pennsicdance: Instructors at Pennsic

[L.J. Sparvero]

The pdf class listing on the www.pennsiceuropeandance.org is fixed, BTW. 
The html and plain text listings (with the class descriptions) should be 
correct, I'll have a few copies in the dance tent for people to browse.

There are alot of people who have volunteered to teach intro to dance, 
focused beginners, ball prep, or other introductory classes this year. 
Thank you in advance -- if we don't do a good job of  finding new dancers, 
we as a community will wither up and die.

Along those lines, here are a couple of simple topics I'd like to see 
covered in each and every one of those introductory classes. No need to 
take more than five minutes at the beginning of class, but these all are 
very important issues that I feel need to be covered.

I'm not going to tell you how to teach explain these (you're all good 
instructors with your own styles), nor am I going to take your time up by 
describing them (again, if you're on this list, you probably know all of 
the following, even if it just comes naturally)

* How to hold hands with a dancer (without yanking them around like a sack 
of barleycorn)
* How to gracefully ask/thank someone for a dance
* How not to step on someone's toes (frame and connection with your partner)

Why am I asking you to spend a few minutes to teach these at each intro class?

At big dance events, there are invariably people that: get their arm yanked 
when they try to do an underarm turn, get their feet stepped on, or 
otherwise don't have fun while dancing. Accidents will happen, but if 
everyone you teach learns to pay a little attention to these from the very 
start, then they'll find that they enjoy dancing much more. And they'll be 
more likely to come back, and even convince their friends.

Your students and I will thank you for doing this :-) -Lyev