[Noho] Dancing this week

[Bethany Seeger]

Howdy!

Hope to see you all tomorrow night at our last open session.  Next week 
we'll be starting the class.  Please contact me if you'll be missing all the
open sessions but want to join the class.  (If you've already 
emailed/talked me about this you're all set.)

7-9 pm at The Life Center next to The Sacred Heart Church, 101 King 
Street in Northampton.  The Life Center is on the right-hand side of the 
church,
when your looking at the church straight on.  $8 per person, $6 for 
students (angels are free).

We've really started diving into the calls, and everyone is eating them 
up! We've made great progress so far, though fear not, we'll be able to get
new people who show up tomorrow night caught up and dancing with us.

Below are some tips/info for people new to Modern Western Square 
Dancing(henceforth, MWSD).

Here's a reminder about how to get a square setup.  
Grab a partner - ask anyone - and then look for someone in a square with 
their hand up - or - start your own square.  Generally people hold their 
hand
up in the air indicating with their fingers the number of couples they 
need to fill out the square.  Don't be shy, let people know that you 
need more
people in your square or hop in a square that needs more people.  This 
is a really convenient way of getting a square setup and absolutely 
necessary in a crowded hall.

If you see me walking around and switching people in and out of squares, 
it's because I want to make sure people new to MWSD are up and dancing.  
There are a number of experienced MWSD dancers there who are willing to 
swap out of a square so that a new dancer does not miss a new call.

If you have been dancing one role, please continue dancing that role.  
It's really good to be solid on one role before you start switching 
roles.  It will make it much easier for you to learn the calls and for 
Ken to teach them, as some of the calls are slightly different for each 
role.  Generally, people will learn to dance one role during the classes 
and then switch around after "graduating" from the class and really 
mastering the calls.

Want more info on the calls we've been learning?  Visit 
http://www.nohosquares.org/?pagestate=classes for some links to 
definitions and animations.  So far we've been learning mainstream 
calls, for reference.   Next week I'll send out a detailed list of the 
calls we've learned so far.

Please feel free to send me questions, etc.

Bethany
www.nohosquares.org