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Attracting Young Folks/Music Tempo
0AM7L@SIA
May 10, 2006, 9:09 p.m. (Message 45221)
To me, one sign of a 'superior' dancer is someone who can adapt to the tempo. As someone who's watched more dancing (and demo's) than I care to remember, there's nothing worse than one head bobbing out of sync with the others. This happens even in 8 hands around and back: 7 heads in sync, one not. It is a glaring, obvious error that the audience sees over all other 'mistakes.' To be brutally honest, if a person can't pick up the beat from Scottish Country Dance music--and slow down or speed up to match--they should sell their ghillies. (;) Margaret Sarna Michigan
Margaret Sarna said <To be brutally honest, if a person can't pick up the beat from Scottish >Country Dance music--and slow down or speed up to match--they should sell >their ghillies. (;) Oh no! These are the challenges that spice every teacher's life! It might take months or even years of patience but the reward is wonderful. Helen Helen C N Brown York, UK
Helen Brown wrote: > Margaret Sarna said > if a person can't pick up the beat ... they should sell > their ghillies. (;) > > > Oh no! These are the challenges that spice every teacher's life! It > might take months or even years of patience but the reward is wonderful. If only everyone had your patience, Helen ! Martin
> > Oh no! These are the challenges that spice every teacher's life! It > > might take months or even years of patience but the reward is wonderful. > If only everyone had your patience, Helen ! > > Martin It's not really a question of patience, is it? It is allowing people to learn at their own pace. There is someone in my class who has two left feet and I thought would never, ever make a dancer but he did enjoy himself and often has us laughing at and with him. Last Friday (my last of the season) for the first time he went through a whole dance x8 and I didn't call to him once. He noticed it too and was as pleased as punch. He's been with me for five years! I think it is one of the causes of these 40 minute step practise sessions that some teachers are impatient and want to see perfect dancing as soon as possible so that when They are on the dance floor as few as possible interrupt their elegant progress.
Could it also be perhaps, that we try and teach too much all at once - rhythm, steps, formations, dances? And that as we grow up to become adults, it becomes 'embarassing' to repeat things? Children seem to be so much more patient with regards to going over old ground, but if you did the same dance 5 weeks running in a class of adults, they would be grumbling, yet repetition is the only way of gaining confidence in some cases, and confidence is the one thing that is needed for people to progress in SCD and probably in many other disciplines as well. How many teachers out there, actually go up to someone and say 'Well done' - 'Well saved' - or 'I like your posture/the way you got there/the way you hold your head/your smile/your help' etc etc. In true teacher fashion, we only criticize and pick up the faults. Surely we should do both. Pia
> How many teachers out there, actually go up to someone and say 'Well done' - > 'Well saved' - or 'I like your posture/the way you got there/the way you > hold your head/your smile/your help' etc etc. > Pia Oh yes! All the time. Even on here when I like what has been said. How can one not? And to the musicians!! And to the teachers!!
Ron Mackey wrote : > It's not really a question of patience, is it? It is allowing > people to learn at their own pace. This reminded me of a girl, aged about 8, who came to one of my classes many years ago. She was bright and intelligent - but her skip change was right-close-right-close-right, left-close-left-close-left - and at the end of the season, 33 classes later, it was still the same. I thought that that would be that, but no, back she came, aged 9, right-close-right-close-right, left-close-left-close-left. She was one of the most regular attenders I ever had. And back she came aged 10, right-close-right-close-right, left-close-left-close-left. I used to lie away at nights wondering what to try next - as the class had a live musician, there were many possibilities. Back she came aged 11 - and, one night, launched into the most perfect skip change you ever did see in an 11 year old, topped by the most wonderful smile on her face. I'd like to report that she is now a mainstay of some far-flung Branch - but if so, I do not know, because I never saw her again after that night. Maybe this was something she had decided to master, and, when she did, she moved on to mastering something else. Whether she is in now SCD, or not, I'm sure she is a success, because she had learned that, with perseverence, one can achieve almost anything. John M Sturrock Cupar UK
Try and take a look at their faces in stead - I go for the smiles - it's not the ones with their heads bobbing out of synch that worries me, but the ones without the smiles. And you can only pick up a beat by learning how to listen - how many classes teach their dancers how to listen in stead of how to dance? Pia
> Try and take a look at their faces in stead - I go for the smiles - it's not > the ones with their heads bobbing out of synch that worries me, but the ones > without the smiles. > > And you can only pick up a beat by learning how to listen - how many classes > teach their dancers how to listen in stead of how to dance? > > Pia Oh, yes Pia. If they don't leave the hall with a big grin on their collective faces then you have failed! As for the music - but of course. It's an art form based firmly and irrevocably on the music.
If we were "brutally honest" we would lose more than one enthusiastic member, and would be much the poorer for it. I have met some 'superior' dancers in my time that were only technically perfect, and it would have been a more enjoyable occasion for everyone if they were not in the set clearly showing their impatience with the less able, even on occasion actually ignoring them. In my book a 'superior' dancer is one who having mastered the technique will not make the less able feel unwanted, but will make them feel positively welcome, and will make the less able feel that the 'superior' dancer has enjoyed dancing with them as much as if they were dancing with another 'superior' dancer. There may be "nothing worse than one head bobbing out of sync" from a critical spectator point of view, but remember that dancing is for the dancers, it is not a spectator sport. Even in the most sophisticated demonstration I would suggest that the most important aspect is that the audience feels first and foremost that the dancers are enjoying themselves and enjoying the music and the dance. There is then a very good chance that they will be distracted from bobbing heads and untidy feet by 'the spirit of the dance.' Technique does make a difference, obviously, but it is not the only measure. Enjoyment, sociability and respect for others are of the greatest importance, IMHO. Andrew, Bristol, UK
