things
couldn’t be better: with LOTS of clubs to choose from on weekend nights, less
on Thursday down to two on Sundays.
The Springfield area calendar coordinators estimated that counting all
the club members on the books in the calendar area, there were 10,000 dancers
in the clubs. By multiplying the
number of clubs by the average attendance, there seemed to be about 4,000 people
dancing regularly. BUT, to get this
many elite dancers who could keep up with all the calls, an estimated 30,000
people had been taught in the classes over that 15 years. WHAT were those 24,000 drop-outs doing?
They weren’t doing the traditional square
dancing (EASTERN style – POOEY!).
Not contras (this was before the modern
revival). Most had been “soured”
on the whole MWSD picture. Too
complex, too expensive (the costumes).
You had to keep dancing twice a week to keep up. They had been treated badly by the
“elite’ dancer. BUT THEY WERE
GREATER IN NUMBER THAN THE PEOPLE STILL DANCING ! They were all over the area. Do you think they were “spreading the good word” about how
much fun MWSD was? I don’t think
so!
Furthermore, many had been taught that
the only fun in MWSD was the CHALLENGE, the excitement of CHALLENGE, in the
form of new basics, ever more complicated variations of the old basics. So they were not only not dancing, but
spreading negative thoughts about SQD in general! Most of the traditional dances in the area had died by then,
and MWSD was the only form of SQD that they knew.
Club dancers and callers had never
encouraged their dancers to visit any of it while it was still alive –
they were afraid they might lose them – so it was MWSD or nothing. They chose nothing. 24,000 of them!! And it’s even worse today in 2005 than
it was in 1965. Those 65 clubs in
the Springfield area have dwindled to SEVEN! In CT, those 40 dwindled to 27 (but this does include the
whole state).
We need to give those 24,000 drop-outs (that number must be a
lot higher now in 2005 than in 1965) to give them a place to still dance, but
at an easier level, and attend as often or seldom as they are able, thus
maintaining a pool of people with a positive attitude toward square dancing in
general.
That’s why I wrote my book “Let’s Create
Old Tyme Square Dancing”, why Bob Osgood tried to introduce “The Basic Program
of American Square Dancing”, why Callerlab developed the CDP – Community
Dance Program –still supported by a Callerlab committee headed by Cal
Campbell. Cal’s new book “Dancing
for Busy People” now proposes .a further development, and recommends 3 or 4 lessons, or less, and
provides a tremendous amount of material for a more fun-oriented community
program which Cal has found really works.
I recommend this book highly:
it contains a LOT of material any caller could use for parties and
community dances.
TODAY, there are two ideas better than
the Community Square Dance Program with its 12 to 20, or so lessons. ONE is the new “ABC Method of Marketing
Square Dancing” program from the Rio Grande Valley Callers’ Assn, and the other
one is Contra Dancing, now going, and growing in full swing all around your own
areas!!
We will next talk about the modern contra
dance revival but first, a .
DANCE DEMO
BREAK HERE: SQUARES:
SOLOMON LEVI (Nelly Bly) SALLY GOODIN – THE AUCTIONEER
Square dance at Ralph Sweet's Powdermill barn on his 80th birthday... 5/17/09
THE MODERN CONTRA DANCE
REVIVAL
The earliest form of both square and
contra dancing was found in a book called, The English Dancing Master,
published in 1651 by Playford. The book contained music and directions
for MANY dances we would today recognize as early forms of contra and square
dancing. New editions came out
every few years until 1728, when each year until the late 1700’s, two different
books from two different publishers were issued, each one containing music and
directions for “24 Favorite Country Dances of the year 1729, 1730, etc. Even the first one in 1651 had so many
dances so well described that it was obvious that this type of dancing must
have been going on for perhaps generations.
Then centering around the year 1900,
Cecil Sharp in England revived these dances and started a movement in England
which resulted in the formation of the CDSS: (Country Dance and Song Society). In 1915 a branch was started in the Boston area, and soon
there were other branches in NYC and elsewhere. They promoted folk songs of England, English country
Dancing, Morris Dancing, and American Square and Contra Dancing.
