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The following information is published with ROUNDALAB's permission from the ROUNDALAB Reference Manual compiled by Richard & Jo Ann Lawson, 1987.

(Presented Sunday, June 22, 1986 - ROUNDALAB Annual Meeting)

Teaching Beginner Round Dancers the Hickman Way

Recruiting Round Dancers

In our area, we still get most of our round dancers from square dancing. Therefore, to be successful recruiters, we must be seen at square dances, square dancing, and being competent square dancers at the program level we dance (Mainstream and Plus). We must be friendly to all dancers, not just our own round dancers.

Several weeks (or months) before our class begins (usually in the fall), we take our R/D lesson flyers to the square dances we visit. The flyer includes a preregistration form at the bottom. The form includes space for the usual names, address, phone number, and requires the submission of the first month's class dues.

The registration enables us to know our approximate class size before we start. This is a help in planning refreshments and class activities. The prepayment of dues establishes a commitment on the part of the class members and gives us "operating cash" to get the class started.

Our regular club dancers are also recruiters for us; they encourage their friends and acquaintances to join our class and share their fun. We are also fortunate to have a few callers who encourage their dancers to attend our round dance classes.

Getting Started

We always begin our class with an "open house" for the first meeting. We invite our club dancers to attend the open house and most of the time we close the day with a pot luck (provided by the club dancers) to introduce the new R/Ders to one of the "social" aspects of R/Ding. Open house is also used to sign up those couples who did not preregister.

At the open house, we use two or three easy mixers that can be taught in not more than 5 minutes as an ice breaker and to have the class members mix with each other and our club dancers. We also have the club dancers demonstrate what our total R/D program is. We cue them thru routines that our class members could be expected to do in 6 months, 1 year, 2 years, and 5 or more years (no more than four routines scattered thru the session because the new dancers want to dance not watch). However, we do feel that it is important for them to see the total R/D picture since some of them may have never seen R/Ding before.

We do NOT permit our club members to come to class after open house. They tend to become "teachers" (in spite of our prebriefings), and there is room for only one teaching couple at R/D Class!!

Be prepared! Know what you are going to do before you begin. Outline what you intend to do in a lesson plan. Plan more than you think you will need just in case they learn in 1 hour what you think it will take 2 hours to teach.

First Class

This is the last opportunity for new couples (our classes are "couples only") to join the class — holding the class "open" for 2 or 3 weeks almost requires that you repeat the first lesson two or three times, and we find that this becomes boring for the couples who took the initiative to sign up on time.

The first class sets the pace for the entire series of lessons — be friendly, enthusiastic, and confident!

Greet the class members as they come in — make them feel welcome; pass out class name badges if you use them.

We start with a get acquainted mixer; again, to help the class members get to know each other as well as to teach them simple steps and dancing with the music. (This is a new experience for some square dancers!)

Again, be prepared — have a lesson plan but use it as a guide; don't feel that you are locked in to it. On the other hand don't deviate into areas that you are unprepared to teach. This may make you seem disorganized and may make you lose some of your confidence. It is better to say that you are not prepared to teach something and say that you will teach it next week than to do a poor job of teaching in the first place. Realize that classes are different and this class may learn faster or slower than last year's class.

Use lots of drills and hash cue after you have taught more than one basic step. Drill or practice makes perfect ONLY if they are practicing correctly! Otherwise, it perfect bad technique or poor dance habits.

Although we use many drills and hash cues, we also teach simple routines early in the lessons. Thus, the new dancers can be doing easy, easy round dances soon. After all isn't that what they come for. They can practice their basics to easy routines as well as they can to your hash cues — don't stop hash cueing altogether because that prevents routine memorization and reinforces the learning of basics. We think that easy routines are one major advantage that R/Ds have over S/Ds. In squares you have to wait until you "graduate" and receive a hard badge before you can go out to an open dance and show your friends what you can do.

