pennsicdance: Dance Suggestions

[Francis Classe]

Going to put my four ha'pennies in here:

> Folks are taught 
> that GOOP are "the fun dances", and novices tend to
> internalize that 
> quite readily. By implication, they wind up defining
> period dance as 
> "not fun", and many of them wind up relatively
> resistant to it.

This is the kind of mentality which I am doing my best
to change when I teach dance.  Fun dances need not be
hard to be period.

> > Next, I think that the 'dance parties' should be
> ditched.  

> invitation to come to a "party".) That's a good
> point, and implies that 
> we should think about our terminology.

Perhaps dance event would be more appropriate.  

> > I think that they are also
> > too concentrated on a certain kind of dance. 
> 
> Maybe. All of them tried to be inclusive; some
> succeeded better than others.

The whole point of the dance tent events was for this.
 I disagree with changing it, since it allows one to
enjoy a particular genre (or genres).  

> > Now to my suggestion.  I think that we should have
> open
> > beginner/intermediate dancing in the barn at night
> where the dances
> > are taught and newer people can have a chance of
> learning them. 

This is what I had tried to do when I led dancing in
the barn - I made sure everyone knew the dance that
was next, and if not, I taught it through.  I don't
think that there should be more open dance in the
tent, unless that is the plan for that evening.

> the sites. We really need to be thinking about ways
> to encourage better 
> cross-pollination, and I think this approach of
> dividing the venues by 
> skill level is likely to be counter-productive...

I don't think it's necessarily counter productive.  I
think that the barn can give comfort to those who may
be a little intimidated at first, and then ease them
into taking the next step.  For example, I thought I
saw a couple people who showed up first only at the
barn, and then, later in the war, at some of the dance
events in the tent.

Vyncent

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