Monday Night Plus Class

[bjarvis]

The Plus class last night went rather well, all things considered.

There were at least three of the new Plus dancers missing due to previously scheduled engagements. As well, since the schedule conflicts with justetthon's fortnightly C1 dance, we were missing a few of our regular angels. Still, we had three squares on the floor.

The sound in the room is more than just a little dead: treble gets absorbed by the carpeting and there's an echo from the back wall. Last night, we tried using an extra monitor speaker in the back of the hall with some success; I'll try that again at this Thursday's club night.

After the warm-up and review, the larger portion of the evening was spent on "Load the Boat," running through enough combinations so that everyone had a chance to dance each part.

"Fan the top" was a breeze: they picked it up nearly instantly and adjusted automatically for left-handed waves. Ditto for "(anything) and spread" for all three forms.

"Track 2" was a little tricky as the general shape change isn't intuitive or obvious, but Tim Marriner & otterpop58's 2003 teaching tips document continues to provide good advice.

My bigger worry about the class is that some self-conscious folks are making a point of hiding in the back square of the hall. Next Monday, I'm going to discretely plant those folks in the front of the hall before calling the class to square up, guaranteeing they stay in front where we can give them the most assistance.

Comments

[excessor.livejournal.com]

About the folks in the back square: many times, I've seen an instructor ask the back square (or two) come to the front while those already there have to move back. Everyone complies.

[bjarvis.livejournal.com]

I was tempted, but noticed the angels, newbies and retreads aren't evenly distributed among the squares. If I had pulled the back square to the front, I'd have our 2-3 slower dancers and a boatload of angels up front with at least one square of mostly newbies & retreads demoted to the back.

I don't want to dissuade the keeners from being keeners --god knows I'm one of them. I just want to ensure 2-3 particular folks are placed where I can give them the most attention, all preferably without being too obvious. I will exercise our Evil Queen Dicatatorial Powers(tm) as needed though if my first attempt doesn't work as planned.

[excessor.livejournal.com]

You can also use your EQDP™ to reallocate among squares. There's no harm. We expect our angels to distribute themselves evenly amongst the squares, but if they don't or can't, then the instructor makes changes. It's all part of the grandeur of having powers over space and time.

[cuyahogarvr.livejournal.com]

We've done this too. It wasn't uncommon for our instructor to move various couples from one square to another and he made no bones about doing it so that he could observe and help out the "weaker dancers".