Some Beginning Techniques

  • Place dancers in a circle — use identical footwork to teach side 2-step left and right.
    • explain terms — side, forward, back
    • start with left — side, together, side, touch — explain what touch means
    • repeat to right — explain that "together" is a "close" step — use "close from then on
  • be prepared to use several methods or variations in words such as
    • side, close, side, touch
    • step, step, step, hold
    • left, right, left, and
    • explain the use of "and" as a hold count
  • Next we have the WOMEN face the wall in a joined hands circle (Alamo style) and practice the side 2-step with the opposite footwork. (The MEN are more comfortable at first when THEY are facing in and can watch the instructor!)
  • Then we teach butterfly pos, M face wall to do side 2-step. After practice, we teach closed pos (M fc wall) and practice side 2-step.

We no longer use the forward and back 2-step in a circle as in — fwd L, clo R, fwd L, tch; bk R, clo L, bk R, tch; (In fact we do not use the joined hands circle nearly as much as we formerly did. We find that the circle lets everyone see everyone else's mistakes and thus makes people feel uncomfortable — even embarrasses some — and this causes a few not to return to class!)

We have found that in teaching two fwd 2-steps, the hardest part is to teach the second 2-step; fwd R, clo L, fwd R, -;. The hard part is teaching them to step thru with the inside foot to do the second 2-step. The fwd and bk 2-step in a circle seems to make this problem harder to overcome because they learn to step bk on the R foot instead of fwd to do the 2nd 2-step.

  • Change partners
    • most dancers will try harder with another partner
    • change partners frequently if you have someone with "two left feet." That way no one has to dance with a poor partner very long (8 meas of drill is enough)
    • this gives people more time to meet classmates
    • poor dancers get to dance with better dancers — gives their partner a chance to learn - give poor dancers a change to learn from a better dancer
    • we seldom change partners beyond the 5th or 6th lesson — we think that most dancers feel more comfortable with their own partner
  • take care to explain terminology — one of the harder parts of R/Ding is to learn to speak and understand "round dance" as a language!
  • after the side 2-step is mastered, we teach to box 2-step — butterfly and CP, M fac wall. Drill, drill, drill — first box, then a mixture of sd 2-step and box — be sure to always begin box with M L foot lead.
  • avoid teaching too many basics or concepts in one session because this can be confusing. With a slow class, side 2-step and box MAY be enough for one session if two or three simple mixers are used to keep it fun and let them dance.
  • teaching the fwd 2-step - a technique we developed several years ago
    • place everyone in CP M fc LOD
    • practice side 2-step L & R (COH & wall)
    • have dancers do sd 2-step in a zig-zag pattern progressing slightly LOD — move diag COH & LOD on L 2-step and diag wall & LOD on R 2-sep.
    • after the idea is mastered, have them practice with more and more progression LOD
    • remind them that if they "get off" to go back to the sd 2-step to get back "on" — don't hesitate to start everyone "over" if a few get "off" and have difficulty getting back "on".
    • this is where we introduce the concept of R/D etiquette that you are not supposed to "pass" the couple in front of you — however, with the zig-zag 2-step we tell them that we will permit passing on the inside since everyone doesn't "get it" at the same rate.
    • we practice this because the ultimate objective is to "straighten" the zig-zag until they are progressing LOD — two fwd 2-step in CP
  • when this has been fairly well mastered, we teach SCP and have the couples do two (and only two) fwd 2-step in SCP (we usually have to emphasize the stepping thru on the 2nd fwd 2-step)
  • teach blending from SCP/LOD to CP/wall to do box — drill two fwd 2-step; box; and sd 2-steps
  • by teaching the women to twirl and rev twirl (M sd 2-step) and back away 3 steps; tog 3; - we can teach an easy routine called San Francisco Mixer (Grenn)
    • this also gives the opportunity to teach dance intro and ending (take plenty of time)
    • we use SF Mixer both with and without changing partners. Only change partners when it is cued - this reinforces teaching the dancers to listen to cues rather than memorizing the routine.

Build good rapport with our dancers. NEVER lose your temper or your patience with them or YOUR PARTNER!

  • continue to remind them or correct positioning, posture, balance, timing — we don't want practice to make PERMANENT the mistakes that they develop - relearning is not easier than learning it right the first time.
  • always end the session with a drill or routine that they know so that they can leave with the feeling that they have accomplished something.
  • do not introduce something new at the end of the lesson if you do not have time to make sure that everyone masters it — don't let them go home feeling frustrated.
  • KEEP IT FUN!!