Choregraphing a First Dance

What are some desirable first dance characteristics?

• It needs to work for dancers who have never contra danced before.

  Ignoring the beginner's lesson debates (hold them?, teach what?), the fact is that some new dancers will not have attended one.  The dance needs to work for them, with just a little help from experienced dancers.

  For choreography, this means using basic moves, self-descriptive moves, and keeping everything very simple.

  Basic moves include: allemande, balance, do-si-do, circle, ladies chain, right and left thru, star, and swing, plus a few "glossary items", like "turn alone" and "go down the hall".

  Examples of self-descriptive moves are "circle left" and "long lines forward and back".  They mean what they say.

  Some moves, such as "go down the hall" are nearly self-descriptive (as long as dancers know what direction "down" is).

  Some non-descriptive moves are "ladies chain" or "box the gnat" (huh?).  These are just names and don't mean anything at all to new dancers.

  A simple dance is also easy to teach.  You want to get people dancing as soon as possible.

• The dance should have good flow and not be too "clockwise" (from too many swings, circle lefts, and right-handed moves without any breaks, reversals of direction, or balances to even things up).

  This is desirable for all dances, but especially important for the first dance.

  If new dancers feel that they are "led" naturally from one move to the next, contra dancing will feel more comfortable to them, allowing them to relax and enjoy themselves.

  Further, some new dancers may be struggling with dizziness from the swings, so good flow keeps them from losing their orientation.  Avoiding too many clockwise moves in the first dance will also help these dancers.

• Its features should help dancers recover from minor mistakes.

  Mistakes happen.  Newer dancers make some and experienced dancers may not be fully "awake" and concentrating yet.

  To help recover, the timing shouldn't be rushed and some moves with either "spare" or "recovery" time should be used.  Moves without strong connection should be avoided.

  Ladies chain (halfway) is an example of a move with "spare" time.  It has a nominal length of 8 counts (one music phrase), but generally takes only about 6 counts at "normal" speed (this is why people can fit multiple twirls or a leisurely courtesy turn into one so easily).

  Some moves, such as star right followed by star left, have built-in recovery time.  Dancers late entering the first star simply won't turn it as far before reversing direction, thus automatically ending in the right place.

  Long lines forward and back is another move with built-in recovery time.

  Having a 16 count move that dancers can relax in will give them a chance to mentally regroup, following a recovery from a mistake.

  Moves with good connection, where dancers are holding hands, are easier than no connection moves (such as a hey) for experienced dancers to guide inexperienced dancers through.

• A first dance can use a balance as punctuation and to help synchronize the dancers.

  Dancers will automatically strive to be on-time, if possible, for balances. The music, the dancers around them all balancing on the same beat, "tell" them to do this.

  So, as long as the music isn't too fast and the moves aren't too rushed, having a balance in a dance will help dancers recover and be on time.

• The dance needs to work for late dancers who are joining onto the set in the middle of it.

  Avoid unusual end effects; the dance should probably stay in its minor set.  It definitely shouldn't involve "shadows" or "trail buddies", as these change when newly arrived dancers join in.

  The dance should progress normally, with women entering the dance on the right. Avoid Becket dances.

  Even "barely Becket" dances are inappropriate, since having the progression occur just as the tune begins (as it does in improper dances) means that the music will cue newly arrived dancers that they should join in.

• Ideally, the dance should include a long neighbor swing and either a right and left thru with a neighbor or a ladies chain to a neighbor.

  Typically, swings and courtesy turns are the difficult moves for new dancers.

  Despite suggesting otherwise in the beginner's lesson, inexperienced dancers often line up together as partners.  This can hamper their ability to practice these moves, if they are both struggling with them.

  By including a long neighbor swing, a new dancer gets to swing with lots of different partners, which will hopefully improve their swing.

  Similarly, doing a right and left thru with a neighbor or doing a ladies chain to a neighbor can help new dancers learn the courtesy turn.

• Finally, the dance should be fun.  First impressions count.

  If the first dance has lots of inactivity or no partner swing, new dancers may be disappointed.

