Integrating newcomers into the dance community is a core skill for 
contra dance callers.  It is a key metric I use to judge the skill of 
a caller because it is one of the most difficult tasks.

Personally, I love dancing with newcomers and put significant 
personal energy into partnering with them, particularly in the early 
part of the evening.  When addressing the issue of integration please 
consider how your tactics will affect dancers who take the initiative 
to integrate themselves.  Mixers, for example, will thwart my efforts 
because I will lose the newcomer I have put effort into partnering 
with.  Some of the more heavy-handed tactics mentioned here can have 
a similar effect.  They can also send the implicit message that the 
caller feels that some experienced dancers are behaving poorly by not 
mixing in with newcomers.

A better strategy is to assume that all of the experienced dancers 
will support your efforts to integrate newcomers and simply assume 
that all newcomers will be matched up with people who have danced at 
least one night of contras.  The result of this assumption is that 
you can eliminate much of the instruction a less experienced caller 
will tend to use when confronted by a large percentage of newcomers.

My experience is that when the experienced dancers fail to seek out 
and partner with newcomers it is a sign of poor calling, either by 
the current caller or by regular callers at the series.  It is the 
caller's job to make sure that everyone in the hall has a good time 
regardless of what the dancer's skill level is, with whom they are 
dancing, or where they are located in the hall.  If the caller is 
successful in doing this job, almost all of the experienced dancers 
will quickly learn that dancing with newcomers is as much fun as 
dancing with other experienced dancers.

This is a big subject area.  There are many subtle tactics and skills 
that callers can and must use to accomplish good integration.  The 
key is to bring all of your calling skills to the task.  Calling for 
a hall of experienced dancers is an easy gig.  A mixed hall is much 
more demanding of your knowledge and skill.


Just a thought,

Greg McKenzie

********

At 01:01 PM 1/26/2009, you wrote:
>  In a small dance I called recently, an enthusiastic but 
> inexperienced group of young people almost always lined up in a 
> foursome together.  There it worked to walk the contra dances 
> through twice, then start the dance from the progressed positions 
> where the foursome was not with each other.  Some communities 
> wouldn't like this, but there I think everyone was also happy with 
> the suggestion they take whoever they ended up with after a mixer 
> for the next dance; also, they were happy with a few mixers in 
> various formations.
>
>  Another idea I often use when I teach the workshop is to make the 
> last dance they learn in the workshop the first dance of the 
> evening, often Becky Hill's Simplicity Swing or a variation of it 
> with a hey at the end instead of a star and do-si-do.  (Is there a 
> name and author for that dance?  Surely I didn't make that one 
> up?)  That way, the new dancers who attended the workshop already 
> know the dance and it's the experienced dancers who need the walkthrough.
>----- Original Message ----- From: "Jerome Grisanti" 
><jerome.grisanti at gmail.com>
>To: <callers at sharedweight.net>
>Sent: Monday, January 26, 2009 1:25 PM
>Subject: [Callers] Spreading out the "Inexperience"
>
>
>>I recently had the following exchange on a different list with Michael
>>Shapiro (guitarist with U4):
>>
>>Michael wrote:
>>
>>>>>U4 just played the SwingShift weekend in Lexington/Berea. The caller was
>>Barbara Groh. She did something that I think most callers should do, but I
>>haven't seen before. After the sets were formed and people had done the hand
>>four, she then broke up the beginners sets that had formed at the end of the
>>lines. She asked then to move forward and intersperse themselves with the
>>more advanced dancers (so that they were more toward the beggining of the
>>line and the foursomes were not all beginners).
>>
>>She was also good at letting the music be heard ...
>>
>>I wrote:
>>
>>>>Regarding the caller asking sets to reform in order to spread the less
>>experienced dancers throughout the hall, much tact is required. Generally,
>>callers strive to avoid calling attention to particular dancers other than
>>when asking people to watch a demonstration, but asking people to change
>>sets can have the effect of making them feel like there is attention on
>>them. In addition, newish dancers want to dance with people they know, even
>>if those friends may also be newish dancers.
>>
>>>>Speaking to the entire crowd, I do encourage experienced dancers to share
>>their experience by asking someone they've never met to dance at least once
>>in the evening, and praise the community for being so welcoming to newcomer
>>dancers. So while I might be thinking "let's break up this clump of
>>confusion," it would not be good to say something that draws attention to
>>"you people right here."
>>
>>>>I have asked, off mic, for a set of experienced dancers to offer to
>>repartner with a set of inexperienced dancers down the line.
>>
>>
>>To this list, I ask:
>>
>>I'd be interested in the wording that Barbara Groh used (which I'm assuming
>>was quite gentle). I'm also guessing other callers on this list have
>>developed tactful ways to address this issue.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>
>>Jerome
>>
>>
>>--
>>Jerome Grisanti
>>660-528-0858
>>http://www.jeromegrisanti.com
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>>Callers mailing list
>>Callers at sharedweight.net
>>http://www.sharedweight.net/mailman/listinfo/callers
>
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