Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Comments on Sun Night - April 26, 2009

Congratulations to David, Karen and Billy for a very successful program. Things went pretty well and when they didn’t – you kept your head and recovered nicely.

A couple comments:

Billy – nice job on the square. You started by saying “the first move is..” and then caught yourself and realized you can make the first move anything you want – and then you did. You can have a lot of fun with squares when you take advantage of the freedom it allows.

If there was nay general constructive comment I could make is the teaching still needs improvement. Much of the teaching is still just reading the figures off the card. In the calling parties and at the Childgrove dances you can get away from this – but it makes you seem a bit removed from the dancers. One reason you can do this is that most of the dances are very well written with familiar moves. You need to challenge yourselves to teach in a more instructional and relaxed manner. Find a good dance or 2 that has some figures that need to be taught to even the best dancers. The Accordion that Billy called has a bit of that.

I am sure that you have heard callers make special note of who you should look for or where you should be. A dance early in the evening had a Calif twirl to a circle with new neighbors, but away from your partner. No mention was made that it was with a shadow. Work on being more conversational and friendly toward the dancers during the teaching.

I recommend you try to find calling opportunities with less experienced dancers. Another possibility is the call squares – they require more detailed teaching. I know you are getting tired of hearing that – but it is great experience.

And listen to other callers teach. We bring in some top callers here – they are fun to dance to – but listen to the little details that set them apart from the others.

Once again – nice job!
Mac

2 comments:

TwinkleToze said...

Mac,
Thanks so much for the kudos and for the constructive comments. I think feedback is crucial at this point in our calling "careers." I know things I fouled up and want/need to improve on, but was also pleased to get many positive comments from the dancers. We're on our way! Thanks for all the support, encouragement and time you take with/for us. Now if you could maybe help more of us learn to call squares as our next step . . . ?
Karen

Billy Boyer said...

Thanks Mac for all your help and support! As a dancer, I had a lot of fun that evening. We do have plenty of room for improvement, though. We'll definitely work on the teaching...

Billy