[9/21/05:
Colin Hume says the organization
was "The English Folk Dance Society". Later the American branches became CDSSA ("The Country
Dance and Song Society of America") and some years ago they dropped
"of America".]
The American CDSS is today a separate
organization, stronger than ever. It promotes contra dancing across the USA,
has a National directory with contact information so you can dance contra
everywhere in the US, Canada, and many other countries. Headquarters is in Haydenville, MA. They are an excellent source of books
and recordings on Contra Dancing.
Contra had been growing in the Boston area under Ralph Page’s influence,
and in the 1970’s and 80’s, it practically exploded among the Folk music crowd
under the influence of Dudley Laufman, and his Canterbury Orchestra. Dudley is still active with school and
community programs in New Hampshire and across the USA.
I’d like to mention that this is not
exactly the same type of contra dancing that is promoted by the “American Dance
Circle” of the Lloyd Shaw Foundation.
They call us the “grass roots” contra dance movement, and it is OUR
movement, mostly emanating from the Boston, New Hampshire, and Pioneer Valley
areas, that has spread all over the country, and attracted so many young
people.
Don’t expect yourself or your club
dancers to fall in love with contra dancing until you have explored several of
the dance venues, found one you like, and have gone there at least 3
times! Here is an example of the
reaction of the average club dancer if they show up at a contra dance:
I would be calling a contra dance at my
Powder Mill Barn, with my own band, The Fifers’ Delight. We might have 3 lines of people of all
ages reaching the back of the hall, everyone dancing to the phrasing of the
music, in casual clothes.
I would notice them when they came in
– way overdressed with Western outfits for the men, those
multi-petticoated skirts that MWSD women wear, which the young people have
commented on – they think it makes them look like upside-down cupcakes. Many times they would come up and tell
me what club they were from, and that they thought it might be fun to try
contra dancing. That was good - of
course they would know all the basics – we only use about 15 of the
traditional basics – although a few other than traditional basics are
done today, a couple of them borrowed from MWSD.
But it was obvious that any tendency to
dance to the phrasing of the music had been beaten out of them,- - if they had
ever had it. They would complete a
ladies chain in about 4 beats of music, and look up toward me as if to say
“Well? Why aren’t you calling the next move?” while my dancers were filling out
the full 8 beats to fit the music, so that everyone in the hall was perfectly
synchronized, doing the same figures at the same time. Then there are many swings in contra
dancing where they swing two,-- even three times around, and they had been
trained to NEVER swing more than ONCE around! (And many hadn’t even been taught
the buzz-step swing by their teacher-callers. In fact, many of those callers couldn’t even do it
themselves!).
Then afterward they often would come up
to say they had to leave, and would almost always offer the same three
comments:
BUT, it’s SO REPETITIVE!!
BUT, there’s SO MUCH SWINGING!
And also BUT, THERE’S SO MANY YOUNG
PEOPLE!! They had completely
missed everything we find great fun about contra dancing!
So if it’s not challenging, if it only
uses 15 basics, what IS THERE about contra dancing that is attracting all those
young people? How can anyone with
any intelligence whatsoever enjoy dancing without being challenged?? (Often actually heard from proponents
of MWSD)
There are a LOT of things about contra
dancing that makes it attractive and enjoyable.
PHRASING WITH THE MUSIC: Everyone in the hall is doing the same figures at the same
time, synchronized with the parts of the tunes, which all have 64 beats of
music. (everything is broken into
“elements” - each basic call takes 8 steps to complete, just as the tunes have
“elements “ of 8 musical beats which are easily heard, and guide the dancers to
keep them all together, and finishing together. It’s actually spell-binding. Beginners can often pick this
up their first night. It results
in a great community feeling throughout the whole room!
