Hi, Luke--

I've been following this discussion on the sharedweight listserve with interest, but thought I'd just reply privately, rather than to the whole listserve. I do agree with Linda Leslie, that it's better to err on the side of having dances be too easy rather than too hard for the crowd. I believe that the most important thing is for folks to feel joyous and celebratory--which is much easier to achieve and maintain when everyone's succeeding on the dance floor. That said, maybe you could tweak your program so that the pre-cake dances are for everyone (i.e., easy dances, like whole-set dances and circles), and the post-cake dances are for "those who know"?

I'll bet it'll be a fabulous event, and I wish you much success in calling for it. See you in Ithaca soon,

Katy

---- Luke Donev <luke.donev at gmail.com> wrote: 
> Hello,
> 
> Some friends have asked me to call some contra dances at their wedding.
> There will be lots of dancers in the crowd, but not everyone will be
> familiar with contra.
> 
> I've put together a schedule for my portion of the evening, two contra sets
> bracketing the cake cutting and some international folk dance and Klesmer
> (I'm only responsible for the contra).
> 
> I'm planning on ~ 5 minutes to find partners and teach dances, and running
> the dances for ~10 minutes. The exception being the circle mixer after the
> snowball waltz, where folks keep there last waltz parter and move into a
> circle and teach the circle mixer quickly (~2 minutes) to keep people on the
> dance floor.
> 
> The program is available as a google document at *http://tinyurl.com/mqlwa6.
> *I'd appreciate any feedback folks want to share, and would request comments
> to me off-list to avoid clogging inboxes. (I'll add know that Star Trek was
> specifically requested by the bride.)
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> -- 
> Luke Donev
> http://www.lukedonev.com
> Luke.Donev at gmail.com
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