[Noho] Class Starts Tonight!

[Bethany Seeger]

Howdy!

Yeah! Class officially starts tonight!

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.

I'll send out notices about cancellations due to weather by 5pm on 
Tuesdays from this email account.  I'll also put a notice on the 
website, so there will be two places to check if you're unsure whether 
or not there's class.

I know I said I'd send out more info on the calls we've learned, but I'm 
going to hold off on doing that this week.  After tonights class, I'll 
put info on the calls we've learned up on our website under 'classes'.

The website that Ken mentioned last week is: 
http://members.tripod.com/~noriks/ENGLISH/English-Index2.html
There are some great animations of the calls at this site.

I'm including tips from last week again as I know there are some new 
people on this list.

Tips for new Modern Western Square Dancers (MWSD):
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 MW are up and dancing.  
There are a number of experienced MW 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 
www.nohosquares.org?pagestate=classes for some links to definitions and 
animations.  So far
we've been learning mainstream calls, for reference.   

Please feel free to send me questions, etc.

See you tonight!

Bethany
www.nohosquares.org