MUSIC:
Always live music. Contra
dance musicians today are much better qualified than the ones I used to hear at
the traditional dances 40 years ago – many of them are accomplished at
.modern, swing and jazz and improvisation, making the dancers sometimes feel as
though they are floating along a few inches above the floor! Often when the band changes tunes, or
keys, or pulls some musical trick, the dancers will give out a hearty CHEER all
while dancing along.
FLOW:
Dances are composed to make one figure flow smoothly into another - - as
used to be the case even with MWSD in the early days. Dancers notice when there are awkward transitions, and if
the evening has a lot of them, you- - the caller - will hear about it!
COMMUNITY - NEW PEOPLE: One sequence of the dance lasts only about 30 seconds, using
6 – 8 basic calls, but then you are meeting and dancing with a different
couple. Also it’s customary NOT to
dance with the same partner each time.
Contra gives you a chance to meet perhaps 20 different candidates in a row
for your next dance with a new partner!
This results in married people dancing with single people, old folks
dancing with teens and college students.
OR you CAN stick with the same partner all night, but as one new young
lady dancer from Japan remarked one night to me “but that would be
BORING!!” Most contra dancers
would agree! This is how we
welcome and absorb new people all the time! You can bring a new non-dancer to ANY contra dance at any
time of year! No waiting for
lessons! The experienced dancers
EXPECT to see and welcome new people!
LEARNING A DANCE: Most dancers do not remember a dance
by its name, but the caller will walk through each dance from one to three
times (3 times is rare) depending on the ability of that group of dancers. Then he will call it perhaps 3 times
through, and expect everyone to have learned it. Of course, he will call it more times if he sees that new
folks are having trouble. Usually
all the dancers have it down by then, and can continue dancing synchronized with
the music, completely on their own,
because they are dancing to the phrasing of the music, NOT the caller. . The caller can plan his next dance, get
a drink (non-alcoholic!) play an instrument, or go down on the floor to help a
group who might be in difficulty.
But the experienced dancers take care of most of that.
INTERJECTION:
Most dancers, maybe ALL, LIKE to be on their own. No calls, just “zone out”- listen to
the music, or greet other people as they dance. It gives them a feeling of “ownership” of the dancing. They
NEVER have heard a caller yell at them “DON’T ANTICIPATE!” This would be like
slapping them in the face – as I’d bet some of the MWSD dancers also
feel!. Even in MWSD, we used to
teach that the caller should observe the natural pace of the dancers as they
did the figures, and stay one call ahead of them, to achieve FLOW. Not like today, where the dancers are
supposed to hold back until the caller gives the word, resulting in a stop, start,
stop, you can go now, wait, start again, type of dancing. THIS HAS NO FLOW!! Here’s a little story to illustrate how
much the dancers love this “ownership of a dance” thing, AND the “FLOW” thing: One night at the Guiding Star Grange,
David Kaynor, who really started this whole wildly successful thing in
Greenfield, had walked us through a dance twice, then called it twice through
and tried to call it thru a third time, but he must have been distracted,
because that time (the dancers had done it through 4 times by then, 2 walk
thru’s, and two dance-thru’s),
that third time David slipped a cog and called not only something
completely different from what the dancers had just done, but included a couple
of figures really not in that dance, which did not flow and could only be done
quite awkwardly. Suddenly, the
whole crowd stopped dancing, and in one loud voice , yelled “NOOOOOOO,
DAVID! And everybody burst out
laughing. My first thought was “
WOW! This could NEVER happen in MWSD! There, the caller is a GOD! Always Right!
CONNECTING BY TALKING: The dancers can TALK while dancing (with a little
experience). You can carry on a
complete conversation with your partner (interrupted often, of course), greet
each new person you meet, put a new beginner at ease with an encouraging
remark. Of course this can be carried too far: Callers who call in Greenfield have to get used to the
dancers talking during the walk thrus.