  Alternatively, if the experienced dancers are bored or unhappy with the dance, this will show and the excitement and eagerness that often helps motivate new dancers while they are learning may be lost.

Not every caller or choreographer will agree that these are all desirable properties.

Just as there are differences over what "should" be taught in a beginner's class, some will argue that a first dance should focus on teaching roles and orientation, such as: "active" and "inactive", "outside" and "center", and "up" and "down".

This leads them to avoid partner swings in the first dance (or to have only the actives swing), so as to not have inexperienced partners possibly teaching each other bad habits.

I personally disagree with this, as I think it sacrifices too much "fun" for teaching purposes, but I acknowledge that this point of view exists.

One of the most popular first dances is The Nice Combination by Gene Hubert.

Let's look at this dance using the above criteria:

• It uses only basic moves and several self-descriptive ones (circle left, go down the hall, come on back).

• It has nice flow, especially circle left to a swing and ladies chain to a left-handed star.  The clockwise motion of the swings and circles is broken up by the down-the-hall sequence.

• Go down the hall has some built-in recovery time and ladies chain has a bit of spare time to help if getting into the star is slow.  Both A1 and A2 are effectively 16 count moves that dancers can mentally relax in.  All the moves involve handholds, so that newer dancers can be easily directed.

• The dance has a balance at the very beginning serving as strong punctuation.

• This dance stays within its minor set, is improper, and has lady on the right reentry, so it's trivial to join on.  The only problem is that the set can get crowded at the bottom for "down the hall" if too many dancers join on.

• It has both a neighbor long swing and a ladies chain to neighbor to help new dancers learn those moves.

• This dance is fun; everyone is constantly active, there's a partner swing, and there's plenty of room for experienced dancers to embellish with twirls on the return up the hall or during the courtesy turn.

The Nice Combination is probably the most called contra dance of all time.  It is often used by many callers as a first dance of an evening.  It's clear why.

(Though callers who don't like swing/ladies chain as a transition avoid calling both it and the next dance.)

Another dance frequently called as the first one of an evening is the Baby Rose by David Kaynor.

Again, dead simple, fun, nice flow, neighbor long swing, ladies chain to neighbor, good punctuation from the balances, and the partner balance helps keep the dance from getting too clockwise (especially for new dancers not doing the ccw spin flourish often done for do-si-do).

But, I don't always want to call one of these two dances as the first dance.

With my criteria in mind, I recently tried writing a couple of first dances.

This is pretty good.

A1 and A2 are pushing it in terms of clockwise motion, though, but are immediately followed by "long lines forward and back" which is both a good "recovery" move and a reversal of direction.

This dance has a long neighbor swing and a ladies chain to neighbor, as well as a short partner swing.

Traditionally, star right/star left is preferred over star left/star right, but I've reversed the order since ladies chain flows into star left so nicely.

And, for those who dislike the swing/ladies chain transition, this dance doesn't have one.

(Update 5/07:  I've since run into Becky Hill's Simplicity Swing which shares all but the last move with this dance, so I've renamed it Simplicity Star to acknowledge this.)

The first three parts are The Nice Combination, differing only in B2.  The "dive thru" move (though I don't call it as such but cue it) definitely gives this dance a different, and slightly older, feel.

I normally dislike having two circle lefts in the same dance, except for the "running circle" progression: ...circle left, slide left to face the next couple, circle left 3/4, neighbor swing.

I find two circles in a dance to be too clockwise and, if the circles are of different lengths (say, 3/4 and once around) or if they both fall after the swings, potentially confusing to dancers.

Here, however, the down the hall sequence and balancing the ring breaks up the clockwise motion and the circles are of the same length, so everything works.

I think this is a good dance to teach "1s" and "2s" if I'm going to call either an alternating dance or an older dance later in the evening.

If I do call it, though, I make sure that my second dance has either a neighbor right and left thru or a ladies chain to neighbor move in it.

I've added these two dances to The Nice Combination and Baby Rose as good first dances for an evening, particularly if I expect a lot of new dancers.