New England Dancing Masters Workshops
Notes
Boston, MA, Saturday, March 24, 2007
SGMM/MMEA Conference Workshop
Teaching Traditional Dance to Children
Dear SGMM/MMEA Conference participants,
Peter Amidon here, writing also for Andy Davis and Mary Cay Brass of the
New England Dancing Masters.
We had a really wonderful time dancing with you at our workshop last Friday. Here
is the list of dances with some further notes that we promised at our workshop.
Your homework is to go dancing. There are great public dances throughout
Massachusetts; you can find out about them and dances anywhere in the country
by going to http://www.thedancegypsy.com/
In the Boston area there are WEEKLY contra dances with great live music
Monday
(http://lydiamusic.org/concord.html) and
Thursday (http://www.neffa.org/Thurs.html)
nights at the Girl Scout House in Concord, MA.(I happen to be calling both
those dances this week, although this will probably be up too late for you
to find out about the Monday dance.)
Key to recordings and books referenced below:
CH = Chimes of Dunkirk CD, book (and DVD)
LM = Listen to the Mockingbird CD & book
AJR = Any Jig or Reel CD
OST = Other Side of the Tracks CD
Here is the list of dances we did at the workshop last Saturday:
Circassian Circle (Peter) in LM book & CD
and on page 1 in the handout.
I like to add a spin as the ladies go back to place in A1.On B1, with adults,
I do a dosido and swing because adults tend to get dizzy more than kids.For
music you can use any of the French Canadianor Irish reel medleys on ‘CH
or ‘LM or the first cuts of either ‘Tracks’ or ‘AJR’
Black Joke (Mary Cay) in CH book & CD
and on page 1 of the handout.This is great for a community dance.
We often call it ‘Hey Ho Diddley Dum’ to avoid any misunderstanding
of the original name ‘Black Joke’ which is the name of a traditional
English tune, sometimes also called‘Black Jack.’
Solmon Levi (Andy)
This is neither in the handout nor in any of our collections. Print
out this pdf for the music and instructions:
SolomonLevi.pdf
This is a wonderful first square dance for children or for a community dance.
Sasha (Mary Cay)
This is not in our handour nor in any of our collections, BUT
Go to http://www.dancingmasters.com/newdances/sasha.html
and scroll down for a printable pdf of the music and instructions, and for
a free downloadable mp3 of the recorded music for the dance. ‘Sasha’ is
always a popular and successful dance for all ages whether taught in the
classroom or at a community dance.
Grumpy March (Peter)
This is not in the handout nor in any of our collections.
Here is a printable pdf of the dance:
GrumpyMarch.pdf
I like doing this when kids are, well, grumpy.
Alabama Gal (Mary Cay) in CH book and CD
Not in our handout, but here is a printable pdf of the dance:
AlabamaGal.pdf
As you could hear from the response of the participants, this is a classic,
very popular with a wide age range of children, and a great first dance for
teaching the cast off under the arches figure.
Kings and Queens (Peter)
Handout: page 2
I talk about royal posture and other aspects of being a king or queen when
teaching this dance, and I dub everyone ‘King’ and Queen’.
First Night Quadrille (Andy) in our LM book & CD
Page 1 in the handout.
You might teach ‘Lucky Seven’ first (in our CH collection) so
the children have already learned ‘grand right and left’ going
into this dance.
Sashay the Donut (Andy)
Not in any of our collections, but on page 3 of our handout. Andy’s
opening was different than the one I notated in the handout:
A1: Forward and back, right hand turn
A2: Left hand turn, two hand turn.
The rest is the same.
I like doing this to ‘Flying Tent’ on ‘AJR’. If you
do this with about 7 couples it can go perfectly with the phrasing of the
music.
Sweets of May (Mary Cay) in our CH book and CD.
page 3 in the handout.
We learned this from New England dance caller Dudley Laufman who calls this
dance only in May.
The order forms we gave you allow you to order our materials by mail with no shipping charge.
You can also order any of our materials directly off of our website (including
shipping charge):
www.dancingmasters.com
Please do not hesitate to contact us regarding any of these dances, and thanks again for your two hours+ of great dancing!
Best,
Peter Amidon
peter@amidonmusic.com
http://www.amidonmusic.com/
802-257-1006
Mary Cay Brass
mcbrass@vermontel.net
http://www.dancingmasters.com/marycaybrass.html
802-869-2438
Andy Davis
& home office of New England Dancing Masters
andy@dancingmasters.com
http://www.dancingmasters.com/andydavis.html
802-257-1819