In the Boston area, though, the moment the caller opens his or her
mouth, it’s gets so quiet you could hear a pin drop! The first time I called at the Cambridge VFW Thursday night
dance, I found it scary – I wondered “Did I say something wrong, or
what? But they were just waiting
for me to start the walk-thru.
Callers from the Boston area, when they call in Greenfield, find it
annoying to hear the dancers not pay attention, and talk during the
walk-thru’s. They are used to much
more obedient dancers. One of the
first times when Lisa Greenleaf – perhaps the top contra dance caller in
the USA, (also a MWSD dancer!) came to Greenfield, they were talking, and
fortunately she was able to keep her cool and not offend them when she
announced “Did you people come here to talk, or to dance?” One guy yelled up from the back of the
hall, “BOTH!!”. Lisa came right
back with “THAT’S GOOD!!” We
dancers love it when she calls there - -
ACTIVITY:
contra dancing has become much more active and exciting over the past 30
years. Unlike the old dances where
some people were less active than others (we had the “active couples” vs. the
“inactive couples”). We now call
them the “Ones “ and the “Twos”.
Today almost everyone is fully active most of the time. It’s very AEROBIC. Young people love this!
LESSONS:
No Lessons! Anyone can walk
in off the street and join in!
Some of the dance series have a half hour workshop before the dance,
which helps if the people who need it will show up early for it. But at most of the dances, the callers
start with the easiest dances, with more instruction, teaching basics only when
needed for that particular dance, meanwhile observing how much trouble any new
beginners might be having, and planning the early part of his program
accordingly.
All these things are what
contra dancers find enjoyable.
Quite a different sort of fun than the MWSD dancers get out of their
stop-and-go challenge dancing. That might be called “mental aerobics set to
music” whereas contra dancing is
more physical aerobics and personal connections and interactions. That is why
we are getting so many new, young dancers. Our philosophy is to make it simple enough so that new
people can be absorbed and have fun their first night without having to sign up
for a series of lessons. At the
same time, make it varied and interesting enough to keep the experienced
dancers entertained. Make up new
dances using EXISTING basics, not by inventing NEW basics. Although new basics
HAVE been added over the years:
The Gypsy, the Hey, Butterfly Whirl, Pass the Ocean, etc – but if
there IS a new basic, it is taught as part of that particular dance then and
there. We change partners
often. This lets the beginners
adopt the styling of the more experienced, but dance with one of their own age
group for another dance. These are
the reasons contra is fun, even if it DOES have a lot of swinging, repeats the
same figures through each time, has new beginners each time, has so many YOUNG
people, and does not feature challenge!
What we need is to recreate that bottom
layer of MANY people, dancing either regularly, or occasionally at an easier
level where new people can join in just for one night, many nights, many years,
drop out & come back without having to take a workshop and bring their
friends. This situation existed
for MANY generations before MWSD was invented.
This would create and build a huge pool
of people with positive feelings toward square and contra in general. Some of them will get so excited about
it that they go dancing 2 or 3 times per week. And this WILL happen.
It IS happening NOW in the contra dance scene.
Some of these will find it fun to do
dances a little more challenging.
These will be the ones who will be drawn into MWSD or “Hobby”
dancing. This process can continue
only if the MWSD clubs realize the value of HAVING that lower level and
maintain friendly relations and attitudes toward the “just for fun” dancers,
both traditional square & contra, even to the extent of having them on
their MWSD calendars. Then the
pool of fun dancers can not only provide a source for the clubs, but club
dancers who can’t “hack” it or don’t find challenge fun any more, can drop back
into the pool of fun dancers, and keep dancing, hopefully recruiting more
outsiders into the pool, the bottom layer, eventually resulting in more people
ready for the puzzles and challenge of MWSD.
So if callers want to be still calling at
all, a few years from now, it is up to THEM to start cultivating and drawing
larger numbers of people into that bottom layer. It has grown extremely difficult to draw people into the
next higher layer that is, the MWSD classes. There are too many distractions requiring NO commitment at
all! They don’t want to commit to
taking lessons for almost a whole year to LEARN to dance – before they
can actually dance!
There are several existing ways of doing
this. One would be to get better
acquainted with the CDSS dance camps, books, get its National Directory of
Groups - go to your LOCAL contra dance group, be sure to visit contra dances in
the Boston area (more laid back – older people) AND Greenfield, MA
(younger crowd). Try Montpelier
& Norwich, VT. (same
contrasts). Go enough to find what
makes these groups TICK. Go to the
NEFFA Festival in Natick in April, and the Dance Flurry Festival in Saratoga
Springs in February. The NOMAD Festival in November.. Feel the enthusiasm; Why these groups are growing.
Another is to visit Calvin Campbell’s
website and information on Beginner Party Dances, Community and Traditional
Dance. Get his new book, “Dances
for Busy People”. There are LOTS
of easy fun dances there, in many forms, contra, square, and others. But for CONTRA, look into the “grass
roots” version going on all around you!
That is the version that is GROWING and attracting young people!
But the same thing could be done with
fun-level traditional square dancing!
Today the best idea seems to be “The
A-B-C Marketing Engine” promoted by the Rio Grande Valley Callers Assn, (info
on handouts).
“What if we sold square dancing instead
of square dancing lessons? What if
new people could start any time they choose, instead of waiting for the next
class to begin? The ABC method is
a series of three different square dance parties. Call the “A” party this week. Call the “B” party next week. Call the “C” party the third week. Start over with the “A” the fourth week. Keep it running for several weeks,
perhaps, even forever!
Each party is complete in itself,
teaching and calling dances with ALMD left, circles, stars, Grand R & L,
enough to do many easy, fun dances, at the same time learning about 5 more
complex basics. The second, or “B”
party, does the same thing, but teaches maybe 5 more easy basics, the “C”, the
3rd one, 5 more. Then
it repeats. If you could get this
under way and continue it, you would build a fun level “Pool” of dancers, some
of whom would eventually be ready for a deeper commitment with MWSD - and
others could just continue at the same level. But the accent is on actual DANCES and FUN, not just
choreography and basics. The only
thing I would suggest changing about the ABC program is to teach the
TRADITIONAL and CONTRA basics, rather than MWSD basics, and include some
favorite , really fun DANCES, both Singing Squares and Patter, and a few
contras so that the dancers could move in and out and be comfortable with the
contra and traditional square dance activity already going on in New
England.
Here’s what Bob Brundage has to say about
the whole situation as of Aug 15, ’05:
“For years now I have advised callers
who were concerned about this problem (many have been worrying for many years)
is to find a good hall, preferably near a college, and use “Dancing for Busy
People” material. Plan to lose
money for perhaps a year but build up a group like the contra dancers
have. You need a core of regulars
who are willing to put up with newcomers every week (or every 2 weeks, or once
a month). Teach people DANCES and
How To DANCE – not Choreography – Use lots of variety and stick
with it. To my knowledge, nobody
took me up on it.
“Having said that, now comes along the
ABC program. I feel that this MAY
become our salvation. (??) The thing we have to convince MWSD
callers is that this should NOT include MWSD dancers. This should be an entirely separate program and it should
remain an entirely vanilla activity so that folks can actually stop in any time
– even once a year! I’m not
fully convinced that the figures in the ABC program are the best, but so
what? Build a program on the
figures you choose – who cares?
IMPORTANT; Don’t let MWSD in the door – keep it an open dance,
separate from the clubs.
Hello Folks: This is my first posting, so bear with me!
Let me start by saying that when this ABC concept was first hatched, I wasn’t skeptical, I was excited! FINALLY I thought we might have some answers. Then I saw so many questions come into
play that in my humble opinion have so little effect on the outcomes of our
efforts i.e., the dress
thing, the marketing thing, the how do the other clubs feel about
it thing, and so on! I started my first ABC group with a
local fraternal organization and for 6 weeks had a great run. (This was a
predetermined time frame set by the organization). We danced 2 nights per week for 6 weeks with over 100 people
at each session including ages from 13 – 79.
Nowhere does it say that we had lessons for 6
weeks - - we danced! And it worked
me over as both a caller and entertainer to make certain that there was never
anything there but smiling faces – no one cared about dress as long as
there was covering - and never
once did I tell ANY MW SQUARE DANCER
what I was doing. I didn’t
want it corrupted and quite frankly, I do NOT mix my ABC work and my MWSD work
together. For now they don’t even
know the other exists. There were
several from that first ABC group who “wanted more”. They started a second group at a local church and we are
dancing about 60 there! With none
of the “politics as usual” associated with organizations and clubs, we are
having a ball. Two things to note:
1.
This is hard
work as a caller, marketer, entertainer,
but all worth it to me.
2.
NOTHING worth saving is ever easy
– but the time and effort is worth it to me.
I began calling in square dancing’s peak in
Alabama around 28 years ago at age
11. I have grown up my entire
childhood and adult life LOVING this activity and there is NO way I can sit
back now at age 39 and wonder if I am going to have dancers to call to when I
am 50. In my opinion, this
marketing tool we call ABC is the answer and I intend to keep working it! Thanks for Listening!
Soon later there was a reply from the chief spokesman for the ABC
Program, Nasser Shukayr:
“I was so glad to read about Kevin’s success
story. During the next few months
I believe everyone on this list will discover that selling dancing instead of
lessons can bring huge results.
“I was surfing the net about two years ago and
came upon a story about a guy who was president of the U.S. professional Tennis
Ann. That Assn is made up of tennis instructors, not tennis players. The president had somehow managed to
dramatically increase the number of tennis players nationwide. A news reporter asked him how he did
it.
“I’ll never forget what he said. He said that the tennis instructing
world wanted to TEACH people to play tennis. But people just wanted to PLAY tennis. So they decided to let ‘em play.
“The square dance world could learn a huge lesson
from this. For years, our product
has been “square dance lessons”.
CALLERLAB spent a jillion dollars on market research. They found that square dancing has a
mostly positive image. It’s got a
brand loyalty that most marketers would envy. A huge percentage of the population is willing to try it if
it’s presented as something healthy, fun and social - - for more details see
the market research reports on the Callerlab foundation’s website.
“But the target audience quickly lost interest
when told they would have to take a lengthy set of lessons and confirm to a
dress code. CALLERLAB spent a
jillion dollars to learn and prove this.
I hope we won’t let the Callerlab market research go to waste. The existing square dance product has
served us well for many decades,
since the late 1930’s and early 1940’s. It’s time for a new product, hence Square Dance ABC.”
Nasser Shukayr (whose middle name is “today’s people just wanna dance, so
why don’t we let them?”)
THE ‘BROWN DANCE’: Contra dance at Brown University; I’ll be calling there at this ongoing
dance series Friday Oct 21. About
half students, half non-students.
50% beginners. See handout
for info.
MIT: THE TECH SQUARES;
(See handout) Tuesday night
dances and classes in MWSD.
AND contra dances also (but in a different location!) Get to plus level in 13 lessons, and earn MIT college credit
in Phys Ed at the same time!!
OR Come to 6 contra dances
and get that Phys Ed credit!! Anyone
(including you callers) would be Welcome.
GO!
See those websites and find out HOW to get your local college to sponsor
something like this!
VOLUNTEER! to call a freshman orientation dance! Ask for help from older students
– get them so excited that they want to start a dance themselves. Or bring fliers about your own dances!
Put an ad in the paper? Advertise on the Radio? TV? Good Luck!
This never really worked even during the
glory days when the clubs were getting huge classes. Sometimes even sponsorship by Recreation departments , YMCA,
etc, wouldn’t even do it. It
always has to be personal contact, from people who are really sold on Square or
Contra dancing, and preferably have some “leverage” over their prospects. Even in International Folk Dancing, we
find that modern , urban people often look down at their own National folk
dancing. It’s considered
old-fashioned , lowbrow. In Square
dancing, this means overalls, straw hats and bright neckerchiefs would be the
appropriate attire. “Get a kick
out of dressing and dancing like a hick!!”
Not the image we want to promote, but
it’s out there! American culture
from the early grades – even from infancy - promotes sports for boys, but
dancing for little girls. So boys
are brought up believing that any kind of dancing is “Sissy”
For a long time, it was thought that
teaching square dancing in the public schools was a great idea. So we had lots of elementary teachers
with no real square dance experience teaching square dancing to records, with
the CALLS on the records – to 4th graders where the last thing
those boys wanted to do was to hold hands with GIRLS. Then when they became teenagers, of an age to be interested
in girls, those uncomfortable feelings were still there and they would say “ME
square dance?? No Way!! WE already DID that in FOURTH
GRADE!? I would, however, admit
that Dudley Laufman, who is responsible for much of the ‘70’s revival, is doing
a good job with elementary school kids. One of his “secrets” is to NOT insist
on opposite sex partners. Find ANY
partner! This works up to around 6th
grade. Some boys will choose boy
partners, and girls may choose
girls. You can call the ones doing
the boys part “Moons”, and the ones doing the girls’ part “Stars”.
Dances for “Girl Scouts and their
Daddies” work REALLY well, but don’t ever take a job for “Cub Scouts and their
Mothers”! It will be BEDLAM.
A caller by himself will find it
difficult if not impossible to just rent a school Gym, or one of the old town
halls, Masonic Temples, Odd Fellows Halls, sometimes even Granges in New
England (which have floors DESIGNED for dancing) Easthampton, Bernardston MA and Chesterfield NH come to mind
- You have to have some insider, enthusiastic about the idea of an open dance. Having an existing ed club of adults
such as PTO, church couples clubs etc - who know people in that town who have
control over those halls helps, too, to insure no alcohol and good behavior.
It’s best to have a captive
audience. For a one-night stand
this could mean a dinner, even a pot-luck sponsored by an existing organization
with square dancing starting immediately afterward before anyone has a chance
to leave. This works great with
what we call ‘single purpose clubs” such as the “Newcomers’ Clubs” sponsored by
Welcome Wagon, or Women’s clubs (but must bring husband!) But these organizations have a
different activity scheduled monthly for a whole year in advance. They get to know each other, and want
to be with the same crowd, so it’s seldom that they will split off from their
group and come to your regular open dance, or beginner class.
Back when MWSD was exploding with big
classes, almost all of the 65 clubs in the Springfield area were started by
Church Couples Clubs, PTA’s, Service Organizations (in Enfield, it was the
Lions’ Club). They could again be
persuaded to sponsor a series of SQD lessons as a fund-raiser. They have leverage over their members.
I don’t suggest a one-night event. They’ll have fun, but most of them
won’t think of it becoming a regular habit, and won’t fall totally in love with
it. We want to build a movement of
regular dancers. A POOL of
dance-lovers, SOME of whom will eventually be motivated to dance more than once
per week. That’s why the ABC
program might be the answer. We’re
not selling them a 30 – 40 lesson course so they can dance a year from
then. We’re selling them 3 nights
of dancing fun (hopefully to be repeated over and over again, if successful. )
where they will actually DO DANCES EACH NIGHT. They will be doing REAL SQUARE DANCING EACH TIME. Simple - - elementary - - but Real
Dancing, not just drilling on basics.
It often takes a new contra dancer 3
nights to become really comfortable with it, and to fall in love with the
activity, although many do go nuts over it the first night. This is why a 3-night series, rather
than a one-night event can work. Then if the next series starts immediately
afterward, the first class can come on a pay-for-one-night basis, help recruit
for the next series of 3 nights, and help the new ones learn. But anyone can start their series at
ANY ONE of the “lessons”.
Hopefully you would develop a lot of fun level actual “DANCES”, rather
than just drilling on basics.
Most people love meeting so many helpful
people. Great dancers asking them
to dance! (When Al Brundage, now
85, came to visit the Greenfield dance two nights in a row in August, young
guys asked his partner to dance!
Al got to dance with young ladies!
Even though he didn’t think he would last more than two dances, they
stayed and danced until intermission!
Of course Al knew well what contra was all about: he used to promote it
at his MWSD clubs in the 50’s. (It
didn’t take then, though, and I don’t believe it would today, either!)
But for most people, dancing with a
different partner for each dance is a very exciting thing!
So that this 3-lesson series will turn
into an on-going , open dance, with a good core group of “regulars” who will
mix with the newcomers, change partners regularly, and your group will grow
like the contra dance groups have.
Accept new people at every event, keep it fun for the regulars, at an
exciting 15 basic level – eventually will produce crops of enthusiastic
people . Some will like challenge,
and join MWSD classes. Some of
these will get weeded out, or tire of the constant challenge, but they will
have a fun, welcoming form of dance to fall back on. Last – don’t forget the SINGLE PEOPLE. There are lots of church and other
singles groups- whose members are just LOOKING for this type of thing to meet
other people on a non-commitment, non-threatening basis, to get away from the
bar scene.
And
don’t restrict your groups to marrieds only! At the contra groups, married
& singles dance happily together, changing partners with the rest of
them. Teens and 20ish dance with
older adults (and each other of course) all the time! So get out there - dance with those college kids – at
MIT , Brown, and the Guiding Star Grange in Greenfield, MA- and the various
contra dance groups all over, such as the Thursday night dance at the
Cambridge, MA VFW. They too have a large contingent of
teens nowadays. . (see handouts, websites). Find from this how to start your own
fun-level group to build that pool of potential, enthusiastic, permanent
dancers!!!
SUMMARY
1. Complexity: The less complex, the easier it is for
new people to come in and learn by doing, learn by dancing with experienced
dancers, as partners, or in the same set.
2. Even at a low level, (15 basics)
new people AND EXPERIENCED DANCERS TOO, can find full enjoyment. Almost no one of the experienced
dancers comes up to the caller and asks for more challenging dances. And these people include college
students and professors too! They’re already having too much fun otherwise, to
ask for challenge. This could be done just as effectively with Square Dancing
as with Contra!
3. Dancers enjoy having the feeling
that THEY KNOW HOW A DANCE GOES!!
Examples of requests that I get:
Singing Squares – classics like Smoke on the Water, Alabama
Jubilee, Nelly Bly, On the Trail of the Lonesome Pine, Dip and Dive. Many of these are on my new CD, which
you can buy after this meeting - Also some favorite patter dances such as Sally
Goodin and Texas Star. HAVE A
REPERTOIRE OF FAVORITE DANCES!
4.
People love live
music!! You can easily charge $6,
$8 , $10, for a dance, especially if you have a great band. It’s STILL cheaper than the movies!
5.
Change Partners: Good idea for welcoming new people, and
teaching them. Meeting new people
of all ages.
6.
Important: Have a policy of making EVERY
DANCE accessible to new dancers!
7.
BASICS: Teach basics only as needed to DO AN
ACTUAL DANCE, not as an end in themselves. They will remember a great dance, but rarely come up and
request a “basic”.
8.
We need to create a
large reservoir of dancers who may only know 15 basics, but they know them
thoroughly. They also believe
firmly that Square and Contra dancing are FUN. (Often said “the most fun you can have with your clothes
on”) If there were hundreds of
these people sprinkled all through the area, there would be many of them much
more likely to try MWSD, and in any case, they would be spreading a good word
about both Square and Contra dancing!
This will take a long time, and be a lot of work, but work that can be
fun, and you can get paid for it!
It’s well worth the effort!, no matter HOW long